Opinion: An Exciting, Challenging Time to Lead ATA

By L. Duane Long

Chairman

Longistics

When I began my journey in trucking, I had no idea it would end up here — as American Trucking Associations chairman, a leading spokesperson for all the good things our industry does and for which it stands.

I think back over the many years I’ve been in this business, and I can honestly say, I don’t think there’s ever been a more exciting — or more challenging — time to be in trucking.

I see more and more the stories about self-driving trucks, about the new technologies that will mold and shape how we operate, and I’m excited about the prospect of where our industry is headed. Then I see stories, and hear from my fellow ATA members, about the hardships of the new hours-of-service rules, and I’m reminded of the challenges of the present day.

However, I see the challenges we face — hours of service, our deteriorating infrastructure, the driver shortage and all the rest of them — as solvable. We just need the wherewithal to persevere. 

How do we solve these problems? In my opinion it all comes down to people. This industry has some of the finest people in it, and if we focus on that, it can help us in all that we do.

Highlighting the people in our industry helps us with our image, which is why the Trucking Moves America Forward movement is so important. If we can change how our industry is viewed — not just by policymakers, but by the public — we can accomplish so very much.

A more positive image will help the people that make up our amazing advocacy staff work with lawmakers and regulators to enact smart, data-based regulations and — more important with the hours of service — undo changes that we know are not only not based on sound research, but may in fact be hurting safety on our highways. That image will also give us the capital in Washington to push for spending more on our critical roads and bridges.

A better image will help us attract top-quality people to drive our trucks and to keep those trucks on the road. All of us know just how rewarding a life in trucking can be. We need to do more to attract young people to our industry as drivers, as technicians, as safety directors, as executives.

We need to bring in, and retain, new blood, young people, in an increasingly competitive economy. This need is a reason why we launched the LEAD ATA program at last year’s Management Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, Florida, and we were proud to recognize the program’s second class in San Diego.

The most important role I believe the ATA chairman has is to be a spokesman, a storyteller, recounting our industry’s story not just to my fellow trucking executives, but to the public.

The public needs to know that every item in their homes, their cars and their offices arrived there in the back of one of our trucks. When one of my Longistics trucks is on the road, the public doesn’t get to see the life-sustaining medicine in the back; they only see the tractor-trailer next to them on the highway.

It is too easy to forget — not just for the public, but at times for ourselves — just how important what we do is. Medicine, fuel, clothing, food, the items that sustain our quality of life, all move in our trailers.

Nearly 70% of the nation’s freight moves by truck — and that figure will only grow as time goes on. It is our challenge to continue moving even more of our goods while continuing to improve our safety record.

Our efforts at ATA to bring slower speeds, electronic logging devices, improved tracking of drug-and-alcohol test results and many, many other initiatives to the trucking industry have already resulted in better safety outcomes on our highways.

ATA’s staff tells me that our industry spends about $7.5 billion on safety annually. If that money saves just one life, it is worth it, but we know it has saved hundreds of lives, and will continue to going forward.

Safety and essentiality, these are important themes as we try to improve our image, and they are themes that I intend to herald this year as chairman.

They were themes that my predecessor, Phil Byrd, trumpeted as he was an exemplary representative of our industry this past year as chairman.

They were themes that the chairmen who came before him — Mike Card and Dan England — emphasized. They are themes that ATA’s vice chairmen — Pat Thomas, Dave Manning and Kevin Burch — often speak of when they are out representing our fine industry.

And they are themes that I’ll conclude with here. There is no more essential industry to our economy and to our country than trucking. Period. End of sentence.

Furthermore, there is no industry more committed to safety than the trucking industry. Every day, proud professional drivers, safety directors, technicians and many, many others are working hard to make sure that not only do America’s goods arrive at their destination safely and on time, but Americans do so as well.

The more we talk about the people who make up our industry, the better off our industry will be.

Longistics, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, is a full-service provider of global logistics services, with a history of technological innovation and superior customer service.