The Citizen Driver award ceremony has previously taken place at the Mid-America Trucking Show, but for the fifth annual ceremony, we decided to announce our honorees on the road at the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum.
Family, friends, fellow drivers and more gathered in Walcott, Iowa to support this year’s honorees. Below are the 2018 Citizen Driver Honorees and the travel centers that will soon be named after them.
- Roland Bolduc – TA Branford, CT: “Roland Bolduc Branford Travel Center"
- Carol Wolder-Nixon – TA North Bend, WA: "Carol Wolder-Nixon North Bend Travel Center"
- Ingrid R. Brown – Petro Oklahoma City, OK: "Ingrid R. Brown Oklahoma City Stopping Center"
- Danny & Cindy George – TA Wheat Ridge, CO: "Danny & Cindy George Wheat Ridge Travel Center"
The Citizen Driver Program
With more than 3 million professional truck drivers in the U.S., their impact on the average American’s life is largely unknown and underappreciated.
In 2013, we created the Citizen Driver program to recognize the professional drivers who keep America moving and who embody the long-held values of the truck driving profession through citizenship, safety, health and wellness, community involvement and leadership.
This program allows TravelCenters, the trucking industry and the public to honor and appreciate the best drivers on the road. Not just for their performance on the job, but for their dedication to being great people that everyone, both inside and outside of trucking, can admire and respect.
Nominations & Our Judges
Nominations for the Citizen Driver awards are accepted the previous year from a variety of people – fleet owners and executives, other drivers, friends, husbands, wives, parents, sons, daughters, trucking organization members and trucking industry suppliers – who want to recognize the drivers who have influenced their lives in some way.
Every year the honorees are determined with the help of some distinguished members in the trucking industry.
The judges this year consisted of Chris Spear, President and CEO of the ATA; Todd Spencer, Acting President of OOIDA; Ellen Voie, President and CEO of Women in Trucking; David Cullen, Executive Editor of Heavy Duty Trucking; Eric Harley of Red Eye Radio; Dave Nemo of Road Dog Trucking and Steve Sommers of America’s Truckin’ Network.
After we have selected the semi-finalists and finalists, our notable judges choose the honorees based on how well they demonstrate citizenship, safety, health and wellness, community involvement and leadership. You can find more details about the official contest rules on our Citizen Driver website.
To show our respect for these professional drivers, a TA or Petro Stopping Center of their choice is named in their honor. They also receive TA-Petro gift cards, UltraONE points and more.
2019 Citizen Driver Nominations
Congratulations to our 2018 honorees. There are now a total of 28 TA or Petro Stopping Centers locations across the country named in honor of professional truck drivers.
Help us continue this program in search and support of the best drivers in the trucking industry by sending us your nominations for the 2019 Citizen Driver awards. Next year’s nomination form, rules and other information will be available on the TA-Petro website in June.
Stay tuned to learn more about each of our 2018 Citizen Driver honorees in the coming weeks.