Bendix Honors 2022 ATA NTDC Grand Champion Award Winner

After four days of competition among the country’s top professional commercial vehicle drivers, the 85th American Trucking Associations (ATA) National Truck Driving Championships (NTDC) has come to a close.

Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC (Bendix) honored the Bendix Grand Champion winner of this year’s competition: Roland Bolduc, an East Longmeadow, Massachusetts-based professional driver for FedEx Express.

The 2022 NTDC was held Aug. 16-19 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Bendix sponsored the Grand Champion Award, presented to the overall top driver, for the 11th consecutive year.

Bolduc has more than 2.5 million safe driving miles in his more than 40 years in the trucking industry. His driving skills and knowledge of safety, equipment, and the industry earned him the top award in a field of 408 drivers with nearly 730 million combined accident-free miles. Bolduc, competing in the sleeper berth, also won the Bendix Grand Champion title in 2017. He was named an America’s Road Team Captain in 2000.

“It’s a thrill for us at Bendix to congratulate Roland on his remarkable achievement,” said Fred Andersky, director of demos, sales, and service training at Bendix. “All the competitors in this year’s championships deserve our thanks and praise for the excellence they bring to their jobs every day. The NTDC shines a deserving spotlight on these outstanding professionals, their supportive families, and the indispensable role they play in helping to keep roadways safe for all of us.”

Elisabeth Barna, ATA’s EVP of industry affairs and senior advisor to the president and CEO, presented the award on behalf of Bendix.

During this year’s competition at the Indiana Convention Center, drivers demonstrated their expertise of safety, equipment, and the industry through a written exam, pre-trip inspection test, and navigating the skills-based driving competition course. Behind the wheel, drivers were scored on their abilities to handle their trucks, judge distances, and move through tight spaces. The driving course challenged drivers to maneuver, reverse, park, and position their vehicles with precision over scales, before barriers, and around curves.