Arkansas Trucking Association

Counting crossword complaints

Shannon Newton
President, ATA

People ask for your opinion all the time. Sometimes we like to give it unsolicited. Public opinion is used these day’s to critique everything from movies to presidents. As another campaign cycle begins, many of you will likely be asked your opinion on a number of issues or candidates. This kind of survey dates back to George Gallup, the “Babe Ruth of the polling profession,” whose passion for measuring the world and confidence in numerical data inspired him to develop the Gallup Poll.

Gallup was profiled in TIME’s May 1948 cover story. As an editor of his college newspaper, he wanted to know who was reading and what they liked. The old method for determining readership was omitting the crossword puzzle and counting the complaints. Instead, he began surveying readers about their thoughts.

Continue...

2019 Arkansas Trucking Championship

ATA would like to thank all the volunteers, sponsors, vendors, drivers, technicians, and fans that helped to make the 2019 Arkansas Trucking Championship the biggest to date!

Continue...

Up Front- Gone Fishin'

Shannon Newton
President, ATA

It’s summertime. Time for beach vacations, pool days, theme parks and spending quality time doing things you enjoy with the people who make it enjoyable. 

In trucking, summer activities include a fast-paced produce season when those who haul fruits and vegetables have tight timelines for delivering watermelons and peaches to shelves in time for picnics and barbecues. While kids gather ‘round the campfire telling spooky stories before heading back to their bunks, bellies full of marshmallow, we are telling our own stories. It’s an essential part of what we do all year round, but the audiences vary from season to season.

Continue...

The Last Word

In the Water

By Dan Cushman

Twenty years ago, I was working for Werner Enterprises when a meeting with Walmart brought me to Northwest Arkansas for the first time. A memory of a map hanging in a fast food restaurant somewhere near Bentonville stays with me.

There were six big rivers. Two mountain ranges, seven caverns, over 2300 lakes, and 102,616 miles of public roads connected 75 counties. From my vinyl booth at McDonald’s or Hardee’s or wherever served hot biscuits and bad coffee, I could see flags on the map of some of the state’s big businesses—American Freightways (now FedEx Freight) in Harrison, J.B. Hunt Transport in Lowell, USA Truck in Van Buren, CalArk International in Little Rock, ABF Freight in Fort Smith, Walmart in Bentonville, Maverick Transportation in North Little Rock, and P.A.M. Transport (where I would end up ten years later) in Tontitown.

I remember sitting there with my friends and saying “What the hell is in the water here that all these trucking companies ended up in Arkansas?”

Of course, I picture red flags marking some of the biggest household names in trucking, but Arkansas is actually home to 4,850 trucking companies. Most of which are primarily, small, locally owned businesses. When I asked in jest, ‘why is this state particularly fertile ground for 18 wheeled businesses,’ I didn’t know that I would one day learn the answer, much less that I would be part of that answer.

Continue...