Steve Parker, chairman of the American Truck Dealers organization, urged dealers to work with Congress to repeal the federal excise tax on the sale of heavy-duty trucks and trailers.

Speaking at the ATD Show in his final address as the group’s chairman, Parker called the tax outdated and harmful. Parker is the president of Baltimore Potomac Truck Centers in Linthicum, Maryland, which operates five full-service commercial truck dealership locations with Mack, Volvo, and Hino Trucks franchises in Maryland and Virginia.

The group also put its support behind recent legislation, H.R. 2946, that would eliminate the federal excise tax. The bill was introduced by Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) and currently has 15 bipartisan co-sponsors.

“I urge you to continue reaching out to your federal legislators. Host your elected officials at your dealership. Let them meet your employees,” said Parker. “We were prepared to handle the onslaught of changes last year because we had solid grassroots.”

Park highlighted ATD’s recent lobbying accomplishments, including a tax cut for pass-through entities, maintaining the LIFO inventory accounting method, and doubling the exemption on the state tax. He also spoke about growth within the organization. including adding more ATD 20 Group moderators, expanding its truck-related economic research and data, and commissioning the study, Commercial Truck Dealer Future Landscape.

“Because we’ve tackled the changing truck dealer landscape head-on – despite rapidly evolving times – we will continue to make headway on new issues like highly-automated vehicles, electric vehicle legislation, and the changing truck dealer role,” said Parker.