NTTC Weighs Fallout of Leaving ATA

ATLANTA -- American Trucking Associations has a Y2K problem that has nothing to do with configuring its computers to deal with the new millennium. The bug facing the organization is persuading its 14 conferences and national affiliates to develop closer ties with their bigger cousin by Dec. 31, 2000.

The National Tank Truck Carriers was the latest group to hear arguments to remain with ATA, which is restructuring itself as part of a strategic plan.

"There are 450,000 trucking companies in the United States and 3,100 pay dues to ATA. Less than 1% of the trucking industry is paying for the industry's lobbying and image initiatives," Walter B. McCormick Jr., president of ATA, told the carriers during a May 18 speech at NTTC's annual meeting here.

ATA, which reports subsidizing several of its five managed conferences at a 1998 cost of $163,575, says the uncertainty among the 14 groups is making its efforts to increase membership more challenging. The association also says the separate advocacy efforts of the conferences is hampering its ability to speak with a unified voice on behalf of trucking.

"The bottom line is that ATA member companies are getting tired of paying to provide benefits to their competitors who are not members," said John Wren, the ATA chairman who developed the reforms.

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