Arkansas Trucking Association

Up Front- Issues with Impact

Shannon Newton
President, ATA

I'm sure you’ve noticed, it’s election season again.

Even if you don’t own a calendar, incessant commercials signal it. Candidates smile up at us from postcards in mailboxes or stand with their families in front of flags on television screens to make the case for how they will bring us progress or retrieve something lost. Do we like them, trust them, align with their ideals?

In addition to names, titles and political parties on the ballot, there are also issues. They’re numbered and nameless, making them harder to connect the choice we make to the future consequences. It’s not always apparent from ballot title language how each is relevant to our lives or livelihood.

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The Last Word

To Strengthen Careers, Start at the Cradle: Childcare as an Economic Engine

Collaborating and problem solving with business leaders are among the chief responsibilities of my job as chancellor at the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College. It should come as no surprise that the issue that keeps rising to the top of those conversations is addressing the skilled labor shortage across industries and looking at the far-reaching effects that worker scarcity can have on the national supply chain.

Driving that employee shortage? There are a myriad of causes such as population shifts and technological changes, but one issue that resurfaces repeatedly is a lack of reliable, affordable childcare options.

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Up Front- Speed of Flight

Shannon Newton
President, ATA

You’re used to reading about trucks in this space, but as a nod to our cover story, George Henry and his passion for flight, I want to praise a moment in aeronautic history when sharing information allowed humanity to reach new heights.

You know the story of the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, and how two bicycle mechanics achieved groundbreaking advancements in aerodynamics that led to controlled flight and airplanes.

An early pioneer, Otto Lilienthal, was a German aviator who built a hang glider with wings that he improved through a series of experiments. He was an inspiration to the Wright brothers, and they used data he collected as they invented their own flying devices. While helpful in the beginning, Lilienthal’s data wasn’t enough for Orville and Wilbur to take flight. They built a new tool—their own wind tunnel to gather aerodynamic data for calculations—and from that information, they built their first piloted aircraft. The flight test at Kitty Hawk only lasted two minutes, but a year later, they had a new prototype and tested again. The progress made in just a few years led to the 1903 Wright Flyer, the first heavier-than-air powered aircraft.

There’s a lesson to be learned in the Wrights’ resolve to not settle for existing data and to discover new tools for more information. The result led to better, safer flight for everyone.

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The Last Word

Safety in a Can

Last fall, the American Transportation Research Institute released its new research that found trucking association members are statistically safer, averaging fewer crashes per 100 million miles than companies not connected to such associations. This data is compelling and speaks to the power of community and shared knowledge. When we come together, we share insights, strategies and experiences that can lead to tangible improvements in safety.

I’ve seen it in action. In 2023, I was elected to the Arkansas Trucking Association Safety Management Council leadership as council secretary. The council attracts trucking professionals with all types and levels of safety responsibilities, from the vice presidents of safety departments at some of the largest carriers in the nation to the men and women single-handedly running safety programs at small, rural companies They are all committed to highway safety.

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