ELYRIA, Ohio – Following five days of competition, Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC has honored the grand champion winner of this year’s American Trucking Associations (ATA) National Truck Driving Championships (NTDC), held Aug. 12-16 in Pittsburgh, Pa. For the fourth consecutive year, Bendix is the proud sponsor of the Bendix National Truck Driving Championships Grand Champion Award, given to the event’s overall top driver. 
Bendix congratulates the 2014 Grand Champion Jeffrey Langenhahn, a Con-way Freight professional truck driver based in Plover, Wis. He also won the individual twins truck driving competition. A professional driver for 28 years, Langenhahn has logged more than 1.9 million miles. Langenhahn’s driving skills and knowledge of safety, equipment and the industry earned him the top award over 426 other drivers. He began competing in his state truck driving championships in 1997, and this year marks his fourth trip to the National Truck Driving Championships.
The NTDC is an annual competition among professional truck drivers from across the United States. It features winners from company, state and regional levels, competing in nine classes of competition. Collectively, these champions have driven 653,677,080 accident-free miles. Each year, the NTDC attracts more than 2,000 friends, family, colleagues and spectators.
At the competition, the industry’s best professional drivers tested their expertise in their respective classes through a written exam, a pre-trip inspection test and a skills-based competition course. The skills course – staged inside Pittsburgh’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center – challenged drivers’ ability to judge distances; maneuver tight spaces; and reverse, park and position their vehicles precisely over scales, before barriers and around curves.
“Bendix congratulates Jeffrey Langenhahn for earning this year’s Bendix National Truck Driving Championships Grand Champion Award and commends every driver who competed in the 2014 championships,” said Fred Andersky, Bendix director of government and industry affairs. “Each of the participants deserves recognition for their exceptional performance. We are proud to honor the dedication of these talented professionals and we know they share our commitment to enhancing highway safety. The National Truck Driving Championships shine a deserving light on these great drivers, the families who support them, and the critical role they play in keeping roadways safe for everybody.”
Bendix plans to continue its sponsorship of the Grand Champion Award as just one part of its robust, ongoing efforts to promote commercial vehicle and highway safety.
