TCA Chairman Changes Position on Integration

In a surprising reversal, the chairman of the Truckload Carriers Association has come out against the proposed integration of the group with American Trucking Associations.

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"As chairman of TCA, it is my responsibility to represent the officers and the Executive Committee," Gary Baumhover wrote in a March 10 letter faxed to the group's 750 members. "However, my personal opinion is as follows: We have always had just one lobbying group on Capitol Hill, and ATA has always spoken with one unified voice. I, along with many of our members, have a problem with the mandatory membership requirement, which would ultimately exclude approximately 55% of TCA's current membership from belonging to TCA in the future."

Baumhover sent the letter one day after he accompanied ATA President Walter B. McCormick Jr. and other trucking executives on a round of Capitol Hill visits to inform lawmakers of how soaring diesel prices were hurting the trucking industry.

The letter follows one signed by Baumhover and 13 past TCA chairmen supporting the integration of the two groups. In a March 13 interview, Baumhover said he sent the second letter to clarify his position on the issue.

	Michael James - Transport Topics
	TCA Chairman Gary Baumhover says that he – like many other members – has a problem with the membership requirement in the integration plan.

Baumhover made it clear that he wants TCA to continue its relationship with trucking's largest trade association. "There's no question in my mind that ATA should lobby on behalf of all of trucking," said Baumhover, who is senior vice president of Grojean Transportation, Dubuque, Iowa.

Baumhover's view reflects an opinion that was raised in several letters circulating among TCA members. Donald G. Oren, president of Dart Transit Co., St. Paul, Minn., wrote in a March 13 letter that he opposes integration but wants to pay ATA to lobby on TCA's behalf.

Under ATA's new strategic plan, overwhelmingly ratified by members last month, the trade association said it will narrow its focus to lobbying at the national level and informational services, providing only those services that members agree to pay for. In an effort to accommodate members who complained that dues were too high, ATA's board approved a compounded 51 percent cut in dues that will be in full effect in 2002.

The plan has been controversial, partly because it requires companies to join the ATA in order to benefit from services funded by dues. After years of operating deficits, members voted to eliminate any dues deals, demanded fiscal responsibility and agreed to cut off services to those who declined to join.

In a letter to TCA members earlier this month, U.S. Xpress Enterprises President Patrick E. Quinn warned that TCA would be disaffiliated from ATA if its members voted down the merger. "A vote against integration is not a vote to keep TCA the way it always has been," Quinn wrote in the March 3 letter. "It is, instead, a vote to go into competition with ATA and to build a second national trade association."