Editorial: Changing of the Guard

American Trucking Associations was a much different place when Walter B. McCormick Jr. arrived in October of 1997.

The membership was clamoring for substantive change, charging that dues were too high and unfairly assessed, and insisting that the fiscal operations had to be tightened up. Members were also questioning the political clout of their trade association.

They turned to McCormick, a former Capitol Hill operative and onetime general counsel of the Department of Transportation, to be their agent of change. And the membership outlined the changes they wanted in what became known as the Wren Plan.

Basically, that redesign called for a leaner, more efficient trade association, with a primary focus on advocacy of trucking’s priorities before the federal government — from Congress to the White House and the regulatory agencies.

As McCormick prepares to move to the U.S. Telecom Association, where he will take over July 1, a review of his record shows that virtually all the goals of the ATA restructuring plan have been accomplished.

Councils and conferences have either been integrated more closely into the ATA family — with their members joining ATA as well — or have moved out on their own.

Relations between ATA and the state associations have been vastly improved, and now 17 of the state groups are also selling memberships in ATA to the trucking companies within their borders.

The association has won an impressive string of victories in Washington, such as derailing an attempt by the Department of Transportation to implement a new hours-of-service rule that would have cost trucking dearly by limiting drivers’ hours behind the wheel.

ATA was also a key player in Congress’ decision to quash a new set of ergonomics rules that would have cost trucking, and the rest of the nation’s businesses, billions of dollars while still not protecting workers from on-the-job injuries.

The number of full-time positions at ATA has been reduced from 360 to around 200. Those cuts came even as the political victories were won, and while business units — specifically ATA membership and Transport Topics Publishing Group — brought in record amounts of money.

Near the start of his tenure at ATA, McCormick said in a speech, “My job is to build a trade association that meets the needs of the trucking industry today, and 10 years from today.”

He’s clearly accomplished his goal for today. And we firmly believe that 10 years down the road we’ll all agree he met that goal as well.

This story appears in the June 11 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.

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