28 Confident Rookies Among Drivers Heading to Houston for ‘Super Bowl of Safety’
By Eric Miller, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the Aug. 18 Print Edition of Transport Topics.
Kenneth Grimmett has been driving heavy trucks down interstates for 14 years, but he’ll be a “rookie” later this week when he climbs inside the cab of a flatbed rig parked in the middle of the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.
Grimmett, a 36-year-old Con-way Freight driver based in Charlotte, W.Va., recently was named West Virginia’s top driver in the five-axle flatbed class. He’s one of 28 rookies who will compete in American Trucking Associations’ 2008 National Truck Driving Championships, Aug. 19-23.
Grimmett, like many of this year’s crop of first-timers, is confident — maybe even a little cocky.
“I’m going to Houston with one intention — to win this thing,” he said.
Maybe he will. But Grimmett will have to be at the top of his game as he competes against 374 other drivers from all 50 states — each with the same goal in mind: to win first place in one of eight classes and to qualify as Grand Champion.
To compete, drivers not only must be state champions in their class, they also must have been accident-free for at least a year before the competition. ATA has staged the competition, often called the “Super Bowl of Safety,” annually since 1937.
They’re the “best of the best,” said Susan Chandler, executive director of ATA’s Safety & Loss Prevention Management Council.
“It doesn’t matter what course you put them on, or what piece of equipment you put them in — they’re just good,” Chandler said.
Tracy English, a Con-way Freight driver from Nampa, Idaho, said she’s ready to go up against the best drivers in the nation.
“I wanted to test my own skills,” said English, another NTDC rookie. “I wanted to see how I am doing.”
English, the only woman in the competition this year, was an over-the-road driver for five years but has spent the past four years driving less-than-truckload routes out of Con-way’s Boise, Idaho, terminal.
She said she learned how to drive a truck from her dad, who drove both trucks and buses.
“When my dad was teaching me how to drive, he told me that the vehicle was an extension of me and to know where I’m at all the time,” English said.
That mind-set must have worked, and it’s one reason English — who placed first in Idaho’s sleeper-berth competition — believes good drivers are born, not made.
“I was born with the skills I have,” she explained.
Jeramy Riggs, a 27-year-old, over-the-road Yellow Transportation driver who works at the company’s Kansas City, Mo., terminal, agrees.
“Some people just seem to have a knack for driving,” said Riggs, another competition rookie. “I think it has to be in you; it’s not something that can just be taught out of the blue.”
Riggs, who comes from a family of truckers, said good drivers pay attention to their surroundings and can make split-second decisions.
“Either you’re good at it, or you’re not,” Riggs said. “I’ve seen a lot of people fail.”
“Being a good driver is something that you’ve got to want to be,” Grimmett said. “And you’ve got to make that your mission.”
Going into the competition as a rookie with confidence is a good thing, said the Grand Champion last year, Alphonso Lewis of Roadway Express.
Although he’s an NTDC veteran now, Lewis said he remembered what it was like to be a rookie competing with the best drivers in the nation for the first time — and he had some advice to offer this year to the newbies.
“They have to go in there relaxed and not be intimidated by the other drivers,” Lewis said. “You got to go in there believing you’re just as good as the other guys. If you don’t have confidence, especially as a rookie, your nerves will just get ahold of you.”
Robert Romando, a 36-year-old FedEx National LTL rookie, said just getting into the national competition sometimes dubbed the “trucker rodeo” was a “tear-shedding event.”
“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always heard about the truck rodeo,” said Romando, of Surprise, Ariz., and a heavy-truck driver for nearly 18 years. “So when FedEx National offered the opportunity to be a part of it, I didn’t want to pass it up.”
The competition rules are strict, designed to “level the playing field” between drivers from big companies and smaller ones. Drivers aren’t allowed to be paid or to be given bonuses for practicing for the championships. In fact, competitors either have to prepare for the event on their own time or concentrate a little harder on perfecting maneuvers while driving their routes.
Still, although the championships focus on safety, the event is also about pride and winning — not only for the company but also for individual bragging rights.
Winners become instant industry celebrities. Some get their mugs featured in company ads, and most get royal treatment at the competition. Lewis said that, since winning last year, everywhere he goes, fellow drivers want to shake hands with him, and he even gets asked to sign autographs.
Drivers are permitted to bring spouses or family members with them to sit in the bleachers, and it’s not uncommon for the drivers and cheering fans to wear color-coordinated shirts and baseball caps with company logos.
But victorious or not, drivers take home far more than a trophy. They get recognition, respect and often a dose of inspiration. The championships offer a rare chance for a driver who usually is on the road and out of the bosses’ sight to become a company — and industry — celebrity. When they go back to their jobs, they typically encourage others to participate next year, Chandler said.
“What the drivers will tell you is that they didn’t feel like a professional driver until they went to the competition,” Chandler said. “Being around peers that are as equally passionate about being the best of the best is an overwhelming feeling,” Chandler said.
While ATA takes steps to make the NTDC equally accessible to small companies as large ones, most contestants are from larger companies with an LTL presence. For the contest this year, FedEx Corp. expects to send 72 drivers, YRC Worldwide is sending 69, Con-way is sending 68 drivers, UPS Freight is sending 38 and ABF Freight System is sending 19 drivers.
To be team players, many of the truckers at these larger companies agree to compete in classes other than the trucks they drive at work. That way, more drivers have a shot at making the nationals.
ATA also tries to keep the competition evenhanded by supplying every contestant with top-notch equipment, supplied by carriers and truck manufacturers. The drivers cannot bring their own tractors and trailers but have to use the ones the competition offers.
But the ultimate goal for everyone involved in the championships is for the competition to spur truck drivers everywhere to think more about safety — and turn those thoughts into positive action.
They have to, said competition rookie Mike Madden, who has been driving trucks for 37 years. Madden, who won the tank truck class in the Tennessee championships, has a personal reminder of what can go wrong: His wife’s vehicle was hit by a semi in 2005, and since then, she has had three back surgeries and one for her shoulder.
“These highways are dangerous, anymore,” said Madden, who works at a Yellow terminal in Nashville, Tenn.
The highways are crowded, he said, and motorists constantly create hazards by not using their turn signals, driving too slowly in the left lane, darting from the left lane to the exit and exhibiting other examples of dangerous behavior.
“You’ve got to pay close attention all the time, and you have to drive way ahead of the truck,” Madden said.
2007 Grand Champion Lewis, who is based in Montgomery, Ala., said the experience of competing at both the state and national levels actually changed him as a driver. Fellow drivers now pay more attention to what he does on the road, and as a result he demands more of himself.
“You get a reputation of being one of the safest drivers in the nation,” Lewis said.
“Every day you catch yourself focusing on being safe. When you’re driving down the road, you pay attention more to what you’re doing.”
