The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) is pleased to announce that Dustin Henderson with the Texas Department of Public Safety has earned this year’s North American Inspectors Championship (NAIC) Jimmy K. Ammons Grand Champion Award, the highest honor for a commercial motor vehicle roadside inspector.
Henderson was announced as this year’s NAIC Grand Champion by CVSA President Capt. John Hahn, with the Colorado State Patrol, at the joint awards ceremony of CVSA’s inspectors’ competition and the American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) National Truck Driving Championships and National Step Van Driving Championships.
Forty-six commercial motor vehicle inspectors gathered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to compete at NAIC, the only North American event dedicated to testing, recognizing and awarding commercial motor vehicle inspector excellence.
In addition to the NAIC Grand Champion Award, sponsored by PrePass Safety Alliance, other notable awards were earned by this year’s competing inspectors.
The highest-scoring inspector from each of CVSA’s member countries – Canada, Mexico and the U.S. – receives the High Points Award. Sponsored by The Davey Tree Expert Company, the following High Points Awards were presented:
- Sean McAlister High Points Canada Award – Jacob Lickers, Ontario Ministry of Transportation
- High Points Mexico Award – Luis Leon Merino Gomez, Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation
- High Points U.S. Award – Dustin Henderson, Texas Department of Public Safety
First, second and third place awards were given for the following inspection categories:
The North American Standard Hazardous Materials/Dangerous Goods (HM/DG) and Cargo Tank/Bulk Packagings Inspection is an inspection of the requirements related to identifying hazardous materials/dangerous goods markings, labeling, placarding, packaging, identification, etc. This award was sponsored by National Tank Truck Carriers Inc.
- Adrian Armpriester – New York State Department of Transportation
- Dustin Henderson – Texas Department of Public Safety
- Matthew Brownfield – California Highway Patrol
The North American Standard Level V Passenger Carrier Vehicle Inspection is the inspection of motorcoaches and other passenger-carrying vehicles. This award was co-sponsored by the American Bus Association and the United Motorcoach Association.
- Anthony Hoaby – North Dakota Highway Patrol
- Dustin Henderson – Texas Department of Public Safety
- Adrian Armpriester – New York State Department of Transportation
The North American Standard Level I Inspection is the most commonly performed inspection. It is a 37-step procedure that includes an examination of the driver’s operating requirements and the vehicle’s mechanical fitness. This award was sponsored by J.B. Hunt Transport Inc.
- Dustin Henderson – Texas Department of Public Safety
- Christopher Merkel – Maryland State Police
- Adrian Armpriester – New York State Department of Transportation
Sponsored by FedEx, the Team Award is given to the team with the highest combined score. This year the winner was the Purple Team, led by team leader Chris Thostenson with the Minnesota State Patrol. The Purple Team included the following contestants:
- Matthew Brownfield, California Highway Patrol
- Tyson Oxford, Kansas Highway Patrol
- Christopher Merkel, Maryland State Police
- Jaclyn Pendleton, Mississippi Department of Public Safety
- Jacob Lickers, Ontario Ministry of Transportation
- Trey Bedford, South Dakota Highway Patrol
- Amanda Collins, Washington State Patrol
NAIC contestants voted to present the John Youngblood Award of Excellence to Robert DeFrancesco with the Nevada Highway Patrol for exemplifying the spirit of cooperation, leadership, a professional image, dedication to the profession, a positive attitude, organizational ability and congeniality. The John Youngblood Award of Excellence is an honor NAIC contestants bestow upon a fellow competitor who exemplifies high standards and unwavering dedication to the profession. It’s the only award whose winner is selected by their peers.
Participating American, Canadian and Mexican jurisdictions each sent their top inspector to NAIC to represent their jurisdiction, receive valuable training and compete against other top inspectors for the ultimate title of NAIC Grand Champion.
Each NAIC competitor received hands-on training on the latest safety information, technologies, standards and procedures, along with advanced-level training on mobile driver’s licenses, electronic parking brake and light-duty vehicle inspections, HM/DG regulations and incident emergency response processes, passenger carrier vehicle inspections, post-crash inspections, and more. Much of what the contestants learned at NAIC may be taken back to their home jurisdiction and applied roadside.
For the competition, each contestant competed in six inspection categories over two days. Contestants conducted mock inspections and identified regulatory violations and critical vehicle inspection item out-of-service conditions – all while being timed. Contestants were tested on real-world vehicle and driver inspection scenarios and had to appropriately evaluate the situation and properly identify violations within the recreated roadside inspection scenarios.
As this year’s NAIC Grand Champion, Henderson will attend the CVSA Annual Conference and Exhibition in Denver, Colorado, and will address the Alliance’s membership at the annual conference awards luncheon on Sept. 24.
Every year, since the start of NAIC in 1993, the inspectors’ competition has been co-located with ATA’s drivers’ competition. Co-locating the drivers’ and inspectors’ competitions encourages certified inspectors and professional drivers to interact with, learn from and support each other throughout the week. This is an important aspect of co-locating the two events and is crucial to fostering a positive relationship between members of the two organizations.
NAIC was created to recognize roadside inspectors and enforcement personnel – the backbone of the commercial motor vehicle safety program in North America – and promote uniformity, consistency and reciprocity of inspections through training, education and competition.
View a full listing of NAIC winners from past years.
Next year’s NAIC is scheduled for Aug. 10-15, 2026, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.