{"id":2632,"date":"2021-08-03T17:33:18","date_gmt":"2021-08-03T17:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/?p=2632"},"modified":"2021-08-03T17:34:47","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T17:34:47","slug":"right-up-his-alley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/other-news\/2021\/08\/03\/right-up-his-alley\/2632\/","title":{"rendered":"Right Up His Alley"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LB3’s Heflin takes top spot in Alabama Virtual Truck Driving Championship<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By Al Muskewitz<\/strong>

Nathan Heflin has always been good at taking tests and there\u2019s no question he\u2019s good at trucking. So, it was right up the 15-year driving veteran’s alley when he signed up for Alabama\u2019s virtual state truck driving championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Because of COVID protocols, the competition was more along the lines of a trivia contest and written test. Think of it as the traditional TDC without the pre-trip inspection and driving skills elements.

Heflin, who drives for LB3 LLC of Wedowee, Ala., topped a field of 28 other statewide drivers to win the state championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, he was one of three from LB3 among the 10 Alabama drivers who advanced to the American Trucking Associations\u2019 Battle of the States Virtual Truck Driving Championship Aug. 11-14.

\u201cIt was kind of surprising,\u201d said Heflin, who’s been with LB3 five years hauling mostly processed chicken products between Alabama and Savannah, Ga. \u201cI expected it to be a little harder than it was, if that makes sense. My kids accuse me all the time of my brain being full of useless trivia and knowledge.\u201d

But he\u2019s also a quick study, reading fast and absorbing information quickly, which makes him a good test-taker.

The Alabama Trucking Association had every intention of conducting a traditional TDC this year, but pulled back in May. A few days later, the national body announced plans for a virtual championship.

Heflin, the reigning state Fleet Safety Driver of the Year with more than 2 millions safety miles under his wheels, answered 33 of the 40 questions on the timed test correctly. He got two of the \u201cgimme questions\u201d he knew the answers to wrong because he hit the wrong button. \u201cI knew it as soon as I hit the button,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt like an idiot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Overall, it was a good exercise for LB3.

Heflin was joined among the state’s qualifiers by co-workers Jason Webber, the Fleet Safety Driver of the Year runner-up, and Stacy Langford. Langford won the carrier’s in-house TDC \u2013 that did include the skills course \u2013 in May.

FedEx Freight, which always has a big presence at the national TDC, also had three Alabama qualifiers.

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty nice when you look at it and see the three of us,\u201d Heflin said. \u201cAll four of us whose competed were all in the top 50 percent. It shows you the level of skill and experience we\u2019ve got here.\u201d

And that\u2019s the reason he took being the overall winner in stride.

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s not that big a thing because it\u2019s what I do,\u201d Heflin said. \u201cAny of us drivers should be able to do this. Anybody who\u2019s a part of the industry who loves the industry, and as a part of the industry should be able to compete and do well at these kinds of competitions.\u201d

Here are the 10 Alabama qualifiers for the Battle of the States Virtual Truck Diving Championship:

Nathan Heflin, LB3 LLC
David Schoonover, Air Products
David Deason, FedEx Freight
Scott Croisant, Greenbush Logistics
Daniel Thompson, FedEx Freight
Ross Garner, FedEx Freight
Robert Foshee, Action Resources
Jason Webber, LB3 LLC
Stacy Langford, LB3 LLC
Timothy Wooten, XPO Logistics (a Hiremaster client)
<\/em>
Al Muskewitz is Editor at Wright Media.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LB3’s Heflin takes top spot in Alabama Virtual Truck Driving Championship By Al MuskewitzNathan Heflin has always been good at taking tests and there\u2019s no question he\u2019s good at trucking. So, it was right up…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[465,251],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2632"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2636,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632\/revisions\/2636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}