Carroll Benn is no stranger to the winner’s circle. A veteran truck driver for 35 years (the last 18 spent as an independent), Benn has won no less than eight different awards from the National Safety Council in recognition for his safe performance out on the road: over three million miles without either an accident or a late delivery.

Recently named by the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) as its “Independent Contractor of the Year” for 2003, Benn spoke with DRIVERS about not only why he’s stayed behind the wheel for nearly four decades, but what’s made him a success as well.

“There’s two things: playing it safe on the road and having a good relationship with the carrier I’m leased to, Dart Transit,” he says.

“When it comes to safety, I’ve been lucky but I also keep learning. I’ve had a lot of close calls on the road, but each time I looked back at those situations and learned something to help me be safer,” Benn explains.

“For example, you never take the right-of-way for granted anymore,” he says. “You have to assume that other drivers are going to pull out in front of you, so you have to prepare for that. You have to get ready to stop and yield even if you never end up having to do so. You just don’t take chances out here.”

Benn points to the ever-higher volume of traffic getting out on the road each year as just one reason for being extra cautious behind the wheel. “Dart holds classes every year to help us [drivers] improve our technique behind the wheel, because the consequences of wrong decisions out on the road are huge,” he says. “You can’t follow too close and you have to stay in the right lane. You just have to be more aware of the traffic around you today.”

Benn also says the relationship he’s forged with Dart has been a key ingredient to his long-term success as well – both in terms of pay and safety.

“You know, after my first few years as an independent, I was ready to get out of my truck and go back to being a company driver because I just couldn’t get the money I needed,” he says. “But a friend on mine recommended Dart to me and that all changed. Not only is the money there, they also respect my skills – that’s critical. If the weather is bad I feel I have to shut down, I get no guff from the dispatcher.

“If you drive someone else’s truck, you have to do exactly what they tell you – it’s their equipment, after all,” Benn explains. “But as an independent, if I want to idle my truck to stay comfortable, I do that – a company driver can’t. If I need to take three days off, I can. As an independent, I have more freedom because I am my own boss.”

But Benn also stresses that a healthy amount of give-and-take with the carrier he’s leased to keeps him calling the shots on the road. “It’s not all a bed of roses and it can’t be,” he notes. “You get undesirable loads, but you go with it – you provide the same level of service for those loads as you do on the loads you really want. The key is that I don’t work for them and they don’t work for me; we work as a team in this business. That’s what makes it click.”

It’s also going to “click” better as Benn will be driving a brand new truck – the first new commercial vehicle he’s ever owned – courtesy of International Truck & Engine Corp., as but one of his prizes for being named TCA’s Independent Contractor of the Year.

International donated the 9900ix new tractor to Benn, modified to his specifications, which included, of course, a healthy dose of chrome.

“This award is very important to us and the suppliers who work so hard to support this industry,” says John Fay, International’s director for heavy truck marketing. “For the last 17 years, TCA has provided us an opportunity to recognize an outstanding individual who has contributed to the safe, on-time delivery of the goods we have come to take for granted – testament to the collective tenacity and dedication of professional truck drivers.”

Benn, however, says it’s really just easy to do work that you love. “Driving a truck was my childhood dream,” he says. “After 35 years on the road, I really wouldn’t do anything else, no matter how much it paid.”