HEB truck driver named best in Texas – Bizjournals.com
Ruben Cortez of Portland, Texas, was named best professional truck driver in Texas at the 2011 Texas Truck Driving Championships put on by the Texas Motor Association. His next stop: The “Super Bowl of Safety.”
Cortez, who won the event after winning the flatbed competition and receiving highest scores in nine other competing categories, drives for HEB Grocery Co. Cortez now goes on to the American Trucking Association’s National Truck Driving Championships August 9-13 in Orlando. That event is known in the trucking industry as the “Super Bowl of Safety.” For four days, 400 drivers from across the country challenge their truck driving skills and knowledge of safety, equipment and the industry.
Efforts by the trucking industry to foster safety have yielded some results, according to those in the transport business. Many of those efforts have focused on combating driver fatigue and more strict rules regulating hours of service.
The most recent available statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed that truck-involved fatalities dropped by 20 percent from 2008 to 2009.