ATA renews contract of president Bill Graves

ARLINGTON, Va. -- American Trucking Associations has reached an agreement on a new three-year contract with association president and CEO Bill Graves. The announcement was made earlier this week at the ATA's annual Management Conference and Exhibition in Dallas.

"By retaining Gov. Graves, the members of ATA are sending a strong message: that despite the challenges we face in Washington, the professional staff of ATA is doing an exemplary job of advancing the goals and interests of the trucking industry," said ATA chairman Dan England. "That starts at the top with Gov. Graves and we're pleased that he'll be continuing to serve as ATA's president and CEO for the foreseeable future."

"One key part of effective leadership is consistency," said Barbara Windsor, immediate past chairman of ATA. "With this multiyear commitment, ATA ensures that we will have, strong, consistent and effective representation in Washington and I couldn't be happier to get this done as one of my final acts as ATA chairman."

After serving two terms as governor of Kansas, Graves start with ATA in 2003.

"It has been a privilege to represent such a great industry and I'm honoured that ATA's members are allowing me to continue serving them and their interests in Washington," Graves said. "As the economy continues to slowly recover and policymakers let loose with unprecedented assaults on trucking, there's never been a more critical time to advocate for the industry that delivers life's essentials more safely and efficiently than ever before."

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Don't let current uncertainty divert your attention from future opportunity, ATA's Graves advises

GRAPEVINE, Texas --- Motor carrier executives grappling with the current economic uncertainty need to be careful not to miss out on the opportunities that lie ahead, warned American Trucking Associations president and CEO Bill Graves in his annual state of the industry address.

Graves acknowledged there is much going on right now to divert an executive's focus from the road ahead. He recalled that at last year's annual conference he forecasted bigger and better things by the time they met again this year in Texas.

"Little did I know that ‘bigger' was going to be the size of the federal debt; ‘bigger was going to be the unemployment rate; and ‘bigger' would characterize the number of government regulations our industry would be facing. And ‘better', well ‘better' is apparently caught up in some sort of political traffic jam and just hasn't been able to get here yet."

Yet despite the frustration with Washington's inability to come together on seemingly simple issues such as the need to fix roads and bridges and pass a highway bill, Graves said he was still optimistic about the economy and the industry's future. He referred to a personal "aha" moment he had while out on a run recently where he found himself slowing his pace while focusing at cracks and crevices in the road. When he finally looked up he got past all the imperfections and saw the road that was truly stretching out ahead of him.

"It's a metaphor that so appropriately explains our industry. We are dealing every day with a myriad of policy and regulatory cracks and crevices that threaten to overwhelm us. And we have no choice but to devote tremendous time, energy and money in an effort to fix them so we achieve positive near term results for our industry. But at the same time we need to be careful not to become so obsessed with the challenges of the moment that we give up on the opportunity of the future," Graves said.

He went on to outline the reason to be optimistic about the future.

America's population is expected to grow from 300 million in 2006 to 400 million by 2050, something on the order of adding a city the size of Houston or Chicago each and every year. "400 million people need a lot of good stuff and most of the time we'll be bringing it," he said.

The ATA's most recent freight transportation forecast calls for trucking's share of total freight tonnage to rise from 67.2% in 2010 to 70% by 2022. And that's from a tonnage pie that grows from just less than 9 billion tons of freight to over 11.5 billion tons. During that same period of time, the corresponding trucking revenue pie is forecasted to grow from $563 billion to $937 billion.

"I'm sure you can split up $374 billion in revenue growth among you and be happy," Graves quipped.

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ATA's Graves Sees 'Inviting, Long Road Ahead for Trucking'

ATA President Bill Graves — TT file photo

GRAPEVINE, Texas — American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said at ATA’s annual convention that despite prevailing political and economic uncertainty, the United States and the trucking industry are poised for better days ahead.

Despite frustration with Washington’s inability to come together on seemingly simple like the need to fix roads and bridges and pass a highway bill, Graves said he was optimistic about the economy and trucking’s future.

“I really believe we are blessed with a country, with a people and with an economy that is capable of surviving anything our government can throw at it,” Graves said at ATA’s Management Conference & Exhibition, being held here near Dallas this week.

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