Truckload Authority - April/May 2019

Kaburick doesn’t expect that kind of calamity during
his watch. It also would be hard to top the economic
environment Doran enjoyed in 2018, he said, but he
expects 2019 will be strong. “We just have to hope
there’s no other influences in the government or otherwise.”
Doran agreed that he was dealt a good hand with
the timing of his chairmanship, and not just in terms
of the economy. There were a lot of changes going on
at TCA about five years or so ago, when John Lyboldt
came in as TCA president, Doran said. By the time of
his chairmanship, those changes had a chance to set
“and get some momentum, so by the time I came in it
was running smooth and all you got to do is keep the
horse running down the track.”
And because they have both been there the entire
time as part of the group most responsible for the trajectory
of that momentum, it’s understandable they
both approve of the tack TCA has taken to put more
emphasis on its role as an advocate for the truckload
sector.
A good example of that is the annual Call on Washington,
which began two years ago, and the related
decision to take a step back from handling logistics for
the 501(c)(3) organization Wreaths Across America.
“The decision was made that we wanted to start
concentrating on things that are important to this
industry,” Doran said. “We were in a lot of what I’ll
call these feel-good programs that at the time people
thought were a good idea. But at the end of the day,
we’re an association that supports trucking companies.
We only have the staff that we have. They can’t be
spending all their time on things that aren’t our core
competency.”
Organizing something like the Call on Washington is
no simple task, and it doesn’t come cheap. “For years
the members of this association have said that we
need to do our own advocacy,” Doran said, and their
support got TCA’s Call on Washington initiative off the
ground.
The first two years have shown the event’s potential
“to help push our voice out on Capitol Hill and to stand
up for the trucking industry,” Kaburick said.
“We are the only association that is truly the Voice
of Truckload. Other associations aren’t pure truckload,
so our story is not conflicting with any other
kind of trucking. We’re not trying to share a voice
with what LTLs’ interests might be. It’s purely truckload.
“So, it’s nice to know that we have that. We can
offer that to our members and it’s an opportunity to
provide a service to everyone, from the very large
fleets to the very small fleets.”
However, because of their busy schedules members
could only come to Washington a limited number
of times each year, and because of the need to
have the Call on Washington when Congress was in
session. TCA’s involvement in the Wreaths Across
America gala had been a catalyst for the timing of
TCA’s Fall Business Meetings and Call on Washington.
“And the more advocacy we do — if we’re going to
go to Washington, we want to do it when the House
is in session and the Senate is in session,” Doran
said. TCA made the decision to step back from hosting
a WAA gala so that the association could “take
control of that fall meeting and make that a more
meaningful event,” Doran said.
Kaburick and Doran were seated at a conference
table where the Officers group meeting had just taken
place. TCA has a plethora of meaningful events
across the calendar, Doran said, to fulfill the longterm
goals that have been set for the organization.
Both men have been part of setting those goals
and working toward their fruition. With the clock
ticking away before the passing of the torch from
Chairman Doran to Chairman Kaburick, they were
approaching the transition knowing it would be a big
moment for each of them on a personal level, but
also with the appreciation that it would simply be the
turning of a page from one chapter to the next of a
larger story.
“Right now, we’re at that critical point of having
some great things happen,” Kaburick said. “There
are some great officers coming up behind me, and
they’ll take this thing to a whole other level.”
22 TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY | www.Truckload.org TCA 2019