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Oregon Trucking Associations, Inc.
Oregon Truck Dispatch
A
Q
&
Chris Spear, ATA
Q
Will you please give us a brief
history of your background?
A
My history in trucking goes back to
sitting in the cab of my father’s truck
as he drove wheat from the fields in
Nebraska to silos, but professionally, I’ve
been in Washington and dealing with
transportation issues for more than two
decades. I spent time in the U.S. Senate as
professional staff, as Assistant Secretary for
Policy at the Department of Labor under our
current Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.
I also worked with the Coalition Provisional
Authority in Iraq, and in the private sector
with Honeywell International and Hyundai
Motor Company—all of which led me to
come to ATA, twice.
Q
What do you believe will be the
top 2–3 issues for the trucking
industry in the next few years?
A
I believe three issues are going to
come to define the trucking industry
in the next few years: infrastructure and how
we pay for it; the future of autonomous
vehicles, and technology and trade.
With the paramount importance of these
issues, the ATA is taking proactive steps on
all three. We’ve convened an Infrastructure
Task Force which has already begun its
efforts to shape the debate in Washington
on the 10-year, $1 trillion infrastructure bill
President Trump has highlighted as a priority.
We successfully secured a seat at the table in
the ongoing autonomous vehicles discussion,
including my appointment to DOT’s Advisory
Committee on Automation in Transportation.
These debates are critical—they’ll define
how our trucks will move in the future, and
what kind of roads they’ll move on—but the
swirling debate about trade will define
where those trucks drive to.