Leaner, Healthier ATA Continued Emergence From Recession, Federation’s Graves Says

With membership up, the grip of recession loosening and a healthier if leaner budget, American Trucking Associations ends 2011 reflective of the carriers that make up its ranks, ATA President Bill Graves said.

“We shed some capacity, I guess would be the way we would talk about it in industry terms,” Graves said. “We’re certainly a scaled down ATA but still effective in our advocacy and all our efforts on behalf of our members.”

On the policy side, the Obama administration’s proposed new hours-of-service rule dominated ATA’s concerns this year.

“The whole effort on hours of service was just one of ATA’s finest moments,” Graves said.

“I’d have to say from my vantage point as the head of the professional staff at ATA that we couldn’t have been prouder of the way the industry rallied to the call to arms,” he said.

Members filed comments with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, attended public listening sessions, testified at congressional hearings and held one-on-one meetings with key administration officials.

Long-term reauthorization of the nation’s surface transportation spending plan proved elusive, however. Congress ends the year with only a two-year bill proposed in the U.S. Senate, no bill in the House of Representatives and no new revenue source with which to bolster shrinking dollars in the Highway Trust Fund.

“On that point there’s sort of an incomplete for this year,” Graves said of the reauthorization effort. Given the deep partisan divide in Congress, he added, he is not optimistic a bill can pass before next year’s presidential election.

The trucking industry and the Obama administration successfully collaborated on new heavy-truck fuel efficiency standards.

“It’s a few years off before that actually gets rolled into the equipment that we operate, but anything that provides us with greater fuel efficiency is a good thing for an industry that consumes so much fuel,” Graves said. The phase-in begins in 2014. 

On the legal side, ATA won a court battle this year to stop the Port of Los Angeles from barring independent drayage haulers from the port, a practice promoted by organized labor. ATA plans to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to overturn other requirements that ATA said burden independents.

Graves attributed victory in the case to ATA chief counsel Robert Digges Jr.

“I think Bob single handedly has carried that ball over the goal line on behalf of this industry, which is another way of highlighting how much he’s going to be missed,” Graves said. Digges is set to retire early next year.

ATA’s board renewed Graves’ contract as president and CEO for three years.

Dan England, chairman of refrigerated truckload carrier C.R. England Inc., Salt Lake City, took over as ATA chairman from Barbara Windsor, president of Hahn Transportation, New Market, Md.

Karla Hulett was recently hired as ATA’s chief financial officer. Before joining ATA, Hulett worked for Accenture, Microsoft Corp. and Computer Sciences Corp.

Sean McNally became a vice president and press secretary for ATA. McNally is a former Transport Topics reporter. Jon Samson, a former agricultural industry lobbyist, was named executive director of ATA’s Agricultural and Food Transporters Conference.

During 2011, ATA opened its long-awaited Capitol Hill complex after a $23 million, four-year remodeling project. The site, which includes offices for rent and a revenue-generating parking garage, houses ATA’s legislative affairs staff and serves as a venue for events for members of ATA and Congress.

With suites of offices still to rent, the complex is expected to provide increased revenues for ATA next year.

Financially, ATA is seeing the light at the end of the recession tunnel.

After slogging through 2008, 2009 and 2010’s tough budget decisions, 2011 is ending on a “pretty positive” budget note, Graves said, adding that Transport Topics advertising is up and attendance at the annual Management Conference & Exhibition in Grapevine, Texas, in October was larger than last year.

ATA membership is also growing, he said. One of the newest members is TravelCenters of America, which operates truck stops in 41 states and Canada.

“I don’t know that I can quite put my finger on it, but I think these folks that talk about the new normal, they’re onto something,” Graves said.

“I think almost everybody recognizes things are going to be a little bit different. Even if we see the recovery that some are anticipating and expecting, we’re still all going to be very, very cautious in the way we operationally conduct ourselves.”