Award-Winning Regional Journal of the Arkansas Trucking Association
Arkansas Trucking Report is owned by the Arkansas Trucking Association, Inc. and is published bimonthly by Matthews Publishing Group. For additional copies, to order reprints of individual articles or to become a subscriber to ATR, contact Abby Lloyd at 501.372.3462.
publisher JENNIFER MATTHEWS Matthews Publishing Group
jennifer@matthewspublishing.com executive editor
SHANNON NEWTON
managing editor BETHANY MAY
contributing writers
brawnersteve@mac.com
JENNIFER BARNETT REED
jbreed13@gmail.com JIM HARRIS
jimharris@arktimes.com art director JON D. KENNEDY
The Freelance Co. LLC,
freelanceco@comcast.net production editors
SARAH SHEETS, KATIE THOMASON illustrator
BRENT BENNETT
brentdraw@att.net photographers
JON D. KENNEDY, BOB OCKEN, JOHN DAVID PITTMAN STEVE BRAWNER
jdschulz50@aol.com SCOTT TRAVIS
stravis@gmail.com JOHN SCHULZ
UP FRONT
PAVING A NEW WAY In 2011, the Arkansas Highway Commission named Scott Bennett director of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD). Bennett is profiled in this issue of ATR because the relationship between industry and the department has never been better or more vital. It is well worth highlighting.
To say a lot is riding on how we respond as a state and as a nation to our infrastructure and highway-funding needs is an understatement. Our transportation infrastructure is key to our economic development. Our
future prosperity is riding on our will to find solutions.
It is widely acknowledged our nation’s infrastructure is in serious disrepair. Governments at all levels are struggling to pay for maintenance and upkeep, not to mention investments in necessary upgrades and new projects to support much greater capacity demands.
www.arkansastrucking.com president
SHANNON SAMPLES NEWTON
shannonnewton@arkansastrucking.com director of operations
SARAH NEWMAN SHEETS
sarahsheets@arkansastrucking.com
communications coordinator BETHANY MAY
bethanymay@arkansastrucking.com
corporate services coordinator KATIE THOMASON
katiethomason@arkansastrucking.com
executive assistant ABBY LLOYD
abbylloyd@arkansastrucking.com
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD CRAIG HARPER
Executive Vice President & COO BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MARR LYNN BEARDEN Marrlin Transit, Inc. President
Central States Manufacturing, Inc. Transportation Director
ALLEN BERRY
GREG CARMAN Carman, Inc. President
P.A.M. Transportation Services, Inc. President & CEO
DAN CUSHMAN
Star Transportation, Inc. Vice President
AL HERINGER IV Transportation Director
Risk Management and Safety PHILIP MAHONEY
Distribution Solutions, Inc. CEO, Owner
Vice President, Truck Sales MIKE MCNUTT
Truck Centers of Arkansas
Executive Vice President SCOTT MANCHESTER
Great West Casualty Co. Executive Vice President,
JEFF LESTER USA Truck
Tyson Foods, Inc. BLUE KEENE
Morris Transportation, Inc. President
MARK MORRIS
U of A/Walton College of Business Chair of Transportation
DR. JOHN OZMENT
Executive Vice President & COO G.E. “BUTCH” RICE III
FedEx Freight PAT REED It began with baby steps.
Stallion Transportation Group President & CEO
Walmart Transportation Senior Vice President
TRACY ROSSER
GARY SALISBURY Fikes Truck Line Chairman & CEO
ABF Freight System, Inc. President & CEO
ROY SLAGLE
Wayne Smith Trucking, Inc. President
WAYNE SMITH
VICKI JONES STEPHENS C.C. Jones, Inc. President
STEVE WILLIAMS Maverick USA
Chairman & CEO
An affiliate of the American Trucking Associations
Arkansas Trucking Association (ATA) is an Arkansas corporation of trucking companies, private carrier fleets and businesses which serve or supply the trucking industry. ATA serves these companies as a governmental affairs representative before legislative, regulatory and executive branches of government on issues that affect the trucking industry. The organization also provides public relations services, workers’ compensation insurance, operational services and serves as a forum for industry meetings and membership relations. For information, contact ATA at: 1401 West Capitol, Suite 185 Post Office Box 3476 (72203) Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 Phone 501.372.3462 Fax 501.376.1810
www.arkansastrucking.com
ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 6 2014
Drivers Legal Plan Drivers Legal Plan
In 2012 both sides began meeting on proposed legislation that would provide additional administrative funding to the AHTD and create a new segregated fund to be used to advance commercial vehicle safety and education. The funds would be generated with an increase in the registration fees of interstate trucks. Together we were successful in passing the legislation now known as the Commercial Vehicle Safety Improvement Act of 2013. Now industry representatives are working together with the department to ensure the funds are spent in a way that advances safety, education and enforcement in the industry in Arkansas.
Here are some things we can all agree on. Highway funding needs are great, funding falls short and the cost of construction continues to rise. Highway officials and elected representatives, both state and federal, the motoring public and the trucking industry all want safe and efficient highways.
The way that each group prioritizes the needs and evaluates solutions are shaded with our own perspective. We won’t always agree. But I welcome moving forward from a place of mutual respect, from which we can resolve to be problem-solvers, acknowledging our common goals and working together to promote safe and efficient highways and a more prosperous Arkansas and nation.
J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc.
While those sentiments of mistrust or ill-informed opinions aren’t completely eradicated, it is a different time. As an association we have done a better job of educating elected officials, and as a result, the trucking industry’s dynamic role in the state’s economy is better understood and appreciated.
The only thing that is constant is change. And as names and faces have changed on the Highway Commission, within the department, at the Capitol and among the trucking industry, perhaps a new way of doing things has emerged.
Flashback 15 years, our association, our industry and the Arkansas Highway Commissioners, couldn’t agree on much, if anything, including acknowledgement of our industry’s vital contribution to our state’s economy and the pursuit of safety in all that we do. It was so adversarial that our association was out front pushing legislation to abolish the highway commission or strip them of autonomous power over highway spending.
In the mid-2000s, the two groups were at it again, this time over a special election on bonding authority. No one was feeling the love. Mistrust existed on both sides.
Trucking contributes over $440 million in fuel taxes alone annually to the AHTD. We have a vested interest in ensuring that those funds are used to maintain our interstates and freight corridors. To the commission, it seemed trucking wanted a free-ride without “paying their fair share.”
Shannon Newton
President, Arkansas Trucking Association 7
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