Hundreds of drivers from across the state will show off their skills and their efforts to keep everyone on the road safe at a competition in Monroe County.
MONROE COUNTY, Pa. — Truck drivers are the ones who get deliveries from Point A to Point B, but some tractor-trailers parked at Kalahari Resorts and Convention Center in Pocono Manor are not here making deliveries.
The Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association (PMTA) is gearing up for the truck driving championships.
“If you’re not a safe driver, you won’t make it to compete in this thing, which is a lot of fun. If you can’t get the goods there, what good are you?” said John Rigney, PMTA director of safety.
It’s a weekend all about safety. More than 200 truck drivers from around the state will compete through a series of written and skills tests.
“We put defects on each truck, and they have to find them, and they get graded on, not only the number of defects they find, but if there is a tie, it goes by time,” Rigney explained.
Volunteers are laying out the obstacle course that each truck will go through as a skill-based competition.
Bob Dolan is a PMTA co-chair and a five-time national winner. He says this competition is all about highlighting what these drivers do every day.
“We’re showing the positive side of our industry, where we can go out, maneuver our trucks through obstacles, and be able to show that we aren’t the bad guys on the highway,” Dolan said.
The community is encouraged to come out on Saturday morning to learn about the industry and how they can travel safely alongside the big rigs.
“We really need to educate everyone where blind spots are and where you want to be when you drive around a truck, how to pass, and what we can do,” Dolan said. ‘These trucks are very long and very complex.”
The winners from the state competition will move on to nationals later this summer in Indianapolis.
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