The Professional Truck Driver Institute has expanded its Board of Directors in an attempt to broaden its reach beyond the truckload industry.

The new board includes members from the National Urban League, the National Council of La Raza, the National Private Truck Council and the United Motorcoach Assn., among others.
PTDI, under the management of the Truckload Carriers Assn. for the past several years, has been seen by some to be too focused on the truckload industry. Last year, the organization formed a transition committee to look into taking PTDI independent. One of the issues identified by that committee was that other segments of the industry need well-trained drivers, as well, that PTDI needs to be flexible enough to meet more of this need, and that flexibility needs to be communicated to the industry.
PTDI eventually decided to stick with TCA, but this expansion of the board of directors appears to be a move to address some of the concerns identified during those earlier discussions.
The broad-based board also is designed to help PTDI reach a larger and more diverse population of potential drivers.
One of the new board members, Jim Reed, director of the Workforce Investment Demonstration Project for the National Urban League, believes his organization's mission of helping African-Americans secure economic reliance fits in well with PTDI's goal to tap into populations that have been previously underrepresented.