Arkansas Trucking Association

Up Front- Survival Skills

Shannon Newton
President, ATA

As our trucks keep rolling and our industry continues to deliver for America, the health and safety of our members is of vital importance to us.  Together, we are facing a truly unprecedented situation.  The global coronavirus pandemic is affecting all of our businesses, families, communities and our way of life.

During this crisis, the association has remained committed to providing our members with the latest information, advocating for their best interest and highlighting our industry professionals as heroes.

But our work and my words need to be situated in this moment, and for our country, this particular moment is tragic.  The U.S. will soon pass 5 million cases of COVID-19. In six months, the virus has taken the lives of more Americans than World War I. As the country reacts, economists predict that we will see many small businesses close their doors permanently, millions of Americans are out of work, economic and health uncertainties abound. 

Voices on the fringe of both extremes express ideas vehemently on the Internet and elsewhere.  There are voices that shout “shut everything back down until there’s a vaccine” and “we have to get back to normal; only some people will die.” Sometimes it seems that the goals of public health and the economy are opposing forces.

However, those in positions of leadership are struggling to manage the reality in which we are living, that is somewhere in between.  The difficult task is to save as many lives and jobs and homes and lungs as we can.

We must let go of the ideas that worked last year and recalibrate our standards for success in 2020.

Businesses in all sectors are evolving at breakneck speed in order to uphold their promises to customers, employees, and the communities they serve.  The degree to which they can safely and similarly reconfigure, deliver, and meet the needs of their customers could be the difference between success and failure.

We are no different.  Arkansas Trucking Association has continued to listen to members, fight for business protections that will help them manage new risks, and even plan educational events for members to continue to learn and network.  Information remedies uncertainty.  Insights about the economy, the health crisis, clarity on changing regulations and the future of our state and industry are all important to our members. 

This summer, we have hosted webinars, conference calls, and virtual classes, but in a few days, we will undertake our first in-person meeting. In order to bring insights from the top experts in our field to our members, we have had to make compromises and rearrange our usual plans.

But compromise, flexibility, and risk-reward thinking is the most important survival skill for businesses right now. And we practice what we preach.