BC Boasts the best drivers in the biz

OTTAWA — The National Professional Truck Driving Championships wrapped up in Ottawa on September 14, with Team BC carting home the 2008 Team Trophy. Team BC placed drivers in the top three spots in three categories this year — Step Van, Single/Tandem (4-axle), and Tandem/Tandem (5-axle).

Following a summer of regional and provincial driving championship events, all who qualified at that level advanced to the finals in Ottawa. A course was set up in the parking lot of the Rideau Carleton Raceway in the city’s south end, and 39 drivers representing teams from all the provinces tore the thing up.

Said Harvey Gording of Regina: "I’ve been to the Nationals 12 times, but it never seems to get any easier." Gording is a city P&D driver with Reimer Express Lines; he competed in the Single/Tandem category, placing second this year.

Several "rookies" qualified for this year’s event — that’s first-time participation in the national finals, including Chris Wilson of New Brunswick, an owner-operator who runs a set of B-train fuel tankers for RST Industries in Saint John. This was his first year in a regional competition, and he walked away with the B-train category. He said nobody was more surprised than he was with that victory.

Home Hardware drivers won second and third places
in the tandem-tandem and train categories

"I watched a fellow from Nova Scotia back his trains into loading dock obstacle in one shot, and thought, well, there’s no way I’m going any further. I do most of my work off the side of the trailer, so I never really have to back in anywhere. I figured that would be my weak event."

Home Hardware’s Shawn Matheson of St. Jacobs, Ont. took home rookie of the year honors. With eight years driving experience, he’d participated in two previous provincial competitions. This was his first trip to the nationals. He placed second in the Tandem/Tandem (5-axle) category, behind Quebec’s Mario Desjardins of L. Simard Transport, who earned the Grand Champion title for his first place finish as well as high points total in the non-driving events.

In addition to the skill and proficiency demonstrated through seven different obstacle course challenges in the driving portion of the competition, drivers must do a vehicle inspection and identify several pre-set defects or deficiencies, and write a knowledge test. Points are awarded or deducted based on performance in all three areas.

Next year’s Nationals will be held Sept. 12-14 in Vancouver. Contact your provincial trucking association for more info. 

We’ve posted a special episode of Truck Talk in our media archive featuring coverage of the 2008 National Truck Driving Championships. Click here

Category winners are as follows:

Step Van: Julius Swecera, BC, Reimer Express Lines.

Straight Truck: Kevin Franklin, Alberta, Canadian Freightways

Single Single: Darren Tychkowsky, Alberta, Reimer Express Lines

Single Tandem: Dean Grant, BC, Agrifoods International

Tandem Tandem: Mario Desjardins, Quebec, L. Simard Transport

Train: Ken Wiebe, Manitoba, EBD Transport

 


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