Opinion: Appreciating Trucking’s Champions

By Bill Graves

President and CEO

American Trucking Associations

This Opinion piece appears in the Aug. 13 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

This weekend, hundreds of competitors rose from relative obscurity to grab a share of glory in front of enthusiastic, if at times partisan, fans.

No, I’m not speaking of the amazing feats of athleticism we’ve marveled at in London but of the competitors who battled for the title of Grand Champion at the National Truck Driving Championships and National Step Van Driving Championships in Minneapolis.

By the time you read this, we will know who won the coveted title, but take a minute to think about just what all of these 425 competitors achieved just to get to the Twin Cities. These are the top 0.01% of the nation’s more than 3 million professional truck drivers.

The NTDC is a tremendous opportunity to appreciate the hard work and effort of not just these elite drivers but of all the professional drivers who deliver the nation’s most essential goods safely, efficiently and sustainably every day.

Beyond the challenging competition among elite performers, the NTDC and the Olympics share another important feature that may not be immediately obvious.

Each year, we are amazed at the precision with which these drivers maneuver their trucks. We see these professionals come ever so close to hitting cones and barriers and ducks, yet somehow manage to avoid the obstacles and successfully complete their challenges.

Similarly, we see a Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, McKayla Maroney or Megan Rapinoe do amazing things at the Olympics every four years.

How are these similar? They’re both amazing events that we take for granted. We don’t necessarily think about Bolt or Phelps or Gabby Douglas when it’s not an Olympics year. And we rarely think about just how remarkable these drivers are — not just during competition but every day on America’s highways.

We take for granted the job these professionals do daily, battling congestion and the demands of the supply chain to safely deliver the food and fuel and medicine that we all depend on.

The drivers have logged a total of 604 million safe miles. For context, that is more than four times the distance between the Earth and Mars.

Like the Olympics, these Championships are a showcase for all that is good about our industry. At last year’s event in Orlando, the new, fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly engines powering the trucks performed so well that the air in the arena remained clear.

We also get to focus on our industry’s improving diversity, evidenced by the eight women competing this year, tied for the most in history.

As a showcase, the NTDC shows our partners in the law enforcement community and at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration — as well as the general public through the news media — just how great we all know our industry is.

The NTDC conveys a snapshot of how safe and professional America’s trucking industry and truck drivers truly are, and we, if only for a moment, stop taking them for granted and celebrate their tremendous achievements.

Like the Olympics, which brings out the patriotism in American sports fans, the attendees at the Championships should be motivated and enthused to be a part of this industry.

We celebrate the winners at the NTDC, just as we celebrate Olympic medalists. But we shouldn’t forget all the other participants: Sometimes, just making it to the big stage is enough.

We look at Oscar Pistorius, the South African sprinter who has overcome the amputation of both his legs to run at the Olympics. That story is inspiring, but I’d argue that the drivers who safely operate on our highways should be equally inspiring for our industry.

So, allow me to thank not only all of the 425 competitors but all of the 3 million truck drivers who strive every day to be as safe as possible on the roads. You deliver all the “good stuff” that our country depends on, and you make all of us proud of your professionalism.

Bill Graves is a former two-term governor of Kansas. American Trucking Associations, Arlington, Va., is a national trade federation with affiliated associations in every state. ATA owns Transport Topics Publishing Group.