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Award-Winning Regional Journal of the Arkansas Trucking Association
Arkansas Trucking Report is owned by the Arkansas trucking
Association, inc. and is published bimonthly by matthews publishing
group. For additional copies, to order reprints of individual articles or
to become a subscriber to ATR, contact kelly crow at 501.372.3462.
publisher
JENNIFER mATThEWS KIdd
matthews Publishing Group
jennifer@matthewspublishing.com
communications director & managing editor
KELLY CARGILL CROW
kelly@matthewspublishing.com
executive editor
LANE KIdd
contributing writers CaNoEINg
art director
STEVE BRAWNER TOdd TRAUB
brawnersteve@mac.com toddtraub@centurtel.net
SAm EIFLING JIm hARRIS People used to say if things got really tough, anybody could become a
sameifling@gmail.com jimharris9692@sbcglobal.net
J.K. JONES ERIC FRANCIS truck driver. Now, it seems like nobody can become one.
jkjeditor@yahoo.com eric.francis@yahoo.com
JOhN SChULz JENNIFER BARNETT REEd
jdschulz@aol.com jbreed13@gmail.com
JON d. KENNEdY, The same adage used to apply to starting a trucking company. It used to be a fairly simple
The Freelance Co. LLC
freelanceco@comcast.net process. That’s not really true anymore either. And don’t look for it to get any easier to
production editor
ShANNON NEWTON become either one.
ad production
dEAh ChISENhALL, dUSTY TOWNSENd
illustrator
BRENT BENNETT The U.S. trucking industry is undergoing a dramatic change—perhaps more so than any
brentdraw@cox.net
photographers time since federal deregulation some 30 years ago.
JON d. KENNEdY, BOB OCKEN, KELLY CARGILL CROW
Consider just a few of the changes coming this time: requiring electronic on-board
recorders in all trucks; installing truck speed limiters; screening driver applicants more
www.arkansastrucking.com strictly for drugs and alcohol; tougher standards to start a trucking business; a public
president
LANE KIdd rating of every trucking company’s safety performance; reducing the hours a truck driver
lanekidd@arkansastrucking.com
vice president can stay behind the wheel and shippers that are increasingly reviewing all those factors
ShANNON SAmPLES NEWTON
shannonnewton@arkansastrucking.com before deciding which company gets to touch their freight.
director of operations
SARAh NEWmAN ShEETS
sarahsheets@arkansastrucking.com
communications director & managing editor Not everyone in the trucking industry likes what these new requirements will do to the
KELLY CARGILL CROW
kellycrow@arkansastrucking.com
executive assistant industry. There’s a segment of trucking, who knows how large, that wants to turn back
SARA AdAmS
saraadams@arkansastrucking.com the pages of time. They don’t want recorders in trucks. They don’t want anything that
administrative assistant
STEPhANIE VERdELL will slow those trucks down. They oppose entry-level driver training. They don’t like a
stephanieverdell@arkansastrucking.com
ChAIRmAN OF ThE BOARd drug and alcohol clearinghouse. They don’t want a carrier safety rating system. They
mARR LYNN BEARdEN
President don’t want drivers rated for safety either.
marrlin Transit, Inc.
BOARd OF dIRECTORS
mIChAEL BARR PATRICK L. REEd
ALLEN BERRY Executive Vice President & COO Public opinion is driving many of these changes. But there is now a large contingent of
FedEx Freight
Transportation director
Central States manufacturing, Inc. G.E. “BUTCh” RICE III
President & CEO trucking companies, both large and small, that want these changes. They look at these
GREG CARmAN Stallion Transportation Group
President
Carman, Inc. GARY SALISBURY changes as a way to clean up a segment of the industry that undercuts safety and thereby
dAN CUShmAN President & CEO
Fikes Truck Line
President & CEO undermines the integrity of the industry.
P.A.m. Transportation Services, Inc. JEFF SmITh
President
CRAIG hARPER Utility Tri-State, Inc.
Executive Vice President & COO
J.B. hunt Transport, Inc. WAYNE SmITh
President
AL hERINGER IV Wayne Smith Trucking, Inc. I used to canoe somewhat frequently on the small streams and rivers of the Arkansas
Vice President
Star Transportation, Inc. VICKI JONES STEPhENS
President Ozarks. There is quite a bit of certainty when you canoe. You know that if you do certain
BLUE KEENE C.C. Jones, Inc.
Transportation director
Tyson Foods, Inc. ChRIS SULTEmEIER things haphazardly, you’re going to get wet. So you don’t do them.
Senior Vice President
ROdNEY mILLS Walmart Transportation LLC
Vice President & General Counsel
USA Truck, Inc. RIChARd SWEEBE
President & CEO
mARK mORRIS diamond Companies, Inc. There’s another certain thing about canoeing: When you put your arms on the side of
President
morris Transportation, Inc. STEVE WILLIAmS
dR. JOhN OzmENT Chairman & CEO the canoe and ease yourself into the seat—you are committed. There is no going back.
maverick USA
Chair of Transportation
U of A/Walton College of Business ROBERT A. YOUNG III
Chairman of the Board
Arkansas Best Corporation
An affiliate of the American trucking The changes listed above and more to come are going to change the trucking industry
Associations forever. Argue all day about the reasons why trucking needs to go back to those ‘good ole
Arkansas Trucking Association (ATA) is an Arkansas corporation of trucking
companies, private carrier fleets and businesses which serve or supply the days.’ It won’t matter. The paddles are in the water.
trucking industry. ATA serves these companies as a governmental affairs
representative before legislative, regulatory and executive branches of
government on issues that affect the trucking industry. The organization also
provides public relations services, workers’ compensation insurance, operational
services and serves as a forum for industry meetings and membership relations.
For information, contact ATA at:
1401 West Capitol, Suite 185 Lane Kidd
Post Office Box 3476 (72203) Drivers Legal Plan
Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 President, Arkansas Trucking Association
Phone 501.372.3462 Fax 501.376.1810
www.arkansastrucking.com lanekidd@arkansastrucking.com
Drivers Legal Plan
ArkAnSAS trucking report | issue 2 2012 7