Page 40 - ATR 1 2012 web 2

one Industry, one History

ATA celebrates 80 years of serving the industry

By ATR staff did a major reassessment of its board
structure and has since been comprised
On November 26, 1932, Robert primarily of owners or senior executives
Black, an El Dorado businessman whose of trucking companies, although allied
company specialized in moving house- member have served and continue to
hold goods, became the first chairman serve on the board since its inception.
of Shippers and Carriers Association For the past 20 years, the Arkansas
of Arkansas. Black with the help of Trucking Association has been led by
Howard Tune, R.M. Kemp and B.C. Lane Kidd, president. Kidd has helped
Rotenberry created the group as a natu- score numerous legislative victories for  DelcoRemy ad
ral response to an influx of industry the trucking group, including the defeat
regulation in 1927. of a highway bond program in 1995 the sales tax on the purchase price of
The organization has remained that would have cost trucking com- tractors and semi-trailers that has saved
in business ever since, even though panies more than $150 million since the industry more than $130 million to
the name has changed four times, 1995, forcing the state highway com- date.
most recently in 2000 when it became mission to reverse an application to toll Today, the Arkansas Trucking
the Arkansas Trucking Association. 333 miles of interstate highways, saving Association promotes and protects some
Formerly, it was known as the trucking companies more than $800 300 members in Arkansas and across
Associated Motor Carriers of Arkansas million and passing legislation that caps the nation.
(1939-1945) and the Arkansas Bus and
Truck Association (1945-2000).
Legendary industry leaders like  Great West Casualty Company’s Joe
Morten, Jr. at the second JmS location
Montague Williams, Harvey Jones, in 1939
Willis Shaw, J.B. Hunt and Robert
Young, Jr. among others helped form
the association into the public relations
and political force it is today. It won its
first major legislative victory in 1935
when it successfully lobbied President
Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Congress
to pass the Motor Carrier Act of 1935.
In the early ’90s, the association  Arkansas motor Freight Lines, now
ABF, truck in 1940

 guy Campbell of Arkansas Trailer,
presents honor Award to a Walmart driver
ABF truck in 1969 at the 1982 Trailmobile Safety Awards

40 arkansas truCking rePort | issue 1 2012