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Message from the Chairman

As I humbly begin my tenure as Chairman, I would like to thank Barry Cannon for his leadership, insight, and desire to make the KMTA what it is today—a leader. In addition, I would like to thank our KMTA staff for working tirelessly on our new goals and objectives, not only in Frankfort, but across this State.

As I begin this position, I recognize that our industry has faced some of the most economically challenged times in recent history and unfortunately, the future may hold many more unknowns. As the economy remains challenged, the introduction of CSA 2010 and its impact, legislative issues, along with the availability of qualified truck drivers, will be at the forefront of our concerns. As I begin my role, I have asked our Board of Directors to take an in depth look at our Association and to begin to make changes. I have asked them to look at the needs of our industry and our membership and work towards common solutions to the problems that we all face. I want you to know that our Board has accepted this challenge head-on and is moving forward at incredible speed in addressing those needs.

I want to begin by letting you know what is going on within leadership of the KMTA. We are working on a new program for our Board members—“Get Involved – Provide Solutions”—and we have hit the ground running. We have instituted a “committee” form of administration for our Board and every Board member is now asked to get involved in a committee on the Board as well as state and community committees. We recognize that there is so much going on in this State related to trucking and we as an Industry need our voices heard.

Our new Committee structure is as follows:

• Finance Committee – Barry Cannon, Chair: Responsibilities include balancing our budget, allocating expenditures, managing the balance sheet, and securing financial audits of our records.
• Membership Committee – Tim Pike, Chair: Responsible for growing and maintaining our membership, through meeting the needs of our members both trucking and allied, membership dues structure, and supplier/vendor requests.
• Legislative Committee – Mark Giuffre, Chair: Responsible for legislative action, primarily on the State level, but does incorporate the Federal level on some aspects. Mark’s group is charged with working with our legislators and staff on bills that have been introduced that have an impact on trucking as well as working to introduce new bills that our industry supports.
• PAC Committee – Bill Usher, Jr., Chair: This is our Political Action Committee. As we work with Legislators, we want to do our best in supporting candidates that are in tune with our industry versus those that have no idea what and how transportation and highway infrastructure control our economy.
• CSA/Safety Committee – Dave Bose, Chair: This committee is moving at whirlwind speed. Dave has been tasked to work in conjunction with the Safety Council in a manner that will assist, teach, administer, and counsel Motor Carriers in all safety areas, but primarily addressing the new CSA requirements and standards. We are all in agreement that its one thing to promote and introduce CSA to all of the Motor Carriers, but it’s a whole new ballgame to survive CSA. The interventions have yet to begin, and our desire is for the KMTA to assist Carriers through not only this process, but to guide the Motor Carrier to a new plan of improvement.

Each one of these committees and their respective chairs have been given full authority to relate to the Board of Directors their desires, plans, and needs. In this manner, we feel strongly that we are providing the necessary services and addressing the core values of our membership. In addition to our Board Committees, we strongly encourage members to get involved in other Committees around the State, such as:

Regional Transportation Planning (Local ADD Districts)
MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organizations)
Incident Management Teams (Major Interstates)
Bridge Committee (Jefferson County)
Safety Committees

There are many areas where anyone can get involved and have our voices heard, remember the challenge is not only to the Board, but to you. We need to make sure people understand clearly that we are in support of safe Motor Carrier operations, better highways, less delay, and better economic conditions and the only way we can do this is…

As our Board has been tasked to take on more leadership roles, I ask you to get involved as well—the future of our industry and our Association depends on each and every one of you. Also, as you have recently noticed, our staff has begun sending out weekly emails detailing what is going on within the KMTA for the week. This is something that is only meant to keep our membership informed as to the happenings throughout the State on issues and concerns related to our Industry. In addition, our KMTA staff is working hard to bring education and information to various parts of the state, instead of hosting everything in Frankfort or Louisville. We do this as we understand how hard it is to get out of the office, much less travel. We are therefore trying to bring the information to you through the emails and newsletters coming from our office. Please try to attend or send one of your staff to the meetings being held in your area and provide us feedback on other topics that you would like to see. We have also begun to utilize technology in a much more efficient manner, our office is now capable of handling and/or hosting “Go to Meetings” and webinars. As members of our Association, you are invited to utilize our services both as a training platform and also for your business use, also please watch for specific trainings being offered through these programs.

I look forward to the next two years as your Chairperson and want you to know that I sincerely appreciate what you do. I will do everything within my responsibility to move our Association to the forefront, addressing the needs of our members, providing leadership on industry matters, and facilitating solutions to the challenges that lay ahead. However, in order to do this I need you—the KMTA needs you—to get involved. Provide solutions, promote our membership & growth, and help us provide administrative help to those Carriers facing issues that they may be unfamiliar with and to provide leadership through Integrity, Honesty, and Education!

KNOW A COMPANY THAT IS NOT A MEMBER? Just let us know and we will be honored to make contact with them to discuss the value and return of being a member of the Kentucky Motor Transport Association! Help us help you, and get the word out by promoting our Association and getting involved.

Please know that your voice is heard by our Association, and if you want to get more involved, please contact the KMTA office or feel free to contact me directly.

I sincerely wish each of you a Prosperous and Safe year.

Very Best Regards,

Michael R. Hall