Dear Professional Truck Drivers, ATA Members and State Trucking Association Executives:
As our industry provides essential services throughout our great nation, most notably to the front lines in the fight against COVID-19, protecting the health, safety and well-being of our workforce is most important to us. Today we are facing an unprecedented challenge that affects our businesses, families, communities and way of life.
As state and local authorities across the country place restrictions on public activity to slow the spread of COVID-19, many state trucking driving championships and step van driving championships have had to postpone or cancel competition. Accordingly, the decision has been made to cancel the National Truck Driving Championships & National Step Van Driving Championships (NTDC/NSVDC) this year, which had been scheduled for August 19-22 in Indianapolis, IN.
Our industry’s creed and the very spirit of these competitions is “safety first,” and this decision reflects that. It’s made out of an abundance of caution on behalf of the professional drivers competing at the state level, along with the state associations, companies and family members who organize, host and cheer on the competitors. With most drivers unable to practice and states unable to hold competitions, we believe this decision is necessary to maintain the integrity of a “national” championship.
As I have said many times, NTDC is the event I most look forward to every year. Know that we do not take this decision lightly. The Super Bowl of Safety has not been cancelled since World War II, which is a testament to just how unprecedented this present challenge is.
We congratulate all of the drivers who have driven accident-free over the past year and the scores who have accumulated millions of accident free miles. Thank you for every mile you run and every delivery you make. You make your families, our industry and entire country proud. In the words of the President of the United States: “You are our heroes.”
Stay safe, and thank you for all you do. We look forward to seeing you in Minneapolis in 2021.
