ArcBest CEO McReynolds Named ATRI Chairwoman

This story appears in the Oct. 27 print edition of Transport Topics.

Judy McReynolds, CEO of ArcBest Corp., has been chosen the new chairwoman of the American Transportation Research Institute.

ATRI’s board announced the choice Oct. 20, and McReynolds wasted no time outlining her priorities, the top one being to tell the ATRI story.

“I think people understand that the research ATRI has provided has really benefited the industry and benefited decision making, and so what I can do is make sure that story is told,” McReynolds told Transport Topics.

“I think we will be able to raise the awareness level, and the resources should follow,” she said, adding that she wants to make sure ATRI has the means “to do the research that is of the highest priority for the industry.”

That research will be driven by the trucking companies the institute serves, McReynolds said, explaining that the carrier surveys ATRI regularly conducts define the top issues.

“That is truly what sets their agenda,” she said.

ATRI’s recent report on operational costs illustrates the research that helps carriers because it allows them to benchmark their operations against those of other carriers, she said.

“That’s also very useful information, because we certainly are an industry that needs to continue to be safe, but we also have to be able to be successful as companies,” McReynolds said.

McReynolds is the first woman to lead the ATRI board and one of the first women to rise to the highest ranks of a large trucking company.

Headquartered in Fort Smith, Arkansas, ArcBest ranks No. 13 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada.

“Whenever you think about our industry, you don’t typically think of women in leadership roles, but it’s happening more and more,” McReynolds said.

As chairwoman, she succeeds another Arkansas trucking executive, Steve Williams, chairman and CEO of Maverick USA in North Little Rock.

Williams was ATRI chairman from 2009 to 2014 and chairman of American Trucking Associations in 2004-2005.

ATA President Bill Graves praised Williams for his years as ATRI chairman, saying that under him the research “gained worldwide recognition for its objective analysis of key industry issues on topics ranging from hours of service, CSA [Compliance, Safety, Accountability], congestion, highway funding and the environment. The result is a safer, more productive trucking industry.”

ATRI board member David Huneryager said that in Mc-Reynolds he was delighted to have another leader with a strong trucking background.

“It’s a great person to be leading that organization, and I’m proud to be serving with her,” said Huneryager, who is president of the Tennessee Trucking Association.

He added: “She’s certainly bright; she’s articulate. She certainly can state a case and defend it which is, obviously, very important for a chairman to do.”

An accountant by training and career, McReynolds joined ArcBest 17 years ago, after working in the Little Rock office of the accounting firm Ernst and Young.

“I had clients who were in the LTL industry and also in the truckload industry, so, I’ve been around [trucking] for probably 25 or so years,” she said.

In addition to helping carriers plot their business paths, ATRI research might also help decision makers who are grappling with such issues as infrastructure, McReynolds said.

ATRI’s work in identifying highway locations with high numbers of truck rollovers and in pinpointing the nation’s worst traffic bottlenecks are valuable to both, McReynolds and Huneryager said.

McReynolds said the driver shortage has been a “huge” problem for trucking, which needs to continue seeking solutions.

She said she did not want to speak to specific topics because ATRI has a research council that decides the agenda, but suggested the driver shortage may be part of a larger picture.

“I think if the infrastructure . . . and the congestion issues that we face, if those things could be improved through ATRI research, I think it would help with the efficiency of drivers and help us with that issue,” she said.

McReynolds has been on ATRI’s board since 2010 and is also on ATA’s executive committee.

“We are excited to see Judy in the chair’s role at ATRI and know that her extensive industry experience and strategic leadership will serve ATRI well,” said Philip Byrd Sr., ATA’s immediate past chairman.

In addition to her trucking work, McReynolds serves on numerous outside boards including OGE Energy Corp., First National Bank of Fort Smith, the Transportation Industry Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the West-Ark Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America.