Umphress Becomes New TMC Chairman, Aims to Attract Additional Fleet Members

This story appears in the March 24 print edition of Transport Topics.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Dan Umphress, the 2014-2015 chairman of the Technology & Maintenance Council, admits that he works only half-days.

“Typically, I try to go in at 6 and come home at 6,” he said.

Besides being a bit of a jokester, those who know Umphress describe the 52-year-old vice president of maintenance and fleet services for A&R Logistics as “intelligent, unflappable and dedicated.”

Earlier this month, Umphress was named successor to former chairman Kirk Altrichter, vice president of maintenance for Crete Carrier Corp.

One of Umphress’ goals is to increase the fleet membership of TMC, which is a council of American Trucking Associations. He said the council currently has four vendor members for every fleet member.

“I want to go back to the basics — blocking and tackling,” Umphress said. “We’ve really got to figure out how we get more fleet members to attend more meetings.”

Umphress is known for his passion for engines. He’s pretty much been that way ever since he got his first job as a diesel mechanic at age 20.

“Dan is a very calm, level-headed fellow,” said Lee Long, director of fleet services for Southeastern Freight Lines. “He has a lot of good insight into future technology. He is a very detail-oriented fellow.”

Umphress has been a member of TMC for more than 25 years but said he never had designs on being chairman of the organization.

“It really wasn’t my goal,” Umphress said.

But now that he’s taken the lead, his goal over the next year is simply to get things done for the organization — and stop “kicking the can down the road.”

“We have a lot going on at TMC,” he said. “We have really taken on some lofty goals. Now we need to move some of those goals forward.”

Umphress also wants to improve TMC’s image and visibility through advertising and media attention.

“He’s very level-headed, technically astute, very engaged in the council’s activities,” said Robert Braswell, TMC technical director. “Dan’s a voice of reason. He’s an expert in terms of specs and performance, and good at communicating fleet expectations to vendors. I think he’ll do very well for the coming year.”

During his many years at TMC, Umphress has been closely associated with the organization’s S.3 Engines Study Group, having served as its chairman in 2008-2010.

Umphress has been a member of ATA’s technical advisory committee, an endeavor he calls “awesome, pretty exciting stuff.”

His past day jobs have included stints as a top maintenance executive at American Freightways and FedEx Freight.

Altrichter said Umphress is “very intellectual and driven.”

“I expect good things from him over the next year,” Altrichter said. “Dan likes to take it all in, then digest it and move forward. He’s not a seat-of-the-pants kind of guy at all.”

“He’s unflappable in his problem-solving approach, a cool customer,” said Carl Kirk, TMC’s executive director and an ATA vice president.

Umphress has been married for 32 years and has an adult son and 2-year-old twin granddaughters.

He loves riding motorcycles, still takes spins in the 1968 Camaro he and his son built from the ground up and enjoys spending time on the water with his wife in the couple’s 26-foot runabout.

He may not take the job home, but the work habits don’t go away. In his spare time, he enjoys working on automobiles and working with wood and metal.

“My wife would tell you that I’m a toy guy, and I wouldn’t disagree with that,” Umphress said. “I like being busy. I don’t sit on the couch and watch football.”

“I’ve spent my whole life working as a mechanic or managing mechanics,” he said.