Four truck drivers with a combined 15.8 million miles of safe driving were recently honored by the National Private Truck Council (NPTC) and inducted into the NPTC/Bridgestone Firestone Driver Hall of Fame.

The drivers are from NPTC member companies and have met the minimum qualifications of 20 years, 2 million miles or 50,000 hours of driving without a preventable accident. Many of the drivers have far exceeded these qualifications and are known for having made significant contributions to their industry and their communities. Since its inception, 80 drivers have been installed in the Driver Hall of Fame.
This year's Hall of Fame inductees are:

Gene E. Reed
TFE Logistics Group

Reed has driven more than three million accident-free miles over 35 years – 27 of them with TFE. An average day on the job for Gene means 12-14 hours on the road, Monday through Friday, hauling automotive parts. Normally, that means 14 stops and 300 miles in his 2000 Mack CH 600 daycab. His lengthy safe-driving record does not come without some practice; Gene employs defensive driving techniques every day, teaches an advanced defensive driving course to new TFE employees and recertifies existing employees after a major accident.
Reed also spends his free time driving to help others in need, including the State of Indiana's Emergency Management Agency, the American Red Cross, and hauls toys for the Toys for Tots program. For his community service, Reed was awarded NPTC's Dodi Reagan Humanitarian Award in 2003.

John R. Tedford Sr.
BOC

BOC entrusts Tedford with hauling its precious cryogenic cargo more than 2,000 miles each week along the Gulf Coast states.
His normal route consists of two 260-mile trips per day in his International truck, driving from New Orleans area to the NASA facility in Stennis, Miss. He's also responsible for loading and unloading tons of liquid oxygen, nitrogen and argon. He employs the Smith System in his daily routine. His three million-plus miles on the road have earned him the BOC 5-10-15-20-25-30 and 35-year safe driving awards from BOC. Tedford also has the honor of being chosen to be a Super Driver Trainer for the company. He travels the country and teaches at all company locations.

James H. Tolly
NCI Building Systems

Tolly learned to drive a tractor-trailer in the U.S. Army and hauled military machinery, ammunition and missiles. Now, for NCI, he runs metal building components through all 48 lower states. Most of his 3,200 weekly miles are from Texas to Georgia and Texas to Utah, averaging 635 miles each day, for a total of more than three million miles behind the wheel of his Freightliner. To better deal with driving challenges, he attends all of the company safety meetings, reads the DOT Safety Regulations book and uses the Internet to stay current on all the new information put out by industry associations.

Robert C. Wrenn
Gwaltney Transportation, a division of Smithfield

Wrenn began his transportation career with Gwaltney Foods in 1957 and has been with the company ever since. His first job was on the shipping dock, but then he got eager to make local runs. It was not long before he was taking all the loads of fresh and processed pork that he could, learning the company's routes and customers. Wrenn made deliveries in New York, Boston and Washington, D.C.
After 40 years of long-haul driving, he is once again back to driving locally around the Richmond, Va., area. During his 49-year career, he has maintained a perfect driving record that spans more than six million miles. Wrenn was recently awarded the Virginia Professional Driver of the Year and Smithfield Transportation Company's Driver of the Year.