U.S. Xpress' Quinn to Replace Davidson as Treasurer of American Trucking Assn.
This story appears in the Dec. 14 print edition of Transport Topics.
Former American Trucking Associations chairman Patrick Quinn, an executive of U.S. Xpress Enterprises, has returned to a leadership role with the federation, succeeding Robert Davidson as the organization’s treasurer on Dec. 7 for a 10-month term.
Quinn, 63, was elected treasurer Dec. 7 by e-mail balloting of ATA’s board of directors. He served as chairman of the trucking group from 2005 to 2007.
Davidson, 62, left the ATA financial post ahead of his Dec. 31 retirement as CEO of Arkansas Best Corp. and ABF Freight System, its less-than-truckload carrier (click here for previous story).
“These are challenging financial times for member companies and even the organization [ATA]. It’s been a time of unprecedented challenge for recent history,” Quinn said in assessing the economic environment.
Quinn said he will oversee financial reporting to ATA’s board and serve on the group’s management committee.
Tommy Hodges of Titan Transfer is the current chairman of the ATA board.
Quinn’s treasurer term will last until ATA’s 2010 Management Conference & Exhibition in Phoenix in October.
Quinn founded U.S. Xpress in 1985 with his business partner, Max Fuller. The Chattanooga, Tenn., company ranks No. 19 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers and is the fourth-largest truckload carrier on the list. Quinn is still president and co-chairman of the company.
He became ATA’s 60th chairman in October 2005 after serving as first vice chairman. He was scheduled to step down 12 months later, but the sudden death of the man chosen as his successor, C.J. “Mac” McCormick III, led to the extension of Quinn’s term until June 2007, when he was succeeded by Ray Kuntz. In total, Quinn served as ATA chairman for 20 months, except for a ceremonial week for McCormick.
Quinn also was chairman of the Truckload Carriers Association in 2001-02. He and McCormick are two of the 13 men to serve as chairman of both ATA and TCA.
Comprehensive highway planning and improvement was a major interest of Quinn during his term as chairman, and it led him onto the federal stage. He was a member of the 12-person National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, which began meeting in 2006 and reported to Congress in January 2008.
Davidson took the treasurer’s post in the fall of 2008, succeeding Arnold Wellman of UPS Inc. His successor at Arkansas Best will be Judy McReynolds, currently the carrier’s chief financial officer.
