I do not know if Panther is an ATA member or not. Drivers/contractors with any carrier, including own-authority owner-operators, that may wish to enter the ATA National Truck Driving Championships, can get info at
National Truck Driving Championships.
Phil,
The link does not provide all the information that you need to come up with an answer if you can participate in the event or not. When I asked to be corrected, I apparently knew more about the national and the state events than you did and threw my comment in to get other people involved with the conversation but it seems you got all defensive over someone trying to upstage you.
This is the same link provided in the original post. It is not my place to describe the NTDC eligibility rules and registration procedures. The ATA and its state affiliates speak for themselves on this matter. Interested readers can learn more by clicking the link above.
I talked to ATA this morning to confirm the information I had and inform them that there are problems with the website, they acknowledge that the links are broken on the menu which would go back to the main page and I told them even though I am computer literate (and in my profession opinion the site sucks for navigation and usability), I had a very hard time with some of the links going back to the main page. I made a couple suggestions about usability to the site before being transferred to the event people and asked a number of questions to get straight answers. Because you insist on people going to the site, this is another example of not knowing that people don’t always or can be computer literate to find information out on their own.
But I digress, I would have thought that you wanted to make sure that you had correct information but apparently you don’t, bad habit to get into especially in your lofty position.
Well the eligibility rules don’t clarify some of the issues I have heard about from other possible participants, some of these issues were discussed between us fellow
end of life truck owning FedEx people (me being a former member of that clan), so here is some clarification.
1 – The state is to follow guidelines from the ATA to create, modify and other wise amend their own specific rules. They can deviate from the ATA rules but can’t go beyond the guidelines, which are not posted or I can’t find anywhere.
2 – The states are allowed to have non-member
COMPANIES participate,
NOT non-member owner/operators or individual drivers. So your statement is incorrect, because having your own authority means nothing. The real issue is they are stressing safety record keeping and even if you have your own authority, does not mean you can participate because you have to have the proper record keeping. Their rules and their comments – not mine.
3 – There are about 50% of the state sanctioned events that are only open to ATA member companies, which means 50% of the state do not allow non-member companies to participate in state sanctioned events.
4 – Now here is something really complicated and interesting. You may participate, if you work domicile is not in your state. This is very simplified version and here is the explanation – if I (working for a member company) is based out of Oklahoma, even though I live in Michigan, I can participate in the Oklahoma event with the companies sponsorship. BUT I can not participate in more than one event.
5 – The purpose of the event is to promote safety, which is a good thing. I do agree that you are right on with your experience and explaining what it was all about but….
Notwithstanding the off-topic posts in this thread, the ATA Truck Driving Championships present an industry-recognized opportunity for drivers to refine and demonstrate their skills in a competitive envrionment. To bring us back on topic, allow me to say again that while the competiton is intesnse, the challenge can be fun if you embrace it as such. If part of you thinks you might want to try this some day, our advice is to go for it.
I think a better sentance would be; the ATA challenge presents an opportunity for drivers to refine and improve their existing skills. We are in a competitive environment already Phil, every time we start the truck/van and move on to the open road - don't you agree?
I don’t know where you come off that anything I said was off topic (*maybe I am reading into the bit of irritation, in your previous posts), it seems you didn’t want to provide more information and when you did, it seemed wrong to me. I said this in other posts and will say it again to the people who think I am in some d*mn p*ssing contest with you – if I see something that I think is wrong, I will speak up even if I am wrong. The only off topic comments made were from Julie trashing me and my sarcastic retort which I hope she read.
Well to the ‘readers’, because I am serious about safety and want to see others participate in positive events like this or at least learn more about the subject and how to be safe on the road for all of us, I am going a bit farther.
You mentioned a book, which is not easily found for the computer illiterates out there on the ATA site.
Facts for Drivers 2008, Note they list this as a CD but it also has the order information for the book and I highly recommend it even if you do not participate or can’t.
State dates and contact information - which is in PDF format, not a web page so some may not be able to open it.
Eligibility rules for the National event - which is not a clear concise read
National Awards
An overview of the National event test
AND in a final note I would recommend these two books first;
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
The Power of Positive Thinking by Dr Norman Peale.
I would recommend these two books because of the stress we all go through in this work. Habits are one thing but without a clear mind and not being able to handle the stress, regardless how hard you try to maintain habits, you can easily fail to do so.
Oh and if you can take the Carnegie course, it is really a good thing to do.
