19 Fleet Pros Take the Wheel as America’s New Road Team
This story appears in the Jan. 14 print edition of Transport Topics.
Nathan Wick remembers when all his high school buddies went off to college, seeking cushy desk jobs in air-conditioned office buildings.
Wick was different. He never wanted to be anywhere but behind the wheel of a truck with the window rolled down.
But sometimes when he goes to social gatherings, the 35-year-old UPS Freight driver gets ribbed about his livelihood: Does he sleep at truck stops? Why isn’t he overweight? Where is his ball cap?
Perhaps now the jokes will stop.
Last week, American Trucking Associations named Wick and 18 other truck drivers “captains” of the 2013-2014 America’s Road Team.
That makes Wick part of a legendary group of well-groomed, well-spoken, safety-obsessed and pretty darn smart truck driving all-stars. The new team members are modest, although with a collective 453 years of experience and more than 30 million accident-free miles, they have no reason to be.
While maintaining their jobs as full-time truck drivers, for the next two years team members will spend about one week a month engaged in public safety information events nationwide, rubbing elbows with fellow truckers, students, soccer moms, the media and even members of Congress.
ATA staffers drilled deep in selecting the new team members from a driver applicant pool of more than 2,000, according to Elisabeth Barna, ATA’s vice president of outreach.
The team, which ranges from 35 to 64 in age, is the most competitive group Barna said she has seen in the eight years she has worked on the selection process.
“Plus, we’ve got the most diversified group I’ve seen,” Barna added. “We’ve got a good number of pickup-and-delivery drivers, a good number of over-the-road, we’ve got some independent contractors, some small companies and tankers. The expertise in the different segments of the industry is really abundant on this team.”
A group of 32 finalists competed last week in the Washington, D.C., area before a panel of judges from the trucking industry and related fields.
The team competition included a review of trucking industry expertise and a demonstration of communication skills, combined with a record of community service and lifetime safety in the cab.
Maybe tougher still, the drivers had to face a mock media interview to demonstrate they could think fast on their feet.
Philip Byrd, ATA first vice chairman and CEO of Bulldog Hiway Express, Charleston, S.C., called team members the “eyes and ears of our industry.”
“These drivers are the epitome of true professionals,” Byrd said. “If you just spend 30 seconds with them, you’ll find out that they’re special people.”
At a Jan. 9 meeting announcing the new team members, Bill Graves, ATA’s president, said the team’s work over the years has been among his proudest moments.
“The image and outreach that you all individually and collectively do does so much to support, supplement and drive home the points we try to make every day about safety and professionalism,” Graves told the drivers. “You’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of you. It’s a long road over the next two years. But past road team captains will assure you that this is a really fabulous ride that you’re all going to take.”
Volvo Trucks is the sponsor of the Road Team. Göran Nyberg, president of North American sales and marketing, said the members are outstanding representatives of the trucking industry.
“It’s an honor to welcome and congratulate the professional drivers who will be serving as captains of the 2013-2014 America’s Road Team,” Nyberg said.
Driver Dale Williams, who works for Trimac Transportation in Centerville, Ala., said during the competition he just tried to be himself.
At 57, Williams, a 35-year long-haul veteran who has traveled 2.6 million miles accident-free, said he was driven to the competition by his desire to help the industry simply by being an example for other drivers.
“I want to meet drivers that I’ve never met before and promote safety,” Williams said. “I want them to see that I’m dedicated to come home every night.”
Williams said his cousins grew up to be doctors, lawyers and teachers, but he’s proud of the different path he chose.
“I believe you have to have a desire, a passion for truck driving,” Williams said. “I’ve always loved open highways and loved seeing visions of the mountains. I wouldn’t do anything else.”
Being named to the team capped off a good year for Don Logan, a FedEx Freight driver from Eskridge, Kan.
Logan was grand champion at the 2012 National Truck Driving Championships in Minneapolis but said he still received no special consideration in the Road Team competition, despite his earlier achievement.
“I’d like to improve the trucking industry’s image,” Logan said. “One of the things I want to do is get out to the high schools and educate young drivers how to operate safely around large trucks.”
Stephanie Klang, a Con-way Truckload driver in Diamond, Mo., said she believes it was her passion for driving that propelled her to become the first female Road Team member since 2005-2006.
Women drivers are now widely accepted by their male counterparts, she said.
“There are days that are more difficult than others,” said Klang, a 33-year longhaul veteran with 2.3 million accident-free miles. “But overall, I enjoy my job.”
At 35, Wick is the youngest new team member, but he has 16 years of experience.
“I feel my age gives me the unique ability to connect with those just starting their driving career,” Wick said. “But my experience helps me relate to the more-seasoned veterans.”
John Borman, who drives for Koch Trucking in Lino Lakes, Minn., said he welcomes being in the spotlight because it will allow him to tell trucking’s story to a wider audience.
“Hollywood seems so intent on portraying truck drivers as Smokey and the Bandit and Mad Max. That’s the way people see me,”. Borman said. “So to be able to talk to them and show them that’s not what we’re like” is important, he said.
“We’re everyday normal people who have a rather unusual job.”
