American Trucking Associations President William Canary isn't letting the fact that he will be replaced in less than a year keep him from working to move the association forward. That was evident in his speech to the Truckload Carriers Assn. meeting in Las Vegas last week.
Issues such as the insurance crisis, security threats, the economic situation and the specter of hours of service and ergonomics can't wait for a "fancy 10-year plan," said Canary, who will relinquish his post to Kansas Gov. Bill Graves after Graves finishes his term at the end of the year.

One way Canary hopes to address these issues is through a "reinvigorated" TCA-ATA partnership. "We all want to see our trucking community as united as possible. Just as our country has united to face a serious external threat, so must we…to ensure the security of our trucking industry, to safeguard the financial security of our businesses, and to keep America moving forward."
Among the items Canary put forth as needing action:

• The insurance crisis. "Make no mistake: This is a man-made crises. What's happening year after year? Insurance rates are climbing through the roof. What else is happening year after year? The truck safety record is improving. Yet good companies with good records are getting pushed out because they can't keep up with the rate hikes. ATA's gone to all 50 state insurance commissioners to raise our concerns and show them the facts to encourage them to make sure that any rate hikes are based in reality. We're also fighting hard for civil justice reform. And, we're going to work to get law enforcement and insurance companies to take more responsibility onto their own shoulders-responsibility for getting the truly bad drivers off the road. We cannot allow bad drivers to take the good drivers down with them… and raise everybody's rates in the process."

• Tolls on the Interstates."These are the safest places for our trucks to drive. Trucks have a right to be there just like anybody else. If the nation needs to improve its highways, if a state needs more revenue in its general fund, then it should get it from everyone, not single out a valuable, struggling industry to bear the burden for everybody else."

• Ensure that no truck is ever used as a weapon of mass destruction. ATA has convened a security working group that extends far beyond its membership. One idea is to use the Highway Watch program to address security as well as safety. "Ask a member of ATA today what ATA stands for. You're likely to get one of two responses: the American Trucking Associations or the American Trucking Army," Canary said. "The security of our drivers, the security of our industry, the security of our nation comes first."

In order to move forward with these and other goals, Canary emphasized, the trucking industry must work together. "If we are to fulfill our mission…if we are to ensure the security of our industry and the nation…if we are to drive the success of our industry and the strength of the U.S. economy, then we must unify our federation. And, we must do it in a way that both reflects and respects the diversity and the independence that is the hallmark of our industry."
Recently, Canary noted, President Bush gave a talk about freedom to a group of students in China. "He could just as well have been talking to all of us, and what he said was: 'in a free society, diversity is not disorder. Debate is not strife. And, dissent is not revolution.'
"We can be different. We can have different opinions. We can debate with candor and dissent and passion. But that doesn't mean we can't work together, behind the issues that bring us all together, and move our industry and our nation forward."