ATA Convenes New Era
ore than 4,250 industry executives and their spouses are expected to attend the 1998 ATA Management Conference & Exhibition and witness the beginning of a new era for the trucking federation.
A year-long strategic planning effort initiated by ATA Chairman Edward R. Trout is expected to culminate Wednesday in a vote by ATA’s board of directors to approve changes in bylaws. An affirmative vote would officially start the implementation of sweeping changes in the federation’s dues, structure and governance.
In many respects, the meeting will be one of the most momentous in the 65-year history of ATA.
Providing strategic oversight will be a five-member management committee, which comprises the immediate past chairman of ATA, the current chairman, the first vice-chairman, the secretary and the treasurer.
The board will review an implementation schedule for the ATA restructuring plan. One of the plan’s chief goals is to integrate the conferences and national independent associations affiliated with ATA.
We anticipate making use of every day to implement this plan by 2001,” said Mr. McCormick. “It involves a major investment in information infrastructure and in people.”
One of the first priorities will be filling key staff vacancies at the national office.
Overall, ATA has budgeted about 250 staff positions at its Alexandria, Va., headquarters. Only 210 jobs are currently filled, compared with as many as 350 before the restructuring.
“We are in a building phase,” Mr. McCormick said. “I expect ATA to grow.”
The new organizational structure will be built around three areas of “influence” — advocacy, legal and business.
“This is a new structure, a 21st century structure, a network structure meant to give us the most effective approach to advocacy,” Mr. McCormick explained.
One of the most significant changes involves business.
As senior vice president of information services, Bob Rast is responsible for TT Publishing — Transport Topics and monthly magazines Utility Fleet Management and Light & Medium Truck — plus the ATA Information Center, Statistics & Survey Center, graphics and management information system departments.
In bringing together all of the information services available from ATA, he is trying to make it easier for members to get what they want and need, Mr. Rast said.
A big part of that effort will involve expanding ATA’s presence on the Internet.
“The mandate of the Wren Committee and Walter McCormick is to bring ATA up to the state-of-the-art and transform the organization from an environment where information is distributed on paper to one where eventually a computer-literate generation will go to the Internet for the majority of its information.”
Some of the things you can expect to see over the next 18 to 36 months, according to Mr. Rast, include:
“This department will support ATA members as well as others who have a stake in the trucking industry,” Mr. Rast said.
“We have probably the largest group of experts on every area of the trucking industry, from regulatory policy to maintenance, safety and environment, and it’s our goal to make that accessible to people who need it and can use it.”
ATA is also changing the way it recruits members.
Julie T. Prazmark, senior vice president of Membership and Member Services, will head up efforts with state associations on joint marketing activities.
Under the restructuring plan, ATA members, except for allied and associate members, must join a state trucking association. And a company must join ATA to get the benefits of a conference or council.
The goals of a major membership drive are to raise the current motor carrier base of 3,125 to 12,000 by 2002, a four-fold increase, and to 25,000 by 2005, an eight-fold increase.
According to a plan still under development, ATA will select an elite group of 100 members to solicit new members. They will be assisted by the ATA regional sales managers.
The biggest issue for many carriers over the next year will be dues, as evidenced by the decision of Jeffrey C. Crowe, chairman of Landstar System, to drop out of ATA (TT, 10-19-98, p. 1)
Under a new dues schedule effective this coming Jan. 1, carriers can pay as little as $50 to join ATA and receive a basic service package that includes regulatory, legislative and media advocacy, litigation, research, and a seat on each of ATA’s seven councils.
A 50% discount on first-year dues is available to members of conferences and councils who are not currently ATA members. That is in return for a three-year dues pledge.
Starting in 1999, a 40% discount will be available in the first year in return for a three-year pledge from companies that have not been members of ATA or an ATA affiliate in the past three years.
Despite these enticements, some carriers continue to register opposition to the requirement that companies join ATA and a state association to participate in any conference or council activity.
or many conference or council members, joining ATA will cost them more money.
Scott Miller, president of Miller Transporters, said he was surprised when he discovered how many National Tank Truck Carriers Conference members either did not belong to ATA or did not pay full dues.
Some NTTC members have urged that tank cleaning and other non-trucking revenue be excluded from ATA’s dues calculation.
To address these concerns and to resolve other integration issues, ATA established a National Tank Truck Carriers Task Force and installed Mr. Miller as its chairman.
Other task forces will be formed to address concerns raised by other conferences and broad issues, such as dues sharing among state trucking associations and the establishment of a new joint corporation, called ServCo, to manage member benefits such as discount programs on telecommunications, fuel and insurance and to offer other services such as training, publishing and convention services.
