The American Trucking Associations has assumed management of the Distribution and LTL Carriers Association, a Kansas City MO-based organization representing for-hire trucking firms engaged in local, regional, and interregional less-than-truckload freight shipments and warehousing.
Under an agreement signed by Bill Graves, ATA president and chief executive officer; and Distribution and LTL Carriers Association Chairman Glen Merkel of Davis Cartage, ATA will provide day-to-day management of the 70-member association effective June 1, 2008.
Robert Farrell, executive director of ATA’s Automobile Carriers Conference, will serve as president and secretary of Distribution and LTL, which will continue to operate as an independent organization.
"This agreement has special significance for me because my family business, Graves Truck Line, was a less-than-truckload carrier," Graves said at the signing agreement held at ATA’s Arlington VA headquarters.
The Distribution and LTL Carriers Association was formed in 1996 through the consolidation of the Regional and Distribution Carriers Conference and Regular Common Carrier Conference, both of which were founded to promote the interests and profitability of trucking company members.
In recent years, the Distribution and LTL group has focused on member networking and educational opportunities. ATA assumed the group’s legislative advocacy role in 2004.
Farrell said the organization will focus its efforts on providing value to current and potential members by promoting new and affordable technologies to family-owned trucking companies, promoting best practices, and providing networking opportunities.
