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Oregon Trucking Associations, Inc.
Oregon Truck Dispatch
FROM THE PRESIDENT
JANA JARVIS
OTA President
The lazy days of summer are starting to
shorten
as I write this column in early
August, but there has been nothing “lazy” going
on at the OTA office! After a busy spring with
the Safety Convention, we moved quickly into
a number of events that you will see reflected
in the pictures throughout this edition of the
Dispatch
. One of those events, in particular,
caused us to slow down for a moment and
reflect on the history of this industry that has
evolved into a major component of the
American economy.
The American Truck Historical Society held their
annual convention in Oregon this year at the
Salem fairgrounds, and we were privileged to
participate in the event. OTA was recognized for
their 75+ years as
the
trade association for the
trucking industry and several of our members
were recognized, as well, for their long history in
the trucking industry. We are featuring
Reddaway in this edition and you can see that
they also have a long history in Oregon. When
you think about how this industry has changed
over the decades—you can’t help but admire the
staying power of many of our members. My
father used to love to quote the old English
proverb that “you don’t know where you’re going
until you know where you’ve been” every time I
had some crazy new idea, and as I’ve aged, I have
come to appreciate the sentiment. It’s important
that we, as an industry, take the time to recognize
and understand the evolution of our industry as
we take on and face the new technological and
political challenges ahead of us.
Part of understanding where we have been is
recognizing and appreciating those individuals
that are integral to our industry—the truck
driver and the technician! OTA held several
events in June focused on those segments of
our industry. The Oregon Truck Driving
Championship was held at the FedEx facility
on Swan Island early in June and state
champions headed back to Indiana for the
national competition in mid August. Thank
you FedEx for hosting us! We also enjoyed a
crowded, successful Maintenance Fair at the
Airport Holiday Inn later in June followed the
next day by the SuperTech competition for
technicians, with their national competition
coming up in September in Raleigh, North
Carolina. We were pleased to have so many
students compete at SuperTech this year—it’s a
great opportunity to scout for talent among
these students while volunteering at this event
so we hope to see more of you next year to
make it even bigger and better!
Following closely on the heels of these events
was the annual Truck PAC golf tournament at
Langdon Farms Golf Course in July. We had a
highly successful event with over 100 golfers
where we raised over $20,000 to help our
political efforts this fall. In early September we
will host the Leadership Circle event for those
contributors that make an annual $1,000 or
more. These events are fun and a great
opportunity to socialize and network—but they
are so much more than that. In order for our
industry to have a meaningful impact we need
to raise enough funds to get noticed. We have
work to do on that front, so stay tuned as our
fundraising outreach efforts evolve over the
next election cycle.
In the midst of all of this activity, the OTA office
had a major facelift this summer! New paint,
new carpet, new flooring, and a new phone
system give us a fresh new face and outlook. As
this neighborhood gentrifies, it improves the
value of our building as well. With this
improvement in mind we are reaching out to
you to help us with our décor by sending us
photographs that we can use for artwork on our
walls. We have a couple of pictures from the
calendar contest last year—and we are excited to
showcase our members’ trucks artistically, so we
hope you will participate in this competition.
We also launched a new website with a new
database in July that promises to be easier to use
and more interactive. Please take a moment and
review your data so that we have your correct
information—and then take a moment and let
us know what you think!
The Leadership Convention at Eagle Crest in
Redmond, Oregon will be coming up shortly
after you receive this edition of the
Dispatch
.
There will be a number of nationally recognized
speakers talking on a range of topics pertinent
to your business. Hopefully, by the time you are
reading this column you have already made
plans to attend (and have registered!), but if not,
I would appeal to you to decide to attend. Our
allied members will be sponsoring the Allied
Showcase on Friday that will allow you to get an
overview of all of the great partners we have in
the trucking industry. In addition, there are
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will randomly
select a winner
for a $100 gift
card giveaway.