Arkansas Trucking Association

Up Front- Name. Image. Law Office Commercial Breaks.

Shannon Newton
President, ATA

College football is back. Woo Pig Sooie!! Bust out your team colors, criticize the pre-season rankings, make your own predictions and escape real-world realities for a few hours. Whether you’re gathered in the bleachers or in living rooms and sports bars around the state, supporting your team is just a good way to spend a Saturday. Paint your face, scream your lungs out, invest a little too much emotion in the outcome of the game; however you fan, I’m here for it.

The game day commercial breaks I’m less enthusiastic about.

This year, especially, it feels like the boundary between the challenges of the industry are seeping into the spaces between quarters, and the feeling I am left with is whiplash and even a little bit of dread.

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The Last Word

Building Tomorrow's Workforce

By Kenneth Calhoun

And suddenly we were not alone anymore.

For my entire career, we have been sounding the alarm that there is a shortage of skilled labor to both operate and maintain our trucks. Now it seems that the whole world has realized that there is a shortage of skilled labor. Who could have imagined that doing away with the programs in our educational system that taught us how to weld, repair small engines, build a jewelry box or wire a house could have such an impact?

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Trucking Wages Up in 2021, Study Finds

Trucking Wages Up Alongside Freight Demand, Driver Shortage

As demand for truck drivers rises among a growing shortage, so have driver wages, according to a new study by the American Trucking Associations.

In the wake of increased shipping spurred by the pandemic and compounding fractures in the supply chain, the truck driver shortage has grown to a staggering 80,000 openings in the U.S. Couple this with a 3.5% unemployment rate and the need to entice drivers with competitive wages becomes clear.

“We are committed to creating better jobs for our drivers, and that includes offering pay that reflects the value of the work they do,” said John Culp, president of North Little Rock-based Maverick USA and member of the Arkansas Trucking Association Board of Directors. “If we want to attract the best candidates to our industry, we have to be willing to pay for it in terms of actual wages and other benefits.” 

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Up Front- Vital Role at Risk

Shannon Newton
President, ATA

The heavy task of delivering 10.23 billion tons of America’s freight every year takes millions of people. Millions of people, fulfilling different roles—some put on a uniform before grabbing company keys, others invest in their own class 8 tractor, or pop the hood to maintain the machines, pick up the phones and create efficient routes, train the next generation of drivers or keep the books. Every role matters. An unreasonable burden to interstate commerce would be to dismantle one of the most critical roles—the owner-operator.

For nearly three decades, the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act has forbidden states from enacting laws relating to prices, routes and services of motor carriers to avoid an unreasonable burden on interstate commerce.

However, California Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), popularly known as the “gig worker bill,” essentially requires companies that hire independent contractors to reclassify them as employees. Enforcing an ABC test all but eliminates a motor carriers’ ability to contract with an owner-operator because they are both in the business of transporting goods for hire.

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