Las Vegas resident named best truck driver in Nevada

By Jeff Pope

Monday, Oct. 20, 2008 | midnight

Brandon Hardy, a resident of western Las Vegas, was named the best professional truck driver in Nevada after earning the highest overall score at the 2008 Nevada Truck Driving Championships in Reno on Aug. 13.

Hardy, 32, also placed first in the flatbed competition, which earned him a chance to compete at the American Trucking Associations’ National Truck Driving Championships Aug. 18-23 in Houston.

The winners from each of the seven categories at the state event moved on to the national tournament, where nearly 400 drivers from every state competed for four days, challenging their driving skills and knowledge of safety, equipment and the industry.

Hardy placed 38th out of 45 drivers in the flatbed class, but said competing in the trucking world’s equivalent of the Super Bowl was rewarding. The nationals are held indoors on polished concrete floors instead of asphalt roads.

“That threw me off quite a bit when I first started off because the trailer tended to slide a bit more from side to side,” he said. “I took what I learned from how my truck and trailer handled on the course and I’ll apply that knowledge of the handling characteristics.”

The competitions include a written test with general driving and industry questions, a pre-trip inspection and six obstacle course problems that simulate real-world conditions for drivers.

Hardy was disappointed in his finish at the nationals because he believes his score on the final category, the pre-trip inspection, was judged incorrectly. He scored a 15 percent at nationals but earned a 95 percent in the same category at the state event.

“I followed basically the same procedure at I would at state,” he said. “The truck was set up the same, you had the same time limit. I don’t know how I got that.”

The 2003 Nevada Motor Transport Association Inc. Rookie of the Year won the state competition in his fifth year. Hardy has placed in the top three in his division each year.

This was the first year he competed in the flatbed category. He drove in the three-axle class in past years but wanted a greater challenge and found it in flatbeds. The truck Hardy drove in the competitions had five axles, forcing him to adjust to its different handling characteristics.

“I had never even driven a flatbed before until I started competing and practicing for it,” he said.

The competitions test truck drivers’ safety skills and thus make them better drivers. In order to compete in the competitions, drivers must be accident free in the previous year.

“Those drivers that enjoy competing, myself included, I’m thinking about being safer out on the road and being really aware of the potential of accidents so I can compete again,” Hardy said.

Hardy and 12 other drivers from his office at Con-way Freight competed at the state level and Con-way sent a record 67 drivers to the national event from throughout the country.

About two months before the state competition, Hardy sets up a road course at his company’s yard in North Las Vegas to practice.

Hardy began driving a truck in 1998 and joined Con-way Freight in North Las Vegas in 2002. He also took first place in a local company-wide competition in April.

“The goal I set from the beginning was I just wanted to make it to nationals. I knew it could take years and years before I won the state. I know some guys have been trying to win state for 10, 15 years and haven’t gotten it yet,” he said. “So now my next goal is to do it again and win national.”

Jeff Pope can be reached at 990-2688 or [email protected]. Reporter Jeff O’Brien contributed to this story.