ATA Unveils Battle of the States
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Although the in-person activities of the National Truck Driving Championships and National Step Van Driving Championships have been canceled for the second year in a row due to COVID-19, American Trucking Associations has presented a new way for the nation’s top drivers to show their skills.
ATA on May 3 announced the National Battle of the States: Virtual Truck Driving Championships. In its in-person form, NTDC, nicknamed the “Super Bowl of Safety” by many industry members, challenges drivers with a written test, a pre-trip inspection and a skills course.
The Battle of the States involves three virtual components: state competitions, prize rounds and the grand championship.
Spear
“NTDC is annually one of the highlights of the ATA calendar, and we are very happy to bring the ‘Super Bowl of Safety’ back in this virtual format,” said ATA President Chris Spear. “Our industry has braved the front line, providing essential services and delivering goods to American households throughout the nation in the fight against COVID-19. It’s yet another reason to celebrate our industry heroes — truck drivers.”
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The Battle of the States will commence July 31 with state-level trivia contests. Questions will be based on Facts for Drivers, federal and state laws, and state trucking history and culture. Facts for Drivers is the rulebook that NTDC’s written test contains questions about. The contests contain 40 questions and are slated to take between 45 and 60 minutes.
During these competitions, each state will qualify 10 drivers for the national competition. As of May 3, some 23 state trucking associations were planning to participate.
While the road to NTDC may be different this year, we are still celebrating our industry heroes – truck drivers. Participate in this year’s virtual knowledge competition for a chance to be named the Grand Champion and win great prizes! Learn more: https://t.co/8MfuCzYQ7d pic.twitter.com/Pqa2PqdVA0 — American Trucking (@TRUCKINGdotORG) April 29, 2021
Prize rounds, which are open to all eligible professional truck drivers who pre-register, will take place daily Aug. 11-13. Participants will be faced with 30 to 40 trivia questions and have the chance to win prizes, the specifics of which have yet to be announced.
The grand championship, which will pit state winners against each other, is scheduled for Aug. 14. This competition also will involve a trivia session with 30-40 questions coming from Facts for Drivers, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations and trucking culture.
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The Battle of the States competition will be hosted on Kahoot!, a game-based learning platform used for virtual educational programming. The system will track correct answers and the time it takes for each question to be answered.
To qualify for state and national competitions and prize rounds, a driver must remain accident-free and be continuously employed by the same carrier since Aug. 23, 2020.
To participate, a driver must compete in the state in which his or her commercial driver license was issued or in the state in which his or her company has a corporate domicile. If a driver’s CDL was issued in a different state than his or her corporate domicile, he or she must choose a state to compete in. A driver may not compete in multiple state competitions.
ATA encouraged interested participants to contact their state trucking association for complete rules and requirements, which can vary slightly by state.
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