Father and Son Are Among 421 Contestants Vying for Honors at National Competition

This story appears in the Aug. 19 print edition of Transport Topics.

When Travis Gibson heads to Utah this week to compete in the National Truck Driving Championships, he’ll actually be rooting for one of his rivals to become the event’s Grand Champion: his dad.

“I’d be ecstatic if he won,” Travis said. “That’s the one person I’ve always looked up to.”

Travis, 31, and his father, John Gibson, 50 — both drivers for ABF Freight System Inc. working out of the Charleston, W.Va., terminal — were named state champs in two separate classes in June.

Travis won the West Virginia 4-axle championship and was named state rookie of the year. John placed first in the state tank-truck class, earning his second trip to the national competition.

The two will be among the 421 truck drivers — nearly all of them state champs — who will compete in the 2013 National Truck Driving Championships and National Step Van Driving Championships from Aug. 20-24 at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City.

What does it mean for a dad to compete alongside his son?

“It tickles me to death,” John said. “I was more excited for him than I was for myself. I didn’t think we’d ever get to do it together. We just got lucky this year.”

Some would say luck had little to do with it. John has been driving for 27 years and Travis for about six years. John pulls twins four nights a week from Charleston to Dayton, Ohio, and Travis runs a daytime city route in the Charleston area five days a week.

Both John and Travis have trucking in their blood. In addition to his dad, one of Travis’ grandfathers was a truck driver and his other grandfather was a diesel mechanic.

Like John and Travis, many of the other competitors also will be either seasoned pros or young standouts.

Some, like Prime Inc. driver Jerome Lobo, Missouri’s rookie of the year and 4-axle champ, got talked into competing by co-workers who already have been to the nationals.

In Lobo’s case, he ended up beating some of the former champs who got him interested in competing.

“It was quite a surprise for me,” Lobo, who is 58 and based in Springfield, Mo., said in an interview from the road. “I’ve been driving a long time, but I’ve never competed. I had a couple of friends convince me to try out. I didn’t think I’d go as far as I did. I got lucky.”

To compete in the event, sponsored by American Trucking Associations, drivers not only must be state champs but must be accident-free for at least a year. It’s not uncommon for competitors to have logged more than a million accident-free miles.

The competition, designed to recognize industry leadership in safety and promote professionalism among truck drivers, is no cakewalk.

Each of the 423 competitors will face a rigorous course with tight turns, short straights and maneuvers that require precise stops on a dime — not to mention blind backups to park within inches of a temporary barrier.

“We’re going to look at depth perception, judging distances and utilization of mirrors,” said Susan Chandler, executive director of ATA’s Safety Management Council.

In addition to displaying skills while behind the wheel, the drivers also will be required to take a written test and perform a pre-trip inspection. There will be no driver interviews this year, largely because they are considered too subjective, Chandler said.

The multiple-choice questions on the written test will be about the trucking industry in general, safety and security, and health and wellness.

For example, a competitor may be asked to answer questions on the definition of a recordable accident, the most dangerous aspect of traveling on uneven pavement, the rules of cargo securement, or specifics related to the federal Compliance, Safety, Accountability program.

To help them prepare for the test, ATA gives drivers a study book, and some contestants have purchased a CD to help them cram on the road.

Chandler said there is a significant safety-consciousness spinoff effect created by the thousands of drivers who have competed in past and current state and national competitions.

When drivers leave the competition — whether they finish first or last — many of them are never the same.

“They’re more than just a delivery guy now,” Chandler said. “They carry themselves more professionally. There’s a sense of pride that carries over in their relationships with customers and how they treat their fellow motorists on the road. It’s a spirit that goes beyond the competition.”

While there undoubtedly will be some trash talking during the event, most of the competitors treat each other with respect — despite sometimes tense moments in the “bullpens” where they must patiently wait for their turn on the course.

During the event they befriend each other — and often stay in touch for the rest of their careers.

While Grand Champions of the event can come from the smallest of motor carriers, the larger companies clearly have a leg up by virtue of their resources and larger driver pools.

FedEx has 132 drivers going to the event, the largest number of drivers making it to the finals. Collectively, they represent more than 2,700 years of professional driving experience and more than 169 million miles on the road, the company said.

Other carriers with large numbers of drivers competing include Con-way (67); Wal-Mart (44); YRC Freight (24); UPS (22) and ABF Freight (20).

FedEx said that more than 75 of its competitors have driven professionally for 20 years or more, 70 have accumulated at least

1 million miles of safe driving and 25 have won five or more state championships.

“The 132 finalists are just a small representation of the more than 1,300 team members that competed at their respective state truck driving championship,” Frederick Smith, chairman, president and CEO of FedEx Corp., said in a statement.

There will be some changes this year to the event’s procedures and judging.

In the past, drivers scored points for being close to markers on the course. But partly to boost scores and partly to mirror real-world conditions, drivers this year will get higher points for turning corners slightly farther away from the markers.

”We’ll ask them to have a safe distance but far enough that you’re not going to hit something,” Chandler said.

Another change this year is that, because of time constraints, the contestants will not get a chance before the course event to actually sit in the truck they will drive. Instead, they will have to familiarize themselves with the truck they will drive from a photo of the dashboard.

Also this year, the drivers will be supplied with photos and descriptions of the five major and 10 minor potential defects that will be planted on the trucks for the pre-trip inspection.

In the past, some drivers have located a defect but lost points by calling it the wrong name.

Moreover, “we’re not going to tell them what truck they’re on,” Chandler said.

This year, one of the challenges has been to get drivers and volunteers to the event. Salt Lake City isn’t the easiest place to find an affordable flight, Chandler said.

Nor is it an ideal place to find new or nearly new tractors and trailers normally loaned for use in the nine different truck classes of the completion.

“Many manufacturers are now producing on demand, so the dealers aren’t holding a lot of inventory on their lots,” Chandler said.

Even some of the equipment that is on hand locally is more geared to traveling over the Rockies. Those trucks, which generally need greater torque and higher horsepower, might feel a little different to competitors.

Despite the challenges, a number of manufacturers, local dealers and motor carriers have stepped up to the plate, pledging to donate a total of more than 30 pieces of equipment.

At press time, those planning to provide equipment included ABF Freight System, Con-way Freight, FedEx Express, Old Dominion Freight Line, Superior Service Transportation, Swift Transportation, UPS Freight, Wal-Mart Transportation and Salt Lake City-based C.R. England and Pride Transport.

Other equipment contributors included Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co., Daimler Trucks North America, Heil Trailers International Co., Navistar International Corp., Volvo Trucks North America and step van manufacturer Utilimaster.

Although state competitions are known to be highly competitive events, the organizers of this year’s Missouri Truck Driving Championships attempted to add a little fun to the competition by allowing spouse and “significant other” teams to compete in a separate event.

“This was the first year we had a spouses’ challenge competition,” said David White, a safety supervisor at Prime. “We had 22 spouses — men and women — sign up, and they drove a straight truck through the driving course.”

Jason Ahten, coordinator of safety and member services for the Missouri Trucking Association, said the event was intended to put spouses in the driver’s seat to see firsthand how tough it is to be a truck driver.

“The response we had was great,” Ahten said. “They did exceptionally well. We were quite impressed on how well they scored although many of them never practiced.”