Truckers Make Sacrifices to Participate in NTDC

By Eric Miller, Staff Reporter

This story appears in the Aug. 26 print edition of Transport Topics.

SALT LAKE CITY — For the hundreds of men and women skillfully navigating big rigs here last week in the National Truck Driving Championships, the chance was not without a great deal of sacrifice.

The drivers missed momentous family occasions and notable social events alike in order to prepare for the five-day competition that kicked off Aug. 21.

“Everybody here earned their way here. Nobody’s here on a fluke,” said Pottle’s Transportation driver Ronald Round.

He had to forgo his niece’s wedding on Saturday, the final day of the competition that displayed impressive truck driving talent and industry knowledge.

Likewise, Con-way Freight driver Ina Daly, one of only four women to compete in this year’s national competition, hasn’t been able to spend as much time as she wants with one of her favorite people in the world.

“My 3-year-old grandson really wishes grandma wouldn’t go off on the weekends to practice,” Daly said.

And Prime Inc. driver Jerome Lobo made his way here without his wife — his No. 1 fan — who has a fear of flying, forcing him to come alone.

The contest, sponsored by American Trucking Associations, convenes annually to emphasize safe driving.

Just to compete, drivers were required to travel the highways accident free for a year prior to the event.

“I live to come up here,” said Dan Thompson, an Alabama twins champ who drives for FedEx Freight. “I’m a night driver, and I look so far up the road to make sure that nothing happens. If every driver could do that, there’d be no accidents.”

Thompson said he’s been practicing on the job and during weekends since the first of the year, and often turns down family outings on the weekend so he can practice.

“You get some guys who really take this seriously, and if you don’t do the same and maximize your points everywhere, you’re not really competing,” said Round, Maine’s 4-axle champ.

Like Round, the vast majority of drivers competing in the 2013 national championships already have won their state trucking associations’ top honors in their driving category.

There are 420 drivers in the Utah capital competing for the crown; one dropped out last week.

Overall, more than 5,000 drivers in all 50 states took a shot at getting here. Those that did make it have driven a collective total of more than 600 million accident-free miles in their careers, officials said.

The event began Aug. 21 with drivers getting a briefing by the competition’s leadership, then walking the challenging skills course and viewing the shiny trucks they would be driving. They also completed a written test of their driving and industry knowledge.

On Aug. 22 and 23, the drivers were required to do a pre-trip inspection and drive the course, attempting to score the highest number of points to win the title for their truck class and get a shot at nabbing the prize of grand champion.

Ina Daly, Arizona tank truck champ, has been to the nationals 10 times. She wants to be a national class champion.

“That big prize has eluded me,” Daly said. ”More and more women are in trucking, but the competition keeps getting tougher and tougher.”

Jim Stinemates, a Wal-Mart Transportation driver and Iowa’s sleeper berth champ, made his fourth trip to the national competition this year.

He said when his daughter wanted to get married in June, he told her: “I hope you pick a day we’re not going to the state competition because I want to go to the wedding.” She did.

“Once you get bitten by the bug, it’s hard to walk away from this,” Stinemates said.

YRC Freight driver Henry Mahler Jr., the Florida flatbed champ, wanted to compete so bad that he chose to miss his daughter’s traveling softball games and practices.

John Estep Jr., Illinois tank truck champ — and also a YRC Freight driver — said his daughter was leaving for college and needed help making the move.

“I told her take all the small stuff, your clothes; you’re on your own. I’ll bring the furniture in a couple of weeks when I’m back.”