Wednesday's NTDC Notebook

At the ATA National Truck Driving Championships...

MINNEAPOLIS - ...American Freightways is placing all of its hopes for a national truck driving title in the hands of rookies.

All seven drivers from the Harrison, Ark.-based less-than-truckload carrier are competing in the ATA National Truck Driving Championships for the first time. The competition begins Wednesday with equipment selection and the first round of written exams and interviews.

“We’re real proud of these folks,” said Mark Courter, manager of corporate safety and compliance, who thinks one of his drivers has a pretty good shot at the rookie of the year trophy.

He said he especially likes Bobby Slaton, who won an Oklahoma state title in the twin class in his first try.

To help his drivers relax, Courter treated his drivers to a Minnesota Twins baseball game. He also plans to run some extra practice drills over the next few days to prepare for the final driving skills test on Saturday.

Courter said he is not bothered that all of American Freightway’s drivers are rookies, because the company more than doubled the number of drivers involved in state driving championships this year -- 262 vs. 114 -- and expanded the number of states from 26 to 39...

...American Freightways wasn’t the only trucking company to go the extra mile to make its drivers comfortable. Con-Way Transportation Services, of Ann Arbor, Mich., took drivers on a Mississippi River boat cruise.

Also, Yellow Freight System said it will hand out leather jackets, wrist watches, a model race car and leather gloves to its drivers

FS officials also claimed credit for starting the trend of wearing customized sports shirts and organizing cheering squads that give the appearance of a well-oiled racing team.

Noting the proliferation of the brightly-colored apparel, one YFS official joked that they’re going to use only body paint next year...

..Yellow Freight System driver coordinator David Knisley isn’t very superstitious. But he thinks the chances of his nine drivers doing well are good because of several coincidental events.

The last two times that Raymond Simon of St. Cloud, Minn., competed in the nationals -- 1992 and 1997 -- he won the grand champion trophy. Simon is competing again this year, seeking an unprecedented third grand championship.

Also in 1992, a young country singer named Stacy Adkins, the daughter of a Portland, Ore., truck driver, was invited to sing at the driver banquet.

“We knocked the lights out that year,” Knisley recalled.

Adkins, now a mother and musical promotion artist, is slated to perform once again at a dinner on Thursday and will sing the national anthem at the closing awards banquet on Saturday.

Needless to say, Knisley likes what he sees.

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