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“Nobody knew the Alliance, but con- a strategic approach, reaching out to While it does not actively recruit
gressmen certainly knew the names those congressmen who had employees new members, today the Trucking
of the companies in the Alliance and of the five trucking companies living Alliance has 17 affiliated corporations
the number of people they employed in in their districts. The strategy proved and two new board members. Heartland
their districts.” effective. Express recently accepted an invitation
And those relationships resulted Sen. Pryor, joined by the late U.S. to join and Mike Gerdin, chairman and
in U.S. Senator Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), was CEO, will soon become a member of the
introducing the two bills in the Senate; able to vote both bills out of the Senate Alliance board of directors. And Gary
Congressmen Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) Commerce Committee and later, passed Salisbury, president of Fikes Truck Line,
and Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) did the same both measures through the U.S. Senate. former Truckload Carriers Association
in the House of Representatives. Soon after, the American Trucking chairman and current chairman of the
There were many detractors, mostly Associations voted to join the effort. Arkansas Trucking Association, now
from within the trucking industry. One When Congress passed a long- sits on the board replacing the late Pat
senior trucking lobbyist remarked that awaited transportation bill in 2012, Quinn.
the Trucking Alliance wouldn’t get its the drug and alcohol clearinghouse and While meeting at the historic
EOBR legislation heard in committee, the electronic logging mandate were in Capital Hotel in downtown Little Rock,
much less put up for a vote. And since the bill. In fact, other than a couple of Ark., the Alliance directors took a break
the proposals were already in the regu- studies, the two measures were the only to discuss their views on industry prof-
latory channels at the U.S. Department trucking-specific laws passed in the leg- itability, the EOBR mandate and the
of Transportation, others wondered why islation. future of the Alliance.
Congress would even bother to consider Sen. Pryor and others gave the Facilitated by Lane Kidd, the dis-
them. Trucking Alliance much of the credit cussion included Craig Harper, Kevin
But as Chris Lofgren would later for spearheading the effort to pass Knight, Steve Williams, Chris Lofgren
remark, “We didn’t know we couldn’t the legislation. Those efforts gave the and Gary Salisbury.
be successful.” Trucking Alliance newfound credibility
The Trucking Alliance launched on Capitol Hill that continues today. 

lEss frustration hErE. morE produCtivity hErE.

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arkaNsas TruckiNg reporT | issue 6 2013 27