NTDC 2016: Competitors Haul Their Share of Freaky Freight

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Stephenson by John Sommers II for Transport Topics
INDIANAPOLIS — South Carolina 3-axle champ UPS Freight driver John Cook once delivered a load of dead cats.

FedEx Freight Oregon flatbed champ Brad Lester carried a load of human body parts, and Transport America Minnesota tank truck champ William Schroeder hauled a load of dead chickens.

They may be the “best of the best” drivers competing in the 2016 National Truck Driving Championships, but sometimes, just like any driver, they find themselves hauling some pretty odd cargo.

As a part of the registration process, NTDC officials asked the 430 drivers in the competition to list the strangest freight they ever hauled.

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Other examples are not only odd, but at times a bit grusome:

- Delaware flatbed champ Wal-Mart Transportation driver Curtis Stephenson once hauled body bags.

- FedEx Freight driver Matthew Hart, Nevada’s 3-axle champ, hauled eight tons of peanut butter and jelly to a state prison.

- FedEx Freight driver Craig Poupeney, Nevada’s flatbed champ, hauled a cadaver.

- Wal-Mart Transportation driver Steven Hutton, California’s flatbed champ, carried one laptop in an otherwise empty 53-foot trailer.

- Wal-Mart Transportation driver Steven Brannen, Alabama’s 4-axle champ, hauled sheep skins.

- FedEx Express driver Steven Ward, South Carolina’s 4-axle champ, carried a snake.

- FexEx Freight driver Robert Nygaard, North Dakota’s 4-axle champ, hauled “bodies for medical research.”

Other odd loads listed by drivers included radioactive liquid, alligator meat, an army tank, a pallet “full of metal goats,” a huge duck blind, state troopers in the back of a trailer, caskets from China, buffalo, and rare coins.