Nation's Top Truck Drivers on the Road to Columbus

2010 National Truck Driving Championships Set for Next Week

ARLINGTON, Va., July 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Over 400 top professional truck drivers from all across the U.S. will soon be heading for Columbus, Ohio for the 2010 National Truck Driving Championships (NTDC), to be held August 3-7 in the Greater Columbus Convention Center. The "Super Bowl of Safety" is sponsored annually by the American Trucking Associations.

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The NTDC contestants are state champions from all 50 states. States send winners from each class of competition – from 18-wheeled five-axle sleepers to tank trucks to twin trailers to straight trucks – eight competing classes in all with an affiliated competition for step vans. The 18th annual North American Inspectors Championship will again take place alongside the National Truck Driving Championships in Columbus.

Drivers will compete for four days, challenging their driving skills, and knowledge of safety, equipment and the industry. ATA's Chairman Tommy Hodges (Titan Transfer, Inc.) will kick-off the first day of driving, Thursday, with the ceremonial Breakfast of Champions. Drivers then head to the competition course, which recreates real world obstacles that drivers encounter daily, such as an alley dock, a rear and/or front line stop, a scales stop, a right or left turn, parallel parking, or straight line driving through a diminishing clearance. Four classes will drive Thursday and five classes will take to the obstacle course Friday.

When it is all over on Saturday, August 7, the U.S. will have a new National Grand Champion professional truck driver, individual champions in each class, and a state champion team.

ATA's Truck Driving Championships include top professional truck drivers from around the nation competing at state and regional levels to make it to the national competition Aug. 3-7 in Columbus, Ohio. The NTDC annually attracts over 2,000 cheering friends, family, colleagues and spectators. For more information, visit the 2010 National Truck Driving Championships website: www.truckline.com/Federation/Councils/slpmc/NTDC/Pages/Default.aspx

The American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of other trucking groups, industry-related conferences, and its 50 affiliated state trucking associations, ATA represents more than 37,000 members covering every type of motor carrier in the United States.

The American Trucking Associations has led the campaign for rigorous safety laws that affect every driver on the nation's highways. ATA's overall safety agenda includes greater education on sharing the road with large trucks, increased traffic enforcement for all vehicles that operate unsafely around large trucks, the adoption of primary safety belt laws in all states, and reinstatement of a national maximum speed limit of 65 mph for all vehicles. ATA also supports limiting truck speeds at the time of manufacture. www.truckline.com

SOURCE American Trucking Associations