National Truck Driving Championship

Roadway's Alphonso Lewis is 2007 Champion

Alphonso "Al" Lewis, a Roadway professional truck driver based in Montgomery, Ala. was named the 2007 National Truck Driving Grand Champion. Lewis' driving skills and knowledge of transportation and truck safety information topped those of 377 other drivers from all across the United States in the National Truck Driving Championships, held in Minneapolis, Minn. In route to his title, Lewis has logged 21 accident and injury free years as a driver. Lewis is the first African-American winner in the 70-year history of the Championships.

The 70th annual "Super Bowl of Safety" is sponsored by the American Trucking Associations.

The contestants were the state champions (in eight truck types) from all 50 states. Collectively, they have driven over a half-billion accident-free miles.

In their respective classes, drivers tested their expertise in the driving skills they use daily. The competition course inside the Minneapolis Convention Center challenged their knowledge of safety, equipment and the industry. The skills course tested drivers' ability to judge distances, maneuver tight spaces, reverse, park, and position their vehicle exactly over scales, before barriers or around curves.

Lewis also won the individual Four-axle truck driving competition. Joining Lewis as champions in their respective classes:

Straight Truck: Scott Watts, FedEx Express (Anchorage, Alaska) Three-Axle: John Hazlett, ABF Freight System (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Five-Axle: Kevin Scott Harris, Sr., ABF Freight System (North Greenbush, New York) Five-Axle Sleeper: Warren Lewis, Jr., Hannaford Trucking Company (Lewiston, Maine) Twins: Dennis Day, Con-way Freight (Lawrenceville, Georgia) Flatbed: John Smith, Jr., FedEx Ground (Tupelo, Mississippi) Tank Truck: Dale Duncan, Con-way Freight (Chula Vista, California)

Lewis succeeds Dale Duncan as the National Grand Champion, who himself won this year's Tank Truck division.

Jason Matte, a five-axle driver for FedEx Freight from Pearl, Miss., was named 2007 Rookie of the Year. Matte, who has been a professional truck driver for nine years and has over 700,000 accident-free miles, was also the 2007 Mississippi Truck Driving Championships Rookie of the Year.

The Arizona state truck driving championship team won honors as the highest scoring state team, followed by Washington and South Dakota respectively.