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April 12, 2001 11:26 AM, EDT

SAN ANTONIO - Truckload carriers closed their 63rd annual meeting here on Wednesday by installing a new chairman and trying to move away from the turbulence of 2000, toward a calmer routine of providing business services for members while the American Trucking Associations takes care of advocacy issues.

New association chairman Patrick Quinn of U.S. Xpress Enterprises told his members that last year was a “difficult one.”

He said the March 2000 vote, which saw the Truckload Carriers Association’s members choose not to increase its affiliation with the ATA, was a distraction. The need to find a new president to succeed Lana Batts was a distraction as well, he said.

In general, the meeting tried to demonstrate to TCA members what the association says it can do best: provide useful business services that are aimed specifically at truckload companies.

The members also warmly received ATA’s two top officials — Chairman Duane W. Acklie and President Walter B. McCormick Jr. — who spoke of some recent successes and future plans to provide advocacy for trucking on Capitol Hill, in the courts, before executive agencies and in the media.

The closing session offered highlights of TCA’s major points of interest on business services:

• Drivers. A committee chaired by Ronnie Dowdy of Batesville, Ark., is trying to reach into minority communities to recruit new drivers.

  LI>Benchmarking. Before the end of the year, the association will produce a series of industry benchmarks, or best practice standards. The organization has paid for a consultant to survey carriers and collect operational and financial information.

  LI> Small carriers. A TCA committee on this group of companies is offering manuals that give entrepreneurs skills and tips on how to run a small business.

  LI>Inheritance. There are a number of issues with passing a trucking company from one generation to the next. An association panel is putting together advice on this subject.

For now, Quinn says this is what TCA members want the organization to do. However, while their main focus may be on business services, he said TCA will not completely abandon government affairs.

“We don’t have the reputation, strength or dollars to go up on Capitol Hill the way ATA does,” said Quinn in an interview. “However, we do have members in almost every Congressional District.

“We’re all pretty much together. We have far more similarities than differences.”

For full coverage of the meeting, see the April 16 print edition of Transport Topics. .