20 Years and Counting For ATA’s Newton

Shannon Newton is the CEO of the Arkansas Trucking Association. (Karen E. Segrave)

Shannon Newton hit a couple of milestones this past month.

Newton, the president of the Arkansas Trucking Association, celebrated both her 20th year with the organization and her ninth as the head of it. She has no plans on stopping any time soon.

“I love what I do, and I am so grateful that all of you trust me to do that,” Newton said earlier this month at the ATA’s annual conference at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. “I don’t do this by myself. I couldn’t do it 20 years by myself.”

Newton praised her staff for making the job she does look easy. The annual conferences, for example, could be a logistical nightmare with hundreds of trucking executives, a dozen or so vendors and prominent guest speakers, but they have gone off without noticeable hitches since I have been attending them.

Newton has certainly molded the ATA into her image: professional, organized and effective. She has secured important trucking and political leaders as speakers at the conference, including former Gov. Asa Hutchinson, current Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and business giant T. Boone Pickens.

More importantly for the trucking companies and truckers of Arkansas, Newton has made the ATA a strong lobbying voice for Arkansas interests in Washington, D.C.

One connection that Newton has made that has proved to be crucial for Arkansas trucking is with Chris Spear, the president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations. Spear was a guest speaker at an ATA conference in 2015 when he was just a vice president and chief of legislative affairs and has returned several times, including this past month.

Spear has ties to Arkansas, having served as legislative director for former Sen. Tim Hutchinson from 2000-01. He was named CEO of the national ATA in 2016.

“It has come to my attention that we have somebody who has hit their 20-year mark, and she is sitting right next to me,” Spear said at the conclusion of his conference keynote speech and Q&A session. “I want to take a moment to share my deepest appreciation for Shannon’s commitment to this industry. Her friendship, her counsel, her passion for this state’s association and for our federation predates me.”

Spear said that soon after he took over the national ATA, he was involved with lobbying to reform an hours-of-service rule that wasn’t working for the trucking industry. He said Newton was critical in the industry’s effort to reform the law; a reform bill was later signed into law by President Barack Obama.

“I did start working with her almost out of the gate when I took this job on hours-of-service reform,” Spear said. “What a sweet victory, one of the biggest milestones the ATA has ever claimed. It was in large part because of her leadership at the state level with your delegation.”

Newton’s talents have been noticed and honored. She received the Mike Russell Trucking Image Award from the ATA in 2017 and received the ATA President’s Trucking Association Executive Council Leadership Award in 2018.

“Those awards, by the way, are not deserved,” Spear said. “They are earned.”

The work Newton has done for the ATA is impressive when you consider she had no background or really interest in trucking when she graduated from the University of Central Arkansas with an accounting degree. She took a job with Maverick Transportation in North Little Rock, which exposed her to the ATA since Maverick owner Steve Williams was an influential board member.

After a year, the ATA hired Newton in 2003 to handle its self-insurers’ fund. The rest is history as she was the unanimous choice to replace Lane Kidd as president when he stepped down in 2014 after 22 years.

Don’t be surprised when Newton surpasses that tenure in 13 more years.

“I do hope there are many more,” Newton said.