ATA Launches New Workforce Development Effort

New Subcommittee to be Led By CRST's Smith

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Oct 24, 2017, 16:55 ET

ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, American Trucking Associations announced it was creating a Workforce Development Subcommittee to address the critical issue of recruiting, training and retaining Americans to work in the trucking industry.

"We have heard about the worsening of the driver shortage, as well as the shortage of qualified diesel technicians, and the impact they have on our industry," said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear, "ATA will now, through this effort, fully engage with our local, state and federal leaders to find real solutions to these shortages. Our industry has openings today that could provide a middle class standard of living to tens of thousands of Americans – we just need to find ways to identify these people and provide them adequate training in order to put them to work building our industry's future."

The subcommittee will be chaired by ATA Secretary John Smith, chairman of CRST International Inc., and will be a part of ATA's Labor and Regulatory Policy Committee.

"Attracting people to our trucking should be one of our industry's top concerns," Smith said. "By elevating this issue within ATA, I hope we can come to the table not just to further recognize the problem, but to identify solutions."

Among the issues this new panel will take up to address the shortage of drivers– which ranked number one on the American Transportation Institute's list of industry concerns this year – and the technician shortage are job training, apprenticeships, minimum age requirements for interstate drivers, age constraints relating to insurance coverage of drivers and preparing our workforce for the jobs of the future.

"We heard several times during this Management Conference and Exhibition about the impact the shortage of workers is having on trucking," said ATA Chairman Dave Manning, president of TCW Inc. "It is our hope that by further elevating these issues we can position ATA to address them in meaningful ways so we can continue to deliver the nation's goods safely, securely and efficiently."

American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of 50 affiliated state trucking associations and industry-related conferences and councils, ATA is the voice of the industry America depends on most to move our nation's freight. Follow ATA on Twitter or on Facebook. Trucking Moves America Forward

SOURCE American Trucking Associations