Long Ready for ATA’s Top Post; Wants to Lure More People Into Trucking

SAN DIEGO — Having attended MC&Es for a quarter of a century, Duane Long said he is ready on Oct. 7 to step into the top position at American Trucking Associations — the chairmanship.

“My mind is on today, but I’m also focused on the future,” Long said during an Oct. 5 interview on the exhibit floor here at ATA’s Management Conference & Exhibition.

The chairman of Longistics in Raleigh, North Carolina, Long said he is particularly interested in bringing new people into trucking.

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“I was recruited at a Christmas party by the vice president of a trucking company,” Long said, adding that he almost went into law, having liked TV lawyer Perry Mason as a child.

If trucking companies can get people to try the industry, he thinks many will stay.

“You can make a good, honest living to feed your family. They’ll fall in love with the industry like I did,” he said.

In comparing his early MC&Es with the more recent ones, Long said he’s been struck with the changes on the exhibit floor.

“It’s not just hardware and manufactured goods any more. There’s so much technology and software for operating your company more efficiently,” he said.