CULLMAN – Frank Calvert, a Cullman native, has been driving a truck for 60 calendar years. Recently, Calvert was voted Alabama Truck Driver of the Year by the Alabama Trucking Association (ATA) after he was nominated by his company, AAA Cooper, one of the largest trucking companies in the southeast.
“I was surprised when I found out I won the award,” Calvert chuckled. “I know there are a lot of other good drivers out there, or there were. I guess I just outlived all of them.”
Calvert said not only was it an honor to receive an award for a job he loves to do, but he accepted the award on behalf of all the other great drivers that may never receive an award.
“There are some bad apples in every barrel,” Calvert said. “But most of these truck drivers are good men and women, and good drivers.”
Calvert was recognized at the ATA’s Safety & Maintenance Management Fleet Safety Awards Banquet in Birmingham earlier this year and officially accepted his award at the ATA’s annual convention in Las Vegas.
“I’m just a country boy from Cullman County,” he said. “I knew they recognized (the truck driver of the year), but I’m just a simple person – a simple person don’t win those sorts of things, and isn’t in the spotlight. I don’t want to be in the spotlight.”
Calvert was planning on retiring last fall. When he let his company know about his plans to call it quits after 59 years, they asked him to stay around one more year.
“They said they were nominating me for this award,” he said. Calvert was chosen as the 2016 recipient, and, according to him, is the first ever winner of the award to grace the cover of Alabama Trucker magazine.
At the awards banquet, Calvert’s supervisor, Tony Smith, said that Calvert “is the greatest example of humanity I have ever encountered. He is the perfect example of what a true professional driver should be. On top of all that, he’s among the hardest working, most dependable individuals we have at AAA Cooper.”
Calvert said that he loves being from Cullman, and that being raised in Cullman has helped him become the man he is today.
“I feel like everybody cares about each other,” he said. “That made it special when I won the award. It meant a lot to represent Cullman County. I credit a lot of who I am to where I am from. I’ve never bought something just for myself, because if I did that, I feel like I would be taking from my family. I have only missed five days of work, not including holidays and that sort of thing, in 60 years. There’s two types of people in the world, the givers and the takers. The takers eat well, but the givers sleep well.”
Calvert has two simple loves that have helped him keep everything in perspective throughout his life.
“I am a simple person,” he said. “I love my Lord, and I love my family.”
Calvert and his wife, Virgie, have been married for 57 years and have two daughters, Joan and Lesha, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
