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A CHAT WITH THE CHAIRMAN
From left: TCA President Jim Ward, Chairman Dave Williams, and immediate Past Chairman John Elliott enjoy a game of golf.
We are working toward
improving the driving
job, improving highway safety,
helping fleets become more
financially sustainable, charting
an appropriate environmental
course, and improving the
image of this industry.”
— Dave Williams
TCA Chairman
CHAT, FROM PAGE 23
u It’s also been a busy 12 months for TCA. What growth have
you noticed in the association during your chairmanship?
There is a statement I’ve heard from one of my mentors on many
occasions: “I am not here to make you happy; I am here to help you
succeed.” Associations can sometimes get caught up in chasing a lot of
the activities they think members might enjoy. While there’s nothing wrong
with having a good time, I don’t think that’s why our members join TCA. At
the end of the day, we have an obligation to help our members survive —
and then thrive. That is where we create value. This doesn’t mean we won’t
continue to provide many of the fun things that associations can provide,
including important networking opportunities. It means that our focus
has shifted toward elevating activities that bring genuine business value,
such as timely information sharing, real-world education that results in
better business decisions, industry-leading benchmarking opportunities,
effective government advocacy, and access to a variety of industry experts,
to name a few. We have always provided these things at some level, but we
are really stepping up our game in strengthening each of these important
areas. We are focusing our energy on activities that pay valuable dividends
and show up in the actual results for our members. I really believe we are
making significant progress here. We have a tremendous opportunity to
really do some good, and it’s starting to show. Very exciting!
u TCA has a mission to give the truckload segment a clear voice
on Capitol Hill. What topics have been the main focus of that
voice during the past year, and what progress have you seen?
Giving the truckload industry a voice on Capitol Hill is a process that
started several years ago and has been building every year. For many of
our larger fleets, the function of government advocacy is the most valuable
benefit of being part of an association, whether it’s at the state level or
the national level. During the first few years of Capitol Hill visits with the
TCA, we had to spend a good amount of time familiarizing members of
Congress and the Federal Regulatory Agencies with the TCA. There was
not a general knowledge about TCA because we had not actively lobbied
for several decades. Now they know who we are. They are asking for our
input on issues. They are listening to our concerns. I am really grateful for
the TCA members and staff who have invested time and resources to put
us in this position. We will continue to build on this and create more value
for the industry.
We have also been consciously moving away from having to play
defense all the time. For much of my career, every year felt like a superhero
movie. Most of our efforts went into getting the industry all worked up
about bad ideas coming out of Washington that might lead to the “end of
the world” for our industry. If we defeated a bad idea, it was considered a
great success. However, that was only half of the equation. We needed to
develop a different approach, and we did. This past year, we furthered that
effort by articulating a focused understanding of what we’re actually trying
to accomplish. Specifically, we are working toward improving the driving
job, improving highway safety, helping fleets become more financially
sustainable, charting an appropriate environmental course, and improving
the image of this industry. This has given us a foundation to start playing
more offense and push for ideas and legislation that will help us to become
a stronger industry. It is a different mindset that I believe will continue to
change the way we operate from an advocacy perspective.
u During our first conversation last March, when you assumed
chairmanship of TCA, you were asked to share your thoughts
on the most important issue facing trucking. At that time, you
expressed a desire for the industry to move from “survival mode”
into a pattern of growth and success, with leaders looking ahead
to address and overcome challenges. How has the industry
progressed since then?
In short, we still have a lot of work to do. If anything, we have fallen into
a deeper downcycle over the past 12 months. The inevitable result of that
will be many fleet bankruptcies. It’s a cruel market.
But this also highlights the need to really understand how various
policies impact our industry. One of the most basic principles our industry
has a really hard time grasping is the economic law of supply and demand.
Even if demand remains constant, when supply increases then prices fall.
When supply decreases then prices rise. It’s very simple. We saw that play
out through the pandemic and after the pandemic. We’ve seen this play out
every couple of years for the last three-plus decades.
Supply in this case is a form of tractor capacity. That capacity can be
impacted by a number of factors, including the availability of tractors, the
availability of drivers, the availability of hours of service, and equipment
size and weight, to name a few. Ideally, cycles would be caused by demand
— meaning how much freight needs to be moved in a time period based
on consumer buying, manufacturing output, business investment, etc. But
through time, it seems the majority of truckload cycles (especially this
SEE CHAT, PAGE 26
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24 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA MARCH/APRIL 2024