ATA Puts Nose to Grindstone in Wooing TCA

LAS VEGAS — After decades of feeling like second-class citizens, truckload carriers are being aggressively wooed by an American Trucking Associations eager to expand its membership and political influence.

The reason is simple, explained ATA President Walter B. McCormick Jr.: With 880 members, group is the largest of ATA’s 14 conferences and national affiliated organizations. Also, 56 people from TCA serve on the 120-member board of the bigger association.

As TCA President Lana Batts put it, “Walter learned a long time ago how to count noses, and truckload has the most noses.”

“TCA is a driving force within ATA,” McCormick said in a March 16 speech to TCA members gathered for their annual meeting here.

McCormick and ATA Chairman John Wren, who owns Lakeville Motor Express in Roseville, Minn., held a series of meetings with dozens of the 1,200 trucking executives and suppliers roaming the halls at the Bellagio Resort. In addition, ATA recruiters buttonholed prospects on golf courses and in bars and casinos, trying to swell the association’s rolls.

The recruiting drive is part of ATA’s effort to swell its membership by 400% by 2002. The association considers increased membership essential to bolster trucking’s clout on Capitol Hill.

“We’re going to take the government by storm, aggressively lobbying the government on trucking’s issues. But the only way we can do that is strength in unity, strength in numbers,” McCormick said.

But even ATA fans like outgoing TCA Chairman Mac McCormick of Best Way Express in Vincennes, Ind., acknowledged the challenges ATA faces in recruiting truckload carriers.

“It’s hard for TCA members to let go of what they have built up,” said Thomas O’Bryant, vice president of ABN Ambro North America in New York.

TCA members wondered aloud whether ATA will live up to its promise to pay attention to truckload issues such as increasing hours of service for truck drivers and whether ATA could achieve its aggressive membership growth plan. They voiced concerns about TCA’s independence.

“I know there are a lot of bittersweet feelings about changing the relationship between TCA and ATA,” said McCormick of ATA. “There is some nostalgia and pride about what TCA and the truckload industry have become in the 20 years since deregulation.”

For the full story, see the March 22 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.