Inspectors Champion Returns as Judge for 2014 Competition
This story appears in the Aug. 11 print edition of Transport Topics.
When would-be champions ask Derek Canard, the Arkansas Highway Police corporal who won the 2013 North American Inspectors Championship, how best to approach the competition, his message is simple.
“Pay attention to detail, and do what you do every day on the side of the road,” Canard said.
Forty-nine inspectors will be competing for the top prize at this year’s competition Aug. 11-15 in Pittsburgh.
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The event is held annually in conjunction with the National Truck Driving Championships and is sponsored by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance — the state, provincial and local police agencies that enforce trucking and bus laws in North America.
Canard will be judging this year instead of competing but said one thing won’t change.
“Every year I went, I learned something new; it helped me to strengthen my skills,” said Canard, who competed several years before winning the title.
The skill strengthening is a critical part of the event, said CVSA officials, who use it to provide intensive training sessions. That benefits the agencies that paid to send the inspectors after they first won state championships.
“What they get back is a better inspector and an inspector who can now [share] the information he’s learned,” said CVSA’s president, Sgt. Thomas Fuller of the New York State Police. “So it’s a win-win scenario for the agencies.”
The relationships built during the competition won’t end when the inspectors leave Pittsburgh, Fuller said.
“When the feds write a regulation, it’s not always crystal clear; we all know that, so people like to get opinions,” he said. “Well, if I’m the champion from my jurisdiction, who’s the best person for me to call? Maybe a champion from another jurisdiction.”
“They continue on with their relationships, and they call each other and talk to each other, and they solve problems that way,” he added.
And CVSA has an underlying motive in the competition and training — promoting the uniformity that develops when jurisdictions are talking to one another, Fuller said.
“You have to look at it from a trucker’s point of view,” he said. “You drive through 20 different jurisdictions; do you want to be treated 20 different ways?”
Skilled inspectors generate “better data quality, and better data quality is what everybody’s striving for to help out companies and enforcement,” Fuller said. Good data allow law enforcement and industry to spot and correct deficiencies, he said.
Stephen Keppler, CVSA’s executive director, said that, to further strengthen inspector skills, CVSA uses real-world data when developing the competition tests.
“When we’re designing those elements, we use data and information from the field to help construct the problems,” Keppler said, “things like where we’re seeing trends in the inspection data or if we’re seeing inconsistencies.”
Jurisdiction | Contestant Name | Department/Agency |
---|---|---|
Alabama | Justin Jones | Alabama Department of Public Safety |
Alaska | Bill Walden | Alaska Department of Transportation |
Alberta | Rick Smith | Alberta Justice & Solicitor General |
Arizona | JW Watlington | Arizona Department of Public Safety |
Arkansas | Tim Gushing | Arkansas Highway Police |
British Columbia | Val Hunsaker | British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure |
California | John Werner | California Highway Patrol |
Colorado | Rueben Romick | Colorado State Patrol |
Connecticut | Abraham Rosario | Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles |
Florida | Erick McGuire | Florida Highway Patrol |
Georgia | Ryan Vicars | Georgia Department of Public Safety |
Idaho | Gerald Stemm | Idaho State Police |
Illinois | Paul Hentze | Illinois State Police |
Indiana | Charles Lovins | Indiana State Police |
Iowa | Steven J. Robinson | Iowa Department of Transportation |
Missouri | Chris Praschak | Kansas City Police Department |
Kansas | Nicholas Wright | Kansas Highway Patrol |
Kentucky | Jerry Hudson | Kentucky State Police |
Louisiana | Jarett Dobson | Louisiana State Police |
Maine | Daniel Russell | Maine State Police |
Manitoba | Bryan Horst | Manitoba Infrastructure & Transportation |
Maryland | Michael Riwniak | Maryland State Police |
Massachusetts | Stevie Browning | Massachusetts State Police |
Michigan | Marcus Studer | Michigan State Police |
Mississippi | Ricky Higginbottom | Mississippi Department of Transportation |
Nebraska | Benjamin Schropfer | Nebraska State Patrol |
Nevada | Gary Foster | Nevada Highway Patrol |
New Jersey | John Hibschman | New Jersey State Police |
New Mexico | James Nolen | New Mexico Department of Public Safety |
New York | John Burris | New York State Police |
North Carolina | J. D. Berrong | North Carolina State Highway Patrol |
North Dakota | Josh Anderson | North Dakota Highway Patrol |
Nova Scotia | Roderick Dykeman | Nova Scotia Transportation & Infrastructure Renewal |
Ohio | Michael Byrne | Ohio State Highway Patrol |
Oklahoma | Brad Mitchell | Oklahoma Highway Patrol |
Ontario | Robert (Bud) Kneller | Ontario Ministry of Transportation |
Pennsylvania | Brian Carpenter | Pennsylvania State Police |
Rhode Island | John Gadrow | Rhode Island State Police |
South Carolina | Stephen Holmes | South Carolina State Transport Police |
South Dakota | Tommy Torok | South Dakota Highway Patrol |
Tennessee | Charles Shaver | Tennessee Highway Patrol |
Texas | Jeremy Usener | Texas Department of Public Safety |
Utah | Bryce Ivie | Utah Highway Patrol |
Vermont | Jamie Salter | Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles |
Washington | Jeff Winslow | Washington State Patrol |
Wisconsin | Cory Shilts | Wisconsin State Patrol |
Yukon | Michael Kasprzak | Yukon Highways & Public Works |
Federal Member | Miguel Galindo | U.S. DOT / FMCSA |
Local Member | Kenneth Hopkins | Mansfield Police Department |