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I’ve been out. You may or may not have noticed. I’ve been busy. Since life has become more challenging, I’ll keep coming back on a bi-weekly basis. Sound good? Okay.

Let’s get back to business. If you were in the vicinity of Blue Bayou/Dixie Landin’ lately, you may have thought you died and went to trucker heaven. Imagine edible houses made of beef jerky! Endless showers of fountain drinks! How dreamy. Wouldn’t that be great? Yes, but that wasn’t what was happening…

Question: Was that a trucker convention at Blue Bayou?

Answer: Nope. It was a trucker championship.

And I’m sorry I missed it. The Louisiana Motor Transport Association Inc. held its annual Louisiana Truck Driving Championship recently for 112 eligible drivers who were accident-free in 2006 (no accidents or moving violations with a commercial driver’s license). Collectively, those drivers logged 151,264,242 accident-free miles in 2006 (That’s about 1.3 million per driver).

Those spotless drivers had a chance to show their proficiency and compete through interviews, written exams, inspection tests and driving tests. Drivers compete in eight classes, based on the size of the truck, with first through third place winners in each class. Separate awards⎯Mechanics Award, Rookie of the Year, Team Award, Grand Champion, Safety Professional of the Year, LMTA Driver of the Year and Ladies Powder Puff⎯are also given. This year, the Ladies Powder Puff trophy wasn’t bestowed due to time constraints, but that’s given to the wife or girlfriend who has the highest score while driving the field course in a van. It’s not given for who can drive most effectively while applying make up. Dang.

The field course consists of roughly eight obstacles and is designed by safety managers to be a challenge, so that the winners who move on to the nationals will be prepared. “It’s no cakewalk,” says Cathy Gautreaux, executive director of LMTA. “It’s a serious challenge to parallel park an 18-wheeler.”

Gautreaux estimates the championship has been held since the ‘40s or ‘50s to recognize top drivers in the industry. “It’s something we look forward to every year,” she says. So if you missed it this year, be on the lookout next year.

Thanks to Cathy Gautreaux, executive director of LMTA for the freight of information about the championship.

To view the list of winners click here.