To address critical issues currently facing trucking companies, the American Trucking Assns. (ATA) has launched ATA Business Solutions, providing participating companies with information products, business tools, services, training programs and conferences, the trucking lobby has announced.
“We are bringing together some of the top minds in the industry to tackle the most pressing business issues, such as fuel efficiency, state taxes, driver safety training, security and much more,” said ATA president & CEO Bill Graves. “ATA Business Solutions are another valuable ATA service designed to help make trucking-related companies more profitable and efficient in today’s difficult economic times.”
The initial areas that ATA Business Solutions will focus on are Accounting, Tax, Finance, and Risk; Safety; Technology and Maintenance; Fuel Economy and Efficiency; Economics; Security and Loss Prevention, and Information Technology and Logistics. However, ATA said it would continually add new services to the program.
Services currently offered include ATA Safety on Demand, a web-based system that allows companies to provide driver safety training at any time; and the ATA Fuel Crisis Survival Kit, geared towards helping trucking companies reduce fuel consumption and costs.
“The service is aimed at anybody who uses a truck for their business,” Warren Hoemann, ATA senior vp of industry affairs, told FleetOwner. “We will first target ATA members, but the program will be open to all companies who operate trucks, even those who don’t necessarily consider themselves fleets.”
According to Hoemann, ATA Business Solutions will provide specialized resources from ATA experts based in each field. For example, the Accounting, Tax, Finance, and Risk division provides a trucking-specific online state tax guide. He added that there will be ATA member and non-member prices, with ‘member’ prices eventually stretching to members of state trucking associations.
"The next step is to have marketing agreements with each of the state trucking associations in place, which we hope can become ‘virtual stores’ for ATA by the end of the year,” said Hoemann, adding that ATA plans to enter into a business agreement with each state organization to share revenues.
The money will go back into ATA for efforts such as advocacy services and the Share the Road program. “Everything we do is supported by revenue,” Hoemann said. “It makes sense to double the benefits--meet your own business needs while improving the industry.”
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