Family Pride Plays Large Role at National Truck Driving Event
This story appears in the Aug. 11 print edition of Transport Topics.
When Andy Rynearson of Reedsburg, Wisconsin, climbs into the cab this week to compete at the National Truck Driving Championships in Pittsburgh, he might be thinking about his dad, David, a retired trucker.
“He used to drive over-the-road trucks when we were kids, and I remember going out with him in the summer on trips; I kind of fell in love with it,” said Rynearson, a driver for Con-way Freight.
Then again, Rynearson might be thinking about his mom, Deborah Harvey, an over-the-road trucker for 33 years now driving for Tyson Foods.
CONTESTANTS LIST: NTDC state-by-state competitors
INSPECTORS CHAMP RETURNS: One of 49 seeking prize
“I’m very proud of him,” Harvey said of her son, who’s competing for the third year, this time behind the wheel of a sleeper.
Rynearson is among 426 drivers expected to compete in the 77th annual NTDC and the sixth annual National Step Van Driving Championships, both founded by American Trucking Associations. The event is Aug. 12-16.
Family pride aside, Rynearson, who is one of 63 Con-way Freight drivers competing, said he has his own reason to value the hours he spends practicing.
“The safety aspect of it drives me to remind myself to be safe, otherwise, I’m not going to be able to do this,” he said.
To participate in the championships, at the state and then at the national competitions, drivers must be accident free for a year.
“The big emphasis is on safety and [competing] makes you think a lot more about safety,” said Scott Wickstrom, a FedEx Express driver from Bangor, Maine, and a step van contestant.
Wickstrom, one of 138 FedEx drivers competing, said that if he had any notion that driving on icy Maine roads for 20 years gave him an advantage it was dashed when he met FedEx’s 40 other step van contestants.
“Everybody is a champion. No question,” he said.
This year marks the first that drivers from non-ATA member carriers have advanced as state division winners to the nationals — something not previously allowed unless the nonmember driver was a state grand champion.
Twenty-six drivers from non-ATA member companies are competing this year, said Elizabeth Barna, ATA senior vice president for communications and public affairs. Opening the event to nonmembers makes it “truly a national competition,” she said.
Another first this year is the number of female contestants — 11. FedEx said it also has set a record with six women on its team.
Last year, Con-way Freight’s Ina Daly became the first woman to win a national division championship. Daly drives twins for Con-way but last year won the tanker championship and this year will compete in flatbeds.
“The most touching thing is . . . especially among my co-workers, they’ll tell me that their daughters are inspired by me,” Daly told Transport Topics from her home in Avondale, Arizona.
“These are young girls thinking about their career path, what are they going to do in their life,” Daly said. “And it’s not necessarily that they become a truck driver but just to know that they don’t have to settle for, ‘Oh I have to be an office worker.’ ”
Another contestant, Verna Gillen of Columbus, Indiana, worked in a bakery before she became a driver for Old Dominion Freight Line nine years ago.
In her first competition, she won first prize in twins in Indiana and was named Rookie of the Year. She’s the first woman to win a division championship in Indiana.
“I volunteered for two years before that,” she said of the state event. “All the other drivers, they were like, ‘You need to be over here competing,’ ” said the mother and grandmother.
Like Daly, Gillen said she wants other women to see her and say: “You know what, I can do this too.”
Becoming a trucker changed her life, Gillen said, “and I just hope it inspires other people to do it too.”
If there was a driver prize for determination, it would probably go this year to David Messmer, a YRC Freight driver from Peoria, Arizona, but not because he’s back for his fifth year of competition.
“I had a tumor removed in March, and then our state competition was five weeks later, and I was on radiation and chemo,” said Messmer, who, despite brain cancer, will compete in 3-axles.
“I have two young daughters and they’re my biggest cheerleaders” Messmer said of Kylee, 12, and Megan, 9.
When Kylee hesitated one day about going to her softball practice, Messmer recalled, he told her she had a commitment to her team.
She tossed the lesson back, he said, when after surgery he considered skipping the state competition. “She said I could still win,” Messmer said.
Carriers said they actively promote the championships because the return on investment is invaluable.
“The three drivers we have representing Pitt Ohio this year, they’re all driver trainers. They’re professional in every way: their attitude, their work ethic, how they value safety,” said Jeff Mercadante, safety director at Pitt Ohio, the Pittsburgh carrier.
“These folks are not only leaders in safety but they’re leaders within our organization and they’re great mentors and peers,” said Con-Way’s senior director of safety, Greg Pawelski.
Old Dominion is expanding its involvement in the championships to more states, according to its vice president of safety and compliance, Sam Faucette.
Those who compete influence their peers on safety and are generally more focused, he said.
