Mitchel Johnson has been driving trucks since he was a youngster growing up on the family farm along Montana’s Hi-Line. He’s hoping a lifetime of experience will give him an edge as he competes in the National Truck Driving Championships next month in Salt Lake City.

Johnson, 30, has been employed with MTS (Mergenthaler Transfer and Storage) Freight since 2009 and recently won the state truck-driving competition in the straight truck class.

“This is the Super Bowl of truck driving,” MTS Vice President of Maintenance Dave Gardner said about the national competition.

Gardner said Johnson has been an exemplary employee, earning the Superior Customer Service Award for the company last year.

The American Trucking Associations has been showcasing the best truck drivers in the country through its National Truck Driving Championships since 1937. Competitors include winners in eight classes of competition from all 50 state affiliates of the national association.

“To be eligible to compete, a driver must have a clean, accident-free, safe driving record,” Gardner said.

Johnson said truck driving was a way of life on the farm near Joplin.

“I was driving as soon as I could reach the pedals,” he said, “hauling wheat to the bins, then to the elevator.”

After graduating from Joplin-Inverness High School he quickly got a commercial driver’s license and headed to New Mexico to hire on with a custom harvesting crew for the summer. That fall he headed to the University of Montana College of Technology to complete the heavy equipment program, then spent the next three years operating heavy equipment.

When his parents sold the farm and bought LaSalle RV Park near Columbia Falls, he managed the park for a couple of years, then delved into construction work, operating trucks and heavy equipment.

Johnson said his job at MTS Freight gives him the best of both worlds. He gets to drive a truck and is able to hone his customer-service skills.

“I like customer service,” he said. “I like dealing with the public. If I can make a customer happy, it’s good for the company.”

Johnson spent one fall and winter doing some long-haul trucking for his cousin in Great Falls before joining MTS, but found it wasn’t his calling.

“You have to be a special breed” to be an over-the-road trucker, he said.

When Gardner called Johnson and encouraged him to compete in the state competition, the amiable Johnson readily agreed.

“I was the only one from this terminal competing” at state, he said. Four other MTS drivers from around Montana also competed.

The competition is multi-faceted, starting with an extensive written examination that includes the history of trucking.

“It was a lot of memorization,” Johnson said. “I studied a book about an inch and a half thick.”

A pre-trip walkaround is another aspect of the competition, as drivers attempt to spot staged defects.

“I think I missed about three,” he said. “One of them was, I didn’t check the windshield wipers” that were banded together.

The actual driving test would give most motorists a heavy dose of anxiety. In addition to maneuvering through a set of S curves and striving to bring the right front tires over a set of designated lines, there’s a scale stop and a maneuver that requires the driver to squeeze through a set of tennis balls on stands without hitting any of the balls.

“You have to be a real good judge of distance,” Johnson said.

The truck-driving championships are considered one of the industry’s largest and most effective safety programs. Drivers must be accident-free for at one year prior to the state competition, then must remain accident-free to compete at nationals.

Johnson is busy practicing for the upcoming competition Aug. 20-24. When he’s not honing his truck-driving skills, he and his wife Randi are avid UM Griz fans and like to golf and water-ski during the summer months. They also are competitive bowlers who regularly compete in the state bowling tournament.

Johnson will be among more than 400 drivers competing at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, an indoor area big enough to stage the championships. In addition to first-, second- and third-place titles, drivers vie for the Professional Excellence Award, the Vehicle Condition Award, the Rookie of the Year Award and the ultimate designation — The Grand Champion award.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.