Nomination Information and Instructions
In an effort to promote highway safety and inform the general public about the trucking industry, the Tennessee Trucking Association (TTA), through the Tennessee Trucking Foundation (TTF) created Tennessee’s Road Team. The Road Team is a statewide campaign to promote highway safety to the public. The program was created and continues with major funding from Bridgestone Commercial Solutions and Pilot Company.
The Tennessee Trucking Association is taking nominations for professional truck drivers, both men and women, who can take our industry’s safety message to the citizens of Tennessee. These drivers must be willing to spend one to four days per month from January 2024 through December 2025 demonstrating the trucking industry’s commitment to safety and its value to the economic growth of Tennessee. Road Team appearances include teen driver safety education, aging driver safety education, drivers’ education classes, community activities and meetings, TTA-sponsored activities and trucking events, including safety banquets and driver meetings (Mandatory Annual Convention Attendance each September). The Road Team’s top goals are to create a safer driving environment on our highways and reinforce a positive image of trucking throughout Tennessee.
Eligibility and Requirements
1. Nominees must currently be employed by a member in good standing with the TTA, be full-time truck drivers and remain full time truck drivers for their two-year term, either as company drivers, owner-operators or independent owner-operators. If at any time during their active term a driver becomes ineligible under these requirements, the supervisor must advise TTA immediately.
2. Nominees must have an outstanding safety record, and must maintain after selection, a record which includes absolutely no preventable accidents or ticketed violations in either their company truck or TTA No Zone truck and personal vehicle for the previous three years and during their Road Team Service. PLEASE INCLUDE THE LATEST MVR ON RECORD FOR EACH NOMINEE.
3. Nominees must be able to clearly and convincingly communicate their commitment to safety and courtesy. They must also be able to represent a positive and professional image of the trucking industry.
4. If selected, the nominees must be willing to spend one to four days each month from January 2024 to December 2025, traveling and speaking on behalf of the Tennessee trucking industry in the promotion of highway safety. This is a two-year commitment.
5. The nominating company must be willing to continue to pay full salary and provide benefits to the driver throughout the two-year period, including the time spent traveling for the Road Team. In the case of an owner-operator, the company must be willing to pay the driver his/her overhead costs, plus an additional sum equal to his/her profit per day for each day spent traveling for the Road Team. TTA will pay all travel expenses associated with a Road Team appearance (lodging, $30 per diem per day for meals, IRS mileage rate).
6. An independent owner-operator who is a dues-paying member of TTA may act as both nominating company and candidate. TTA will pay travel expenses but will not be responsible for compensating a self-sponsored owner-operator for overhead or lost profits while traveling for the Road Team.
In selecting the representatives, emphasis will be placed on the driver’s safety record and ability to speak knowledgeably about the trucking industry.
How to Nominate a Driver
The “nominator” must be either a motor carrier executive with the authority to commit his/her company’s support for the program, or a self-sponsored owner-operator. The nominator should also confirm before submitting the nomination that the candidate is willing to participate in the program.
After the individual has been nominated, it is the nominator’s responsibility to immediately notify the Tennessee’s Road Team office at TTA if the candidate becomes ineligible at any time during the selection process.
Once nominations are closed, TTA will announce a group of finalists who have qualified to come to the TTA Office in Nashville on Friday, January 19, 2024, for personal interviews and selection process. At that time, a panel of industry professionals will select the 2024-2025 Tennessee Road Team Captains who will join the 2023 Captains who will be starting their second year of second year of service. Drivers who are selected will be required to attend two days of training at the TTA headquarters in Nashville on February 15th and 16th , 2024.