MC&E to Focus on Political Victories, ATA Member Drive

A new American Trucking Associations will be on display this week as several thousand trucking executives and industry suppliers come together for the 2000 ATA Management Conference and Exhibition in San Diego.

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ATA President Walter B. McCormick Jr., who has presided over a top-to-bottom restructuring of the trucking federation during the past two years, will use the meeting to showcase recent political triumphs and kick off an aggressive membership recruiting campaign.

“We have a good message,” McCormick said in referring to the theme of the meeting, “Leadership, Commitment and Results.” The theme will also serve as a tag line for a marketing campaign designed to attract new members to the national advocacy organization.

Since adopting a restructuring plan in 1998, ATA

as stepped up its lobbying efforts and invested heavily to expand its publishing and information services businesses.

The effort has paid dividends in the form of high-profile victories on Capitol Hill and growth in revenue from the sale of subscriptions and advertising in Transport Topics and ad sales in two controlled-circulation magazines — Utility Fleet Management and Light & Medium Truck — plus online news and information outlets TransportTopics.com and Truckline.-com.

At the same time, however, membership in the national organization has not grown as much as expected because some independent conferences representing different segments of trucking have resisted a central tenet of the ATA restructuring plan — which requires conferences to integrate their operations with ATA, and conference members to join ATA and at least one state trucking association to continue receiving services. ATA also cut off some members who previously had received dues “deals” and refused to pay their full dues.

“We know that not every company will be able to join ATA,” McCormick said. “But what we see are those that are leaders are joining.”

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