The selection of Bryant resident Shannon Newton as president of the Arkansas Trucking Association last June was no surprise, if you know the trucking industry in this state.
However, to many outside the trucking business, it caused some buzz to see a woman, and one only 35 years of age, take on the role of the chief advocate for the owners and drivers of big rigs.
“As for being a woman in a male dominated business, the thought doesn’t cross my mind,” Newton, a native of Benton, said. “Women hold a lot of positions in the trucking industry in this state. There are two women on our board. Visit a board meeting of any industry and you will see more men than women, but I am not the only woman in the room. I’m not blazing a trail, I’m just trying to do a good job.”
For members of the ATA, Newton’s selection would seem a logical move. She joined the ATA in 2003, just a little more than a year after she graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway with a degree in accounting. She was made vice president of the organization in 2008 and has spent her entire career learning the trucking business.
“Shannon is a leader and is knowledgeable about the complex issues faced by our members,” Craig Harper, the association’s board chairman and executive vice president of J.B. Hunt Transport Services, said when Newton’s selection was announced. “The board was unanimous in this appointment. She became the clear choice to lead the Arkansas Tricking Association forward.”
Newton said she has been busy in the months since her selection, so much so she has not had time to move into the president’s office. Instead, she still works out of her old one in the ATA’s Little Rock headquarters.
“I come after Lane Kidd, who sat in this chair for 22 years,” she said. “I am working to become someone who could lead the association for another 20 years. Right now we are still defining the new normal; we say that a lot around here.”
Earlier in the week, Newton said she had been in Van Buren meeting with ATA members at USA Truck.
“We talked about the industry,” she said. “The company has had a lot of changes, and I wanted to know who they are and what they would like me to be doing. This business is all about people and relationships — and a lot of communications.”
Her background in the trucking industry is firm. She was hired 11 years ago to oversee the ATA Self-Insurers’ Fund, worth around $11 million. It was only her second job. She was hired by the association from Maverick USA, a trucking company based in North Little Rock, where she had been hired as an accountant right out of college.
“That’s my connection to transportation,” Newton said. “I was hired to do payroll at Maverick. Once I got to the ATA, I think I was attracted to the dynamics of the people who run the big trucks people see on the road every day that deliver goods that people consume. It is all American made and not going anywhere.”
Newton said one of the main things she would like to accomplish is to elevate the profile of the trucking industry.
“The public does not have a good understanding of the impact the industry has on the economy and how it is connected to the standard of living we enjoy,” she said. I would like to see the status rise on the trucking industry. That would solve so many things.”
The trucking industry is not something going on behind the scenes in America.
“Our industry operates in plain sight,” Newton said. “People may grimace about the big truck that goes past them or think it is going too slow in the fast lane. The public wants their Amazon packages to arrive the next day and to have bread on their grocery shelves. Maybe the truck driver’s going fast because he is carrying that bread and is on a deadline.”
While early voting is going on, Newton’s mind is already on the next session of the Arkansas Legislature. She said the 2015 session will be unlike any other she has experienced.
“I have been though many legislative sessions, but I was the clipboard holder,” she said. “I have had a lot of experience being in the door, but it is going to be exciting to be the person doing the talking.”
The ATA employs a professional lobbying firm, but it is Newton’s responsibility to get the attention of the legislators for the association’s members.
She said her efforts will be focused on the membership’s top issue, anti-indemnification.
“It means that when a truck comes on to a shipper’s property, the driver and the truck owner will hold the warehouse owner harmless no matter what might happen to the truck or the driver while on the shipper’s property,” she said. “It means that if their forklift hit a truck or even the driver, they are not responsible. Our members want to see it changed so that we agree to do our business and they do theirs.”
Newton said several states have passed laws so that both sides take on their own responsibilities. So far, no one has announced opposition to the idea, but she said in some states the oil and gas businesses voiced opposition to state legislatures.
The trucking association represents more than 300 trucking companies and industry suppliers. Newton said that while most trucking companies in the state have 10 trucks or less, Arkansas is also home to some of the largest trucking companies in the nation, including J.B. Hunt and Fed Ex Freight.
“The trucking industry is second only to agriculture in Arkansas,” Newton said. “One in 13 employed workers in Arkansas work for the trucking industry.”
Early in life, Newton said she wanted to be a teacher.
“I have all the hours for an education degree except student teaching, but I shifted to accounting,” Newton said. “In the 10th grade at Benton High School, Ms. Hilburn taught us about accounting. I liked problem solving and knowing there was a right answer out there that made sense.”
Newton admits she lives the life of a Benton grad residing in Bryant, where she lives with her husband, Josh, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They have two children of their own and they have David, 17, who they hope to adopt.
“I will admit there was part of life and the world I never thought about that much,” Newton said. “I was sitting at the office watching CNN during lunch and saw a story about Russia stopping the international adoptions of children. The report said it would mean little hope for adoption and a loving home for older orphans.”
Learning about the problem in Russia for older child orphans, Newton looked into the situation for older children without parents and found it not much better in the U.S.
“It was something you cannot unknow,” she said. “I thought we could do that. I believe my husband is one of the best human beings in the world; if anyone could do this he could. That is how we got David in January.”
With a new position and a new member of the family, Newton has had some challenges as she works toward defining the new normal — at home and in the office.
Staff writer Wayne Bryan can be reached at (501) 244-4460 or wbryan@arkansasonline.com.