To Implement a Dream

ohn E. Wren is the kind of man you would miss in a crowd. Quiet and unassuming, the Minnesota trucking executive prefers to let others do the talking.

That’s about to change.

First as head of American Trucking Associations’ Strategic Plan and Dues Study Task Force — dubbed the Wren Committee — and now as ATA chairman for 1998-99, Mr. Wren will be the focal point for implementing the most far-reaching changes ever in the federation’s dues, structure and governance.

Edward R. Trout, who during his just-concluded year as chairman outlined a 10-point plan for revitalizing the 65-year-old trucking organization, said he had no doubt about John Wren’s ability to turn the dream into reality.

“He’s smart. He’s got quiet determination. I have no doubt he will succeed,” said Mr. Trout, who is president of Cornhusker Motor Lines, Omaha, Neb.

The two men — one who launched change and one who must guide it to fruition — were unified in their belief that ATA had to change if it were to be effective in the 21st century. They wanted an association that was united. That meant replacing competition — between ATA and state ssociations and between ATA and affiliated conferences — with real partnership on issues of major concern to truckers.

It also meant getting ATA’s house in order. Members made it clear that they wanted an equitable, simple dues structure that provided good value.

Increased participation and oversight of ATA activities by members also was a priority.

“It is absolutely a new ATA,” Mr. Wren said in a recent speech to the Virginia Trucking Assn. “The overwhelming vote of our executive committee on Aug. 6 (to adopt recommended changes) gave ATA back to the membership.”

John Wren grew up in Lakeville, Minn., a small farming community that retained much of its Norman Rockwell-like ambiance even as it rapidly grew into a bedroom community south of the Twin Cities.

t was here that John’s father, Vincent Wren, started Lakeville Motor Express in 1921 with a single truck, carrying milk to the Franklin Creamery in Minneapolis and bringing back groceries, hardware and farm supplies on the return trip.

In 1925, Vincent opened the Lyndale Garage, with two gas pumps, an air hose and a repair area for trucks and cars. Later, he also got into the business of moving houses and developed several housing sites as a general contractor.

Active in the family business from an early age, John was still a teenager when his father died of cancer at the age of 58 in 1961. Three years earlier, his mother, Wilhelmenia, had been stricken by a fatal heart attack.

At that time, John and his brother Steve went to live with their half-brother Charles, who took over the business and managed it until his retirement in 1979. Another younger brother, Patrick, was taken in by another relative.

John left the family business in 1976 to work three years for Lewis Truck Lines, based in North Dakota, as operations and sales manager.

Returning to Lakeville Motor Express as president, he set out to transform what was essentially a local cartage company into a regional less-than-truckload general freight carrier. Revenue climbed from $1.1 million in 1979 to an estimated $40 million in 1998.

He also moved company headquarters to Roseville, just north of St. Paul.

Along the way, Mr. Wren faced a number of challenges that will serve him well as he undertakes to remake the nation’s trucking lobby.

In 1992, he solidified his control of the company by buying out the interests held by his two younger brothers. “There’s got to be one boss. You can’t have three,” he said.

He treats employees as an extended family, according to 27-year-old son Joseph P. Wren, who joined the company after graduating from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul in 1992 with a degree in business and economics. He serves as vice president of administration.

“A lot of our people come to work here because of referrals by friends or family members,” he said.

homas Hughes, an industry veteran who joined Lakeville in 1988 as president and chief operating officer, agrees with that assessment.

He says the good working relationship extends to the Teamsters union, which represents drivers and freight handlers in the company’s St. Paul facility. Last year, the company paid out $600,000 in shared profits to its unionized employees.

The biggest crisis to hit Lakeville Motor Express was federal pre-emption of state regulations in 1995. The elimination of controls over intrastate freight rates and truck routes, which mirrored the deregulation of interstate trucking in 1980, caused rates to fall and competition to increase.

Mr. Wren estimates that more than 10% of his business “walked away.”

For two years, the company barely broke even as executives scrambled to replace lost business and invested heavily in new technology and equipment to bolster Lakeville’s position as a high-service, regional LTL carrier in the upper Midwest.

In 1997, the company began to reap the benefits of the changes it had made in its operations.

ntrastate freight, which accounted for half of Lakeville’s business before 1995, fell to 15% as the company added terminals in Milwaukee, Chicago, Omaha and Des Moines and expanded all-points service to seven states.

In 1996, the company entered a partnership with three other regional LTL carriers — G.I. Trucking Co. in the West and Southwest; Estes Express Lines in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast; and TST Overland Express in Canada — to exchange freight and jointly market their services to shippers. The Express Link network not only helped to balance Lakeville’s freight flows, it let the company offer service and coverage that rivaled many long-haul LTL fleets.

So John Wren knows hardship. He knows adversity. And he knows the art of compromise.

He needed those skills to rally support for the ATA restructuring, and he will need all of those skills and more over the coming months to turn the plan into reality.

“I’m fortunate to be in this position,” he said in a recent interview in his modest corner office at Lakeville Motor Express headquarters. “Either I’m in the right spot at the right time or I’m going down in flames.”

The restructuring plan is ambitious. But simply keeping the ATA federation together as it undertakes all these changes will be one of the most pressing issues to confront Mr. Wren. Under his watch, ATA is to begin integrating previously independent conferences and disparate professional councils and molding the sum into a single advocacy, policy-making, research and information services organization.

“We must act,” Mr. Wren said. “We must make the changes that prepare ATA for a second century of strong accomplishment on behalf of our industry.”

In allowing more time to integrate the conferences into ATA — the deadline is Jan. 1, 2001 — he said the Wren Committee demonstrated its flexibility in meeting concerns raised by members.

But there is no doubt in his mind about what the outcome has to be.

“We are going to bring all the ATA conferences inside the tent,” he said. “This will not dilute their influence, but make them more powerful. Because they will be inside and not outside the tent, they will be fighting for changes inside of ATA, rather than outside and up on Capitol Hill.”

The difference is critical to ATA’s lobbying success, Mr. Wren believes.

“When a senator or congressional representative or cabinet secretary wants to know the position of trucking on a particular issue, they don’t ask, ‘Where are the truckload carriers? Where are the LTL carriers? Where are the tank truck carriers? Where are the automobile haulers? Where are the hazmat carriers?’ All they want to know is, ‘Where are the truckers?’

“And if they see that the truckers are divided, then they will favor one of our competing transportation modes that is united. We can’t have that.”

Building consensus on major issues will be one of Mr. Wren’s primary objectives in his term as chairman.

“We can’t eliminate differences of opinion, but we have the means to deal with it. From the fifth wheel forward, we’re all truckers.”

Another objective for the new ATA chairman is to work out the details of a new partnership with state associations.

“We are going to work with our partner on the state level to grow membership and improve services,” he said. “We will be practicing the three C’s: communication, collaboration and cooperation.”

The focal point for this relationship will be a new joint business venture, called ServCo, which will market products and services to members, with the profits going back to the states.

Although many critical details still have to be worked out, Mr. Wren is confident the result will be an organization that contributes directly to a trucking company’s bottom line. “I would like to return more to carriers in discounts than they pay in dues,” he said.

Increasing membership is another priority for Mr. Wren. “We’re going to make it so attractive every carrier will want to join,” he said.

The job of recruiting new members will be turned over to existing members and to state trucking associations. They will be supported by ATA regional marketing representatives and headquarters staff.

The keystone of the recruiting effort is a consolidated dues schedule that lets carriers join for as little as $50 and receive the basic services of the association, including advocacy, research, public affairs assistance and basic information services.

Discounts will be offered to carriers who make multi-year commitments to join ATA. In all other respects, the organization will not grant special deals on dues to anyone, Mr. Wren said.

Over time, as membership increases, dues levels should be reduced for all, according to the plan.

r. Wren also wants to focus on driver issues during his chairmanship year.

He plans to carry on Ed Trout’s idea of having trucking executives visit truck stops during National Truck Driver Appreciation Week.

“We want to create more public awareness of drivers,” Mr. Wren said. That means making the public, along with shippers and receivers, aware of abuses associated with loading and unloading freight.

Whatever happens in the year ahead, Mr. Wren wants to preserve what may be the most important aspect of ATA membership — the opportunity to learn from colleagues and competitors in the business, all the while making friends and developing personal relationships that last a lifetime.

“The biggest form of information gathering for me is talking to people. . . . I have a wonderful opportunity to tell people about trucking. It has been very good to me and allowed me and my family to work hard and make a good living. And it’s an opportunity for a lot of other young families to make a living.

“I’m going to continue to do what I can to make it better.”