Trucker Buddy's Outstanding Drivers of the Year

Trucker Buddy International honored five of its participants as Outstanding Trucker Buddies at a press conference at the Mid-America Trucking Show on Friday, March 28.

The drivers are connected to a diverse group of schools: One Trucker Buddy's class is across the Atlantic in Saint-Malo, France. The teacher says the reports of what seem like everyday occurrences are almost exotic and have encouraged students to improve their English skills.

Another driver told how his class is in a poor town in Kansas, and many of the students are part of single-parent families. The students regard him as their best friend and, in some cases, as a kind of stepfather.

Now in its 21st year, TBI has helped educate more than 1 million elementary school children about trucking – and often about life – by connecting the classes with dedicated, professional and caring truckers. 

The drivers named as Outstanding Trucker Buddies were:

• Jim Stinemates, who corresponds with New Century School in Verona, Wis.
• Bob Cravens, whose students are at Liberty Elementary School in Rocky Ford, Colo.
• Matt Slovack, whose class is at Lincoln Irving School, in Moline, Ill.
• Fred Sweetwood, whose class is in Marais des Cygnes Valley Elementary in Quenemo, Kan.
• Linda Caffee, whose cards and stories fascinate students at College Chateaubriand in Saint-Malo, France.

Stinemates said the experience with TBI inspired him to send his letters to family and friends, detailing life on the road as well as his wife's encounters as she rescues feral cats. 

Cravens has had the same teacher for 18 years; some of the students he had at the start now have their own children who are second-generation Trucker Buddy participants. He encourages kids to get involved in their communities, from visiting nursing home residents to adopting pets from the pound.

Slovack is deeply involved with Boy Scouting as well as TBI, and teaches trucking and transportation merit badges. He said some 200 Boy Scouts will be at MATS on Saturday to learn about the industry and to work toward their badges.

Sweetwood got choked up talking about how much the admiration and affection of the challenged children in his class means to him, and how he tries to bring extras to them when he visits. For some of the kids, his gifts of pencils and erasers are the first new writing implements they've ever had.

Caffee's teacher found out about TBI via message boards, and represents one of several European schools that correspond with the faraway truckers. The children are constantly astonished at how far American truckers drive compared with the short distances in Europe. 

Also honored at the meeting was Mark Lothorp, as the year's Outstanding Trucker Buddy Ambassador. The ambassadors help represent the organization at industry events, extending the reach of TBI, which has only two full-time employees.

For more information about the Trucker Buddy Program, visit www.truckerbuddy.org.

Travel Centers of America names seven winners of its inaugural Citizen Driver of the Year Awards

Do you have a favorite truck stop where everybody knows your name – where you spend so much time you feel they ought to name it after you? That fantasy is coming true for six individual truckers and a trucking couple who are the grand prize winners in Travel Centers of America's inaugural Citizen Driver of the Year competition.

TravelCenters will be naming seven TA and Petro truck stops after the winners, who were chosen from 88 nominees, including many OOIDA members. The name changes will take place the week of April 14. The winners, and their truck stops, are:

• Henry Albert, Laredo, Texas, TA: "Henry Albert Laredo Travel Center"
• Jimmy Ardis, Manning, S.C., TA: "Jimmy Ardis Travel Center"
• Linda and Bob Caffee, Petro North Las Vegas: "Linda and Bob Caffee North Las Vegas Stopping Center"
• Charley Endorf, York, Neb., Petro: "Charley Endorf Stopping Center"
• Jerry Fritts, West Memphis, Ark., Petro: "Jerry Fritts West Memphis Stopping Center"
• Shawn Hubbard, Ontario, Calif., Petro: "Shawn Hubbard Ontario Stopping Center"
• Norman Knight, Columbus, N.J., TA: "Norman Knight Columbia Travel Center"

The winners were announced at TravelCenter's annual driver appreciation lunch on Friday, March 28, at MATS. TravelCenters' President and CEO Tom O'Brien announced the competition last year at MATS, and in a video played at the lunch he said the competition will be an annual event.

Collectively, the 88 nominees have clocked more than 100 million accident-free miles. They came from 27 states and Canada, and represented 55 trucking companies. They included a number of Trucker Buddy participants, a Highway Angel of the Year, a Highway Hero finalist, volunteer firefighters, former police officers, volunteers in a wide array of community endeavors and at least one member of his town's city council.

O'Brien said The Citizen Driver Award is designed to help dispel the stereotypes many outside the trucking industry hold about truckers. Drivers not only keep America moving, but also serve their communities at many levels. Truckers and those who work in other aspects of the industry know that. Now it's time to educate others.

"The professional and personal standards held by this year's Citizen Driver Award recipients are the same standards held by thousands of fellow professional drivers across this nation," O'Brien said. "We are looking forward to awarding Citizen Driver status to as many of these fine individuals as we can for years to come."

The droid he was looking for?

New recruit?

In February's Land Line Magazine I wrote about robotic trucks and efforts to develop a truck-driving robot. So I was more than a little surprised walking through the West Wing of the Kentucky Expo Center this week at MATS to bump into recruiter Josh Parker and his newest recruit.

I'm not sure how R2D2 can reach the pedals, or even if he will need to. But he was really eager to get going, of course. I think his pal Threepio was off talking to a logistics outfit.