(Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette)
As the 18-wheeler bore down the course, there it waited, ready to ruin a trucker’s day: a little rubber duck.
No sweat for Danny Duke. Gently pulling the wheel of his big rig, the Colorado driver eased his front tire around the toy; a judge gave him top marks. Unfortunately for him, he muffed the starting test, pulling too close to an imaginary curb.
“I missed the first one, aced all the rest,” Mr. Duke said, rejoining his family in the stands of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. “But you only get one shot.”
The National Truck Driving Championships -- held this August in Pittsburgh -- are supposed to showcase everything that’s right with the U.S.’s $600 billion ground shipping industry. More than 400 drivers competed on the convention center floor, passing a written test, inspecting big rigs for planted defects and sweating it out in front of a crowd of hundreds while driving through an indoor driving course.
All the big names were there -- Fedex, UPS, Conway, Pitt-Ohio. During that weekend, every interview ended the same way: Nothing is more important than safety.
“There’s a lot more trucks on the road than there were 30 years ago,” said Allen Boyd, a trucker from Bedford, Pa. “We’re all here for safety.”
For a full report on truck safety, visit Post-Gazette.com.
Photos by: (Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette)