TCA Faces ATA Integration Decision

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If all goes as planned March 17, the Truckload Carriers Association will decide on a new vision that will remove the 61-year-old group from the public policy arena and put it on the path toward integration with American Trucking Associations.

TCA’s board of directors is scheduled to vote on a plan that calls for the association to emphasize education, training, and helping truckload carriers solve management and operational issues that affect the bottom line. The organization will undertake this action during its annual meeting March 14 to 18 at the Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas.

The shift in emphasis is necessary because of ATA’s decision last year to make advocacy its top priority, said Lana Batts, president of TCA.

ATA wants its 14 conferences and national affiliated organizations to decide by Jan. 1, 2001, whether to establish a closer relationship. Those conferences choosing to stay with ATA are being asked to require membership in a state trucking association and ATA as a prerequisite for participation in their groups.

TCA will not vote until October 2000 on whether to continue its relationship with ATA.

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