Art of a Driver: Truck driving champs is good business

TORONTO — Agrifoods’ fleet of milk haulers will be hitting the heights and depths of the Coquihalla powered by 560 horses under the hoods of factory-fresh 2011 Freightliner Cascadias this month.

And at the helm of one of them: Canada’s champion driver, Dean Grant, 53.

Grant won bragging rights in September, winning first place at the National Professional Truck Driving Championships in Winnipeg.

He has competed since 2000, and the competitions have taken him as far east as Truro, N.S.

Agrifoods pays his expenses and entry fees. "It’s a pretty good morale boost," he says. "The fact that they pay shows they care about the quality of their drivers."

Just because he finished on top this year, Grant says he isn’t done competing. "(Next year) I’m going to enter in straight trucks. I want to eventually win in every category."  

Inching to Win: Practicing for competition
can make you a better driver

That should come as good news to Grant’s bosses at Agrifoods, the dairy co-op. Because, as Grant himself says, his desire to win another championship will make him a better driver between now and then.

Part of the requirement for winning is a preventable-accident-free year, leading up to the trials. Grant concedes that having a champ driver in your fleet sends a pretty strong and positive message to your customers, too.

Depending on what type of truck they’re piloting, provincial winners are asked to — among other feats — thread their way around pylons staying within the confines of narrow lanes, pull away from stop signs around corners, park the rear trailer wheels over a simulated weigh scale, stop on a bullseye, and back the truck into a loading dock with a few inches on either side to spare.

"And it’s all," adds Brian Hopfner, Grant’s ops manager at Agrifoods and a former driver, "done against the clock."

"It’s not easy by any stretch. And it’s a game of inches."

For his part, Grant practices year-round pulling b-trains full of milk up and down the Coke, around the Okanagan.

"We tell our new people," Hopfner says, "that cows work seven days a week, 365 days of the year so until we find a way to get the cows to tell the difference between Christmas and regular days, our trucks are going to run every day, all day."

Just last year, Grant saw what happens when you do the opposite of championship driving.

More important than trophies, Dean’s described
as an awesome employee and great family man.

He was about two hours out Vancouver, ascending a big hill near Hope, an ascent that has a nickname we won’t print in this magazine.

"And here’s this truck coming down the hill towards me; he’d totally lost it and was bouncing from cement side to cement side, coming right at me.

"He hit the center post and if he’d bounced over that, he would have hit me straight on. But he didn’t, he went right over the side and it was the first time I ever saw a 48-ft trailer airborne."

Grant stopped, leapt out of his truck and ran down the hill. "I went down and there he was wedged in. All I could see was the top of his head. I was totally expecting to see a dead man," Grant says.

Turns out, the cab was crushed but the driver walked away with a few cuts and bruises.

"Stuff like that means that when they say you should put chains on," Grant observes, "you really should put chains on."

Knowing that his eye is focused on next year’s championships, Grant’s bosses at Agrifoods can rest assured he’s not going to take any chances on the road.

More important than trophies, though is what’s waiting for him at home. He’s got two daughters, a son (who is currently playing hockey at Michigan State and who has been drafted by the Senators) and Grant’s wife of 27 years, Debbie.

Adds Hopfner: "Dean’s a great driver, a real well-rounded person and a great family man. What more do you want in a driver?" 

—by Peter Carter