NAFC, ITLC Set Meeting Agendas for Phoenix Meeting
This story appears in the June 20 print edition of Transport Topics.
Finance and information technology trucking executives are set to meet this week in Phoenix, as American Trucking Associations embarks on a campaign to reinvigorate some of its councils that had to retrench during the recession.
Members of ATA’s Information Technology & Logistics Council and National Accounting & Finance Council will get to sample each other’s presentations as well as conduct their own business, June 20-22.
ATA President Bill Graves and trucking economist Noel Perry will address joint sessions of the meetings, and NAFC’s board of directors will elect a new chairman. There also will be an exhibition of products and services for the two groups.
“In 2009, we saw a decline in interest because everybody was trying to cut back, but I think we’re seeing that interest rekindled,” said NAFC Chairman Terry Croslow, the chief financial officer of truckload carrier Bestway Express, Vincennes, Ind.
“What happened with the councils was driven by budgets, which were cut back. But we have a vigorous agenda planned for these meetings and we want to move forward,” said Warren Hoemann, ATA senior vice president. As freight volumes have increased — for 17 straight months through April — interest in the councils has returned, Hoemann said (5-30, p. 5).
Croslow, who is finishing his one-year term as chairman at the end of the Phoenix meetings, said NAFC participation satisfies continuing education requirements for certified public accountants.
One of the sessions he recommended is a presentation by four bankers telling trucking CFOs what bankers want to measure in evaluating a loan application, and how that is often different from what a motor carrier does to monitor financial performance.
Gregory Feary of law firm Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary will offer advice on questions to ask for mergers and acquisitions, and ATA staff attorney Robert Pitcher will report on state tax law issues.
On the information technology side, ITLC tech teams will report on matters such as IT architecture, sales automation, disaster recovery planning and electronic onboard recorders, said council Chairman Don Smith, the IT director for Con-way Inc.’s Enterprise Services division in Portland, Ore.
ITLC members will get a briefing on the council’s planned information portal. Smith said that when it becomes operational in about three months, the portal will help facilitate industry discussion of technical issues facing trucking.
