Nation’s Top Truck Drivers Gather in Ohio for Annual ‘Super Bowl of Safety’ Contest
By Timothy Cama, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the Aug. 2 print edition of Transport Topics.
The truck drivers who are traveling to Columbus, Ohio, for the National Truck Driving Championships and National Step Van Driving Championships, which are scheduled for Aug. 3-7, very much appreciate the renewed national focus on driver safety.
“Safety has to start with the driver. I don’t see any other way around it,” said Chip Taylor, a driver for FedEx Ground, the ground transportation unit of FedEx Corp., based in Memphis, Tenn. He will compete at NTDC this year in the straight truck class, in which he placed first in South Carolina.
The national conversation about truck drivers’ role in safety has culminated with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s CSA — Compliance, Safety and Accountability — program, which soon will strengthen the focus on drivers’ behavior and driving fitness as part of a carrier’s overall safety rating.
Taylor and most of the drivers attending NTDC at the Greater Columbus Convention Center welcome the new focus on truck drivers for safety.
“If [a regulation] saves one life, it’s done its job,” Taylor said, adding that he looks forward to “safer roads for everyone.”
Mike Smid, president of YRC Inc., the main operating unit of YRC Worldwide, also supports the focus on driver safety: “We welcome it to the industry. The standards we have for our drivers, in most cases, far exceed what some of these requirements are. We’ve always held our drivers accountable from a safety standpoint.”
YRC, Overland Park, Kan., pays close attention to drivers’ working hours, regardless of the law, Smid said. The carrier is sending 42 drivers to NTDC this year.
In all, 415 drivers will compete in NTDC, the same number included in the record 2009 event. The drivers include 32 step van competitors, one fewer than last year.
Moreover, a record number of eight women will compete at NTDC, said Susan Chandler, executive director of the Safety Management Council at American Trucking Associations, which runs the national championships.
Among the qualifications to compete in the event, known as the “Super Bowl of Safety,” a driver must be collision-free for the 12 months preceding the competitions. Each national contestant had to place first in a truck weight class at one of 50 state truck driving championships, which are sometimes called rodeos.
The entire NTDC process — from the state, local and company preliminaries through the national championships — allows drivers a chance to get together for some friendly competition and industrywide recognition.
“This is another way of supporting your drivers,” said Ira Rosenfeld, director of media relations for UPS Freight, the less-than-truckload arm of UPS Inc., Atlanta.
The competition also offers companies a chance to shine.
“The best drivers will be on display in Columbus,” Rosenfeld said. “Of course, we’re glad that a number of them will be wearing UPS Freight uniforms.”
Denis Litalien, a driver for Clifford W. Perham Inc., Scarborough, Maine, has 29 years of truck-driving-competition experience. In his 11th appearance as a competitor at NTDC, he will compete in the four-axle class.
Litalien founded the Maine Professional Drivers Association, which is separate from the Maine Motor Transport Association, the major motor transportation industry group for the state and an affiliate of ATA. The two organizations work together on issues and events related to drivers, Litalien said.
Litalien’s MPDA promotes truck-driving competitions across the state. His wife makes shirts every year for the Maine representatives to wear to NTDC.
“It’s one of the best safety programs that anyone has come up with,” Litalien said of the truck driving competition circuit. “It’s a fun way to improve yourself.”
The national conversation about truck safety is “putting a lot more focus on the driver than we’ve ever had,” Litalien said, and “we certainly have to pay more attention.”
At the national championships, competitors first must pass a written exam to test their knowledge of truck safety and regulations. The test questions come from “Facts for Drivers,” an ATA publication.
Drivers then must perform a pre-trip inspection of a truck that has many safety problems. They must look for planted defects and significant unplanted defects, Chandler said.
Participants will be required to maneuver trucks on the floor of the convention center on courses that vary by truck class.
Though important and fun for truck drivers, NTDC and other truck driving championships also are important for motor carriers.
“It raises the level of professionalism” among drivers, said Smid of YRC. “It’s an opportunity for them to learn a lot.”
Smid said the competition also has an effect on other truck drivers — whether they attend state and local competitions or not.
UPS Freight’s Rosenfeld agrees. NTDC serves “to show all drivers that this is the way professionals handle themselves,” he said.
The infectiousness of safety also can help a company comply with new regulations, such as new rules FMCSA recently enacted and plans to propose.
“These are the same champions that come back as ambassadors and talk to their peer drivers and have discussions about those issues,” said Scott Mugno, managing director of corporate safety, health and fire prevention for FedEx Express in Memphis.
“If you have a driver that might be out there struggling with some of those issues,” Mugno said, “there’s a peer-to-peer conversation they can have.”
Mugno said he also sees NTDC as a way for trucking firms such as FedEx, whose drivers frequently interact with the public, to show the country how safe they are as a company.
FedEx employs the majority of the step van drivers who will participate in the National Step Van Driving Championships this year — an event similar to, and held in conjunction with, NTDC.
“We’re still very excited about it,” said Mugno, who has been a longtime proponent of the step van competition. His wishes were granted only last year, when the ATA committee that oversees NTDC decided to hold the first National Step Van Driving Championships for a two-year trial.
Mugno said he sees the participation numbers — 33 step van drivers competed in 2009 — as a testament to the step van championships’ popularity and hopes the competition will continue in the future.
NTDC contestants rarely forget that it’s a competition, and sometimes, a driver is competing against himself or herself.
“My goal is to finish in the top 20,” said FedEx Ground’s Taylor. The 24-year driving veteran placed 18th in the straight truck class in 2008, but he said he hopes to do better this year.
“It just gets in your blood,” Taylor said, describing how truck driving championships make him feel.
“I think I can do pretty good,” said YRC’s Martin Warfield, a rookie competing in the sleeper berth class from Illinois. He had extensive help from fellow YRC drivers in preparing for NTDC this year, though company officials are quite limited in the assistance they can give their drivers. “It’s been a great help,” he said.
Warfield said he planned to take a week of vacation before NTDC and practice. ATA regulations prohibit drivers from practicing while getting paid to work.
