Professional Truck Driver Named Rand McNally Navigator of the Year

DALLAS, Aug. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Edward Crumer, a 20-year veteran driver, was named the 2011 Navigator of the Year by Rand McNally at the Great American Trucking Show (GATS). Crumer, an owner operator who works for Allied Van Lines, was selected among thousands of applicants for his impressive hauls, professionalism, self-navigation ability, and uniqueness of story.

As part of his award, Crumer will receive $25,000, presented by Navigator of the Year sponsor, NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of digital maps, traffic and location content.

The Navigator of the Year competition was part of Rand McNally's Moving America Trucker Appreciation Tour, which kicked off at the Mid-America Trucking Show in March and culminates at GATS this week.  The tour, designed to say "thank you" to the professional drivers who keep America moving, featured two trucks with custom-built trailers that visited travel centers from coast-to-coast.

"As part of the Moving America Trucker Appreciation Tour, we wanted to recognize the important, grueling, and sometimes dangerous work that professional truck drivers perform every day. It was a difficult decision to select just one Navigator of the Year as we had many great entries.  But in the end Ed's harrowing story of driving through an avalanche in the middle of the night and the touching details of how he counsels the families of fallen soldiers as he delivers their possessions to them set him apart," said Dave Muscatel, CEO of Rand McNally.

Crumer, who lives outside of St. Louis, won the competition in part due to his story recounting his most difficult haul this past year. Deep in the Canadian Rockies in the middle of winter, making a haul from Calgary to Vancouver via Rogers Pass, Crumer was stopped three times due to ongoing avalanches. With chains on his truck and trailer, it took 48 hours for the road to open up.

"And when it did, it was pitch black, the middle of the night. There was one strip of highway just wide enough for one truck to drive through. The snow was piled so high on either side of the truck that our view out of the cab on either side was a wall of snow," explained Crumer.

"It was the most beautiful and the scariest drive I've ever made," Crumer said.

Crumer also noted in his entry into the Navigator of the Year contest that he enjoys being a professional driver because he is "his own boss" and gets the opportunity to see the country and meet people coast-to-coast.

For anyone wondering how difficult yet rewarding truck driving can be, thousands of stories were collected as part of the 2011 Navigator of the Year program.  Many of these stories will be posted on http://MovingAmerica.RandMcNally.com. Drivers are invited to come to the site to share their stories as Rand McNally and Moving America continue to celebrate the professional driver.

About Rand McNally – Rand McNally is the most trusted source for maps, directions, and travel content.  Rand McNally's products and services include: Road travel review site  www.BestoftheRoad.com; Interactive travel referral service, www.Tripology.com; America's #1 Road Atlas; IntelliRoute® truck routing software and navigation devices; TruckPC mobile communication solution for the transportation industry; and the leading geography-based educational resources for the classroom.  Consumers, businesses, truckers, and educators depend upon Rand McNally to help navigate today's world. www.RandMcNally.com

IntelliRoute and Rand McNally are registered trademarks and TND is a trademark of RM Acquisition, LLC d/b/a Rand McNally.  

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About NAVTEQ

NAVTEQ is the leading global provider of location content in the form of maps, traffic and places data that enables navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world.  NAVTEQ supplies precise, comprehensive location content to power automotive navigation systems, portable and wireless devices, Internet-based mapping applications and government and business solutions.  The Chicago-based company was founded in 1985 and has approximately 5,600 employees located in 213 offices in 50 countries.

For more information on NAVTEQ, please visit http://corporate.navteq.com. This NAVTEQ press release and other news is available at http://press.navteq.com. Join NAVTEQ on Facebook at facebook.com/NAVTEQCompany and Twitter at @NAVTEQ.

SOURCE Rand McNally