TCA-ATA Reunification Is ‘Right Thing,' Canary Says

LAS VEGAS – Asking for unity and speaking with passion, American Trucking Associations President William J. Canary urged members of the Truckload Carriers Association to resurrect their affiliation with ATA.

Canary said his address at the TCA annual meeting here Tuesday might be the most important speech of his tenure as ATA president. He urged the carrier executives to go forward from the Sunday decision by the group’s board of directors to create a joint ATA-TCA task force to re-examine the idea of affiliation.

“It’s simply the right thing to do,” he told the TCA members. The two groups split apart two years ago after a tight vote in TCA’s 2000 TCA annual meeting.

"We should have a partnership based on mutual respect, and for those who wish an apology, I offer one if need be. I learned that you should never, ever tell a trucker what to do and that will never happen again," Canary said.

ATA Chairman David G. McCorkle, who is also a TCA member, made the proposal to the TCA board on Sunday. Members of the joint task force have not been appointed yet, but McCorkle and TCA’s outgoing chairman, Patrick E. Quinn, have set June as an initial goal for the committee’s report.

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