Humble & kind:
Thompson helps FirstFleet build by building relationships
BY STEVE BRAWNER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN DAVID PITTMAN
On Dec. 8, FirstFleet’s Wayland Thompson won $5,000 in a raffl e benefi ting the Tennessee Trucking Association Foundation.He immediately gave his winnings back – to the TTA’s political action committee, TruckPAC. “You’ve got to practice what you preach,” said
the TTA’s new chairman. “I’m asking everybody to donate to the PAC fund, and it’s a great cause, and it was a good way to jump-start the PAC fund for 2017 with the $5,000 donation. I’m blessed. Everybody could use money, but I don’t need it. I’m OK.” As TTA’s chairman, T ompson’s goals include
growing the membership from its current 525 members to 1,000 members. Another priority is the TTA Foundation, which provides scholarships to children of TTA members, educates the public about safe driving around trucks, and supports children’s charities. Being chairman, he said is “just a great way to
give back to the industry, and we’ve got a great organization, the Tennessee Trucking Association. T ere’re so many good leaders ahead of me who just paved the way—they paved it and lined it and got exit ramps. I mean, it’s a superhighway.” T e $5,000 donation occurred shortly before the
executive committee meeting aſt er a Major with the Tennessee Highway Patrol picked two tickets, one of which was T ompson’s. T e other was Averitt which won $15,000 and donated it to Averitt Cares for Kids. T ompson would like it to keep $150,000 in the
TruckPAC account to support trucking-minded elected offi cials or to fi nd opponents for those who aren’t.
16 • TENNESSEE TRUCKING NEWS Q4 WINTER 2017 “I just think a PAC fund allows you to give on
behalf of the Tennessee Trucking Association and our industry, and isn’t aligned to a particular party. … It’s just something over and above that helps us as an industry and helps us as an association talk to politicians with some horsepower behind it through a large PAC fund,” he said. Dave Huneryager, the TTA’s president and CEO, said
T ompson has been a strong member of the executive committee for the past several years – always available for events across the state and an active participant in legislative visits to Nashville and Washington. “I can already see where his focus is going to be:
growing membership!” he said. “He has already implemented actions to make our focus on growth an even greater priority. I am excited to see where this emphasis takes us in the near and long term.” T ompson is following in the footsteps of previous
chairmen, including FirstFleet’s owner, Gary Wilson, as well as Sasser, who introduced the two. He did seek advice from Wilson before becoming chairman. “Gary’s kind of a believer in people and believes
that we’ll do the right thing, so he just said, ‘Do the right thing.’ So that’s what we’ll do,” T ompson said. He has goals – for the association, not himself.
He wants to build on the successes of the past, not move the association in a radically new direction. “I’m not going to be the one that separates us from
the pack,” he said. “We’ve already separated ourselves from the pack as far as the top 10 percent of the
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