to make sure it’s as safe and efficient as it can be … We’ve talked to colleges that are talking about programs that revolve around the regulation side of the truck- ing industry. We think there are things that we can use the money for, such as what our highway police can do to make safety in the trucking industry more efficient. We think this is going to be a really good program.” For a few years now, the highway
department and the Arkansas Trucking Association have helped each other with inspector competitions that benefit the Arkansas Highway Police, which is part of the AHTD, and the trucking industry. Police officers are rated on inspections — last year Corporal Derek Canard won both state and international contests, Bennett noted. The inspector competitions are
held at the annual Arkansas Trucking Championships in Rogers, Ark. During the three day event, members of the Arkansas Trucking Association judge police officers who compete to catch
issues in bugged trucks. Then the police return the favor and act as judges of the truck drivers who also identify issues on bugged trucks and participate in a driv- ing course. “It’s something that really pro-
motes a lot of camaraderie between our highway police officers and the trucking industry,” Bennett said. “A lot of times, people will think the trucking industry and the highway police, who are the enforcement arm of commercial vehicle rules and regulations, don’t always get along. But that’s not really the case overall because I think everybody in the trucking industry is interested in safety. “You’ve got folks like Steve
Williams at Maverick who has really been a champion for doing everything that he can do to make sure the truck- ing industry is as safe as possible. You might not always see it with some of the owner-operators that are just run- ning their own truck, or sometimes with farm trucks, it’s not quite the same. But I think overall everybody in
the trucking industry does want to do what’s right and make sure that they and everybody around them are safe, and that’s really what our folks are there for.”
FAMILY MAN Bennett grew up as the last of
four sons of a traffic manager at the now-closed Eaker Air Force Base in Blytheville. Bennett was nine years younger than the third son, but he has to tell people his late birth was no acci- dent. “I have to tell everybody that. My brother Danny was,” he said. “My mom had this grand plan that she was going to have two boys and two girls and have them all two years apart. She had two boys two years apart, and then 51 weeks later my brother Danny was born. It took them a while to try again.” His father passed away a few years
back, but Bennett’s 84-year-old mother, Jeane, still lives in Blytheville along with brother Steve and his family. Terry,
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