TCA, ATA to Work Toward Reunification

LAS VEGAS — The Truckload Carriers Association took a step toward rapprochement with American Trucking Associations Sunday afternoon when the group’s board of directors voted unanimously to create a joint task force to draft an affiliation agreement.

ATA Chairman David G. McCorkle traveled here to the TCA’s annual meeting to pitch the proposal. He said he is hopeful the task force will be able to issue some kind of report by June, when the two trade groups have their next board meetings.

Two years ago at the TCA annual meeting in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., the group’s members voted by a slender margin to dissociate from ATA over its requirement that a trucking company could not join TCA without also belonging to ATA.

In December, Patrick E. Quinn, the outgoing chairman of TCA, met with McCorkle in Oklahoma about ending the schism that went into effect Jan. 1, 2001. In February they publicly announced the start of talks and Quinn invited McCorkle to address his board.

The two men said there will be real negotiating for the task force members as ATA is not sticking to the ultimatum that led to the split.