Last week, Mark Miller the President of MacMillan-Piper, a GSC company, attended the American Trucking Association’s (ATA) annual Management Conference and Exhibition. Every year leaders from across the trucking industry gather to share key trends and issues across all facets of the trucking industry at the ATA MCE. Needless to say, there’s never a shortage of issues or topics to discuss or learn about during the conference.
Here are three key takeaways from this year’s ATA MCE:
Economic Recap
Per ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello, the trucking sector is seeing stagflation – rates and demand for trucking are down while costs are up, causing a freight recession. He expects the situation in the coming year to improve a bit. Bob didn’t predict a boom in the trucking industry, but rather a trend toward pre-pandemic normal as equipment and demand rebalance.
Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference (IMCC)
Mark Miller sits on the ATA’s IMCC Board of Directors, and he shares behind the scenes insights from a meeting on Sunday during the conference. The IMCC board continues to work on policy issues that affect the trucking industry, such as chassis choice, FMC rule making, and OSRA implementation. IMCC is one of five conferences within the American Trucking Associations (ATA).
State of the Industry
ATA President & CEO Chris Spear delivered a keynote speech touching on many key topics, including the push toward zero emission vehicles (ZEVs). Chris talked about an approach toward reducing truck emissions that offers a cost-effective way to allow for independent owner operators and smaller trucking companies to upgrade their equipment. As many in the trucking industry know, ZEV trucks are 3 to 4 times the cost of a new clean diesel truck. The costs can be prohibitive to many truck drivers on the road today, who would likely be priced out of the industry. With a smaller pool of drivers remaining, only larger corporations or fleets would survive, and with a smaller supply, the demand and cost of goods would rise. Everyone is looking forward to reducing emissions from trucks and Chris detailed how he hopes the trucking industry and the regulatory industries can start with a more feasible approach for the industry.
We look forward to another educational and successful ATA MCE next year.
