American Trucking Assns. head Walter McCormick was the featured speaker at the annual meeting of the ATA’s Maintenance Council last week in Nashville, TN. After his speech on the benefits of ATA membership, about half a dozen audience members expressed concern during the question-and-answer session about how ATA’s restructuring could adversely affect The Maintenance Council.
TMC members pointed out to McCormick that they, as maintenance people, are not the ones who are able to make the decisions about whether to spend money for ATA membership. TMC members are concerned that new membership rules could spell doom for their group.
Previously, maintenance managers could join TMC without belonging to ATA. ATA’s recent reorganization requires companies to be members of both ATA and their state trucking association before joining affiliated conferences such as TMC.
The TMC Transition Committee is working diligently with ATA to try to get the rules changed. Some in the organization believe that if something cannot be worked out within the next year, TMC should look into becoming a separate organization.
In other news, TMC’s new general chairman and treasurer for 1999 is Ken Johnson, president of KJ Transportation, Farmington, NY. Vice chairman and chairman-elect for 2000 is Bill Wolterstorff, fleet maintenance manager of Sather Trucking, Round Lake, MN.
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