The “Super Bowl of Safety” was held last Wednesday through Saturday, August 16-19, and featured the finest drivers across the country.
The National Truck Driving Championships (NTDC) is an annual competition organized by the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and rallies professional truck drivers from all over the country behind industry standards of safety.
Dating back to 1937, the 2023 NTDC marks the competition’s 86th anniversary. Hosted in Columbus, Ohio this year, the competition is the Pantheon of trucking’s best.
Earlier in the year, each of the 50 states held their own competition to determine their respective “Grand Champion”.
The 50 drivers were then anointed to represent their states, and fleets, in the big dance—the NTDC.
For a breakdown on how drivers qualify for the competition and what they are tested and evaluated on in the NTDC, click here!
Trucking’s best is on display
Sure, these worthy drivers may not be able to windmill-dunk a basketball or smash a baseball 500-feet off a 90-mph fastball, but what they do possess is a tremendous feel and respect for their profession.
Participants must be accident-free and employed by a fleet for at least a year prior to the championship.
And that’s just the bare minimum. Many of the drivers far exceed these requirements and pass at a pace that renders them pure formality.
They could likely recite the industry’s rulebook word-for-word, sleepwalk through pre-trip inspections, and maneuver their rigs on the completion’s safety course blindfolded.
All in all, NTDC typically sees around 400 competitors across seven vehicle classes every year.
Nevada driver named Grand Champion
But, there can only be one that rises through this elite pool of competitors as the NTDC’s Grand Champion.
This year, the honor went to Gragg Wilson, a UPS professional driver from Nevada.
Competing in the tank truck class, Wilson emerged from a field of 421 drivers to earn the coveted Bendix Grand Champion Trophy.
Like the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers going 16-1 in its championship run, Wilson’s path to victory exuded a similar display of dominance.
He was a smooth navigator of the competition’s driving course, while morphing into a human encyclopedia when it came to vehicle inspections and the written exam of industry regulations.
The final round saw Wilson face-to-face with two former national champions as well as a tanker division rival, Walmart’s Jason Imhoff from Ohio.
Wilson’s title is a celebration of his journeyman career in trucking. A commercial driver for 37 years, this was the veteran’s 14th appearance at the NTDC, debuting in 2000.
Throughout the years, he found success, highlighted as a member of the 2018 Nevada team that won the state category at nationals, but never summited trucking’s apex mountain as national grand champion—until last week.
“First time I make it to the finals, and, wow…Everyone just continue to do what you’re doing,” a humbled Wilson told the crowd after winning the 2023 NTDC.
Former Yellow drivers competed, an emotional event
This year’s competition had a different atmosphere to it than previous ones. Just last month, embattled LTL carrier Yellow Corp filed for bankruptcy and laid off some 22,000 drivers.
Present at the event was driver Dan Istre, a seven-time Idaho state champion, who was one of 15 former Yellow employees who qualified for this year’s event.
“It’s been hard. It’s been rough,” the 59-year-old said, describing the uncertainty months leading up to the fate of his former employer. “You have your ups and your downs.” Istre was visibly emotional.
Following Yellow’s shuttering, a former employee Herschel Evans launched a fundraising webpage to bring attention to the now-unemployed drivers competing at the NTDC, like Istre.
The goal was to raise funds for their hotel rooms and other travel expenses.
In response, Yellow’s former CEO James Welch reached out and donated $27,000, satisfying the entire fundraising goal. In an email, Welch stated, “These drivers deserved the chance to go and be with and compete with the best of the best.”
Welch was the boss at the now bankrupt LTL carrier from 2011 to 2018. However, Evans noted recent leadership at Yellow reportedly chipped in with gift cards and other items for their former drivers attending the competition.
In a Facebook post, Evans snapped a photo of the drivers and their families enjoying dinner as team in route to the competition.
Istre, along with his colleagues, thanked Welch for his contributions.
At the competition, these former Yellow drivers were listed as independent drivers.
As for Istre, he won’t be out of work much longer. The veteran driver received a job offer to deliver food products on a shuttle service between warehouses in Boise and Salt Lake City.
Final Thoughts
While the ATA calls it the Super Bowl for trucking, the association has also dubbed it the Super Bowl for safety as well. Aspiring drivers who look to compete in the NTDC must have clean driving records and stable employment to show for. While the event adds a competitive spin that drivers can revel in the camaraderie and excitement of, the NTDC is also a bastion for safe operations in trucking.
Please contact us if you have any questions regarding this topic or any others in domestic logistics. In addition, stay up to date with weekly headlines from both trucking and rail via our Road Map newsletter.
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