For a fifth consecutive year, Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC is the proud sponsor of the Grand Champion Award at the American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) National Truck Driving Championships (NTDC). The 2015 NTDC competition takes place Aug. 11-15 in St. Louis.
The Bendix National Truck Driving Championships Grand Champion Award is given to the overall top driver of the five-day event. Bendix commented that the ongoing sponsorship of the award highlights the company’s commitment to highway safety and honors the dedicated men and women whose skills help create safer roads.
“Bendix continues to be very proud to support and take part in the NTDC because it honors the skills and professionalism of safe drivers like no other commercial vehicle industry event,” said Fred Andersky, Bendix director of government and industry affairs. “Safety drives everything we do at Bendix, and at this premier competition, we welcome the opportunity to offer well-deserved recognition to all the NTDC participants, who share our commitment to making America’s highways safer for everyone. We thank the participants at every level, and extend best wishes for good luck to all the contestants in this year’s championship.”
The NTDC features the winners from 50 state trucking associations’ truck driving championships, and attracts more than 2,000 friends, family, colleagues and spectators each year. To qualify for the annual contest, drivers take part in nine classes of competition on company, state and regional levels. More than 400 of the industry’s best professional drivers will compete in the championship event, testing their expertise through a written exam, a pre-trip inspection test and a skills-based competition course. Taking place inside the America’s Center Convention Complex and Edward Jones Dome, the championship requires drivers to demonstrate knowledge of safety, equipment and the industry. A behind-the-wheel skills course challenges drivers to drive, reverse, park and position their vehicles with precision over scales, before barriers and around curves testing their ability to handle their trucks, judge distances and maneuver through tight spaces.
In 2014, the Grand Champion award went to Jeffrey Langenhahn, who won as a Con-way Freight professional truck driver based in Plover, Wisconsin. Other previous recipients of the Bendix National Truck Driving Championships Grand Champion Award are Paul Phillips, who won in 2011 as a Con-way Freight driver from Coarsegold, California; Don Logan, who took top honors in 2012 as a FedEx Freight driver from Topeka, Kansas; and Gary Harms, who earned the award in 2013 as a Walmart Transportation driver based in Olathe, Kansas.
