ATR 5 2025 digital

Award-Winning Magazine of the Arkansas Trucking Association Vol. 30 | Issue 5 2025 | $6.95ROBERT JANESLearning by DoingT r u c k D r i v e r A p p r e c i at i o n | N E W F M C SA A D M I N I ST R ATO R | E L P

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PHOTOGRAPHY ON THIS PAGE AND COVER BY JACOB SLATONF E AT U R E SIN THIS ISSUEVOLUME 30 | ISSUE 5 2025COVER STORY LEARNING BY DOING 30Entry level job turns into career for W&B Service Company’s Robert JanesBy Todd TraubCAPITOL WATCHARKANSAS JOINS FEDS IN OUT-OF-SERVICE ENFORCEMENT 16CDL training the keyBy Steve BrawnerFREIGHT RECESSION TIGHTENS TRUCKING MARGINS 20Rising costs and flat rates continue to strain carriers By Dr. Alex Leslie, PhDTRADE SECRETSTRUCK PARKING ISSUE STARTING TO GAIN FREE MARKET SOLUTIONS 34Safe, Secure and Scarce By Dwain HebdaFIT TO DRIVE 38Driver impairment a major problem in trucking industry By Dwain HebdaUp Front: By Shannon Newton 7They Said It 9News in Brief 10Calendar of Events 12Council Quarterly 24Advertiser Resource Index 25Scene Around 42Insider Trucking 47Stat View 49The Last Word: By David O’Neal 50D EPA R T MEN T SARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 5

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KEEPING SCOREAs the first nine weeks of the school year come to a close, report cards are finding their way home to kitchen tables across Arkansas. For parents, it’s a moment of pride—or maybe a little anxiety. For students, it’s a snapshot of effort, focus, and follow-through. For some families, that means high-fives and refrigerator magnets; for others, maybe a few tough conversations about where there’s room to improve. Either way, it’s a moment to pause, measure progress, and talk about what comes next.This season happens to coincide with one when we deliver a few report cards of our own. This week, we began notifying members of the Arkansas General Assembly who earned the title Champion of Trucking—a way to acknowledge those who supported the policies and priorities that matter most to our industry during the 2025 legislative session. Refer to Page 31 for a complete list of the 2025 Champions of Trucking.If the phrase report card makes you flash back to sweaty palms and nervous glances at your parents, you’re not alone. Report cards sum up a lot of work in a single snapshot. They’re about accountability, motivation, and—when the grades are good—a little bit of bragging rights.Our version isn’t based on pop quizzes or perfect attendance, but on measurable actions: votes cast, bills sponsored, and investments that moved the ball forward for Arkansas trucking. You can’t evaluate what you don’t measure, so it’s important that we do measure. Knowing how lawmakers show up for trucking tells us a lot about how we should show up for them.The legislative session is full of competing priorities. But when we identify our key issues and track how legislators engage with them, we gain clarity. It helps us strengthen relationships with our allies, educate those who may need more context, and make informed decisions when it’s time to support candidates or build coalitions in the future.Recognition matters. The Champion of Trucking awards aren’t about flattery—they’re a tangible way to spotlight lawmakers who take the time to understand our industry and the people who keep Arkansas supplied and moving. Many of them proudly share the recognition with their constituents, signaling that they stand with the men and women who deliver for Arkansas every day.This recognition isn’t about winners and losers; it’s about transparency. It shows who understands the value of trucking to our economy and communities—and reminds everyone else that we’re paying attention.Because the truth is, whether it’s in the classroom or at the Capitol, everyone performs a little better when they know someone’s keeping score.An affiliate of the American Trucking AssociationsArkansas Trucking Association (ATA) is an Arkansas corporation of trucking companies, private carrier fleets and businesses which serve or supply the trucking industry. ATA serves these companies as a governmental affairs representative before legislative, regulatory and executive branches of government on issues that affect the trucking industry. The organization also provides public relations services, workers’ compensation insurance, operational services and serves as a forum for industry meetings and membership relations. For information, contact ATA at: 1401 West Capitol, Suite 185Post Office Box 3476 (72203)Little Rock, Arkansas 72201Phone 501.372.3462 Fax 501.376.1810www.arkansastrucking.comAward-Winning Magazine of the Arkansas Trucking AssociationArkansas Trucking Report is owned by the Arkansas Trucking Association, Inc. and is published bimonthly. For additional copies, to order reprints of individual articles or to become a subscriber to ATR, contact us at [email protected] or at 501.372.3462. executive editorSHANNON SAMPLES NEWTONmanaging editorDAVID O’NEAL contributing writersart directorJON D. KENNEDYThe Freelance Co. LLC, [email protected] editorsSARAH NEWMAN, JORDAN WELCH, JULIA TAYLOR-BROWNillustrator BRENT [email protected] KATIE CHILDS, JON D. KENNEDY, JACOB SLATONwww.arkansastrucking.compresidentSHANNON SAMPLES [email protected] president of operationsSARAH [email protected] president of engagementDAVID O’[email protected] of safety and loss preventionMIKE [email protected] coordinatorJORDAN [email protected] administratorJULIA [email protected] OF DIRECTORSUP FRONTSTEVE BRAWNER [email protected] [email protected] NALL [email protected] [email protected] BARR JM Bozeman Enterprises CEOGREG CARMANCarman, Inc.PresidentNEIL CORDERWayne Smith TruckingPresidentMATTHEW GODFREYABF FreightPresidentGEORGE HENRYDB SchenkerEVP Region America’s – Land TransportAL HERINGER IV Star Transportation, LLC PresidentBRAD HICKSJ.B. Hunt TransportPresident of Dedicated Contract ServicesROSS HOOVERRush Truck CentersRegional General ManagerROBERT JANESW&B Service Co.Service DirectorJEFF LOGGINS Loggins Logistics, Inc. President & CEOCLINT MCCOYFedEx FreightCOORYAN MCDANIELWalmart Transportation LLCSenior Vice PresidentMIKE MCNUTTDistribution Solutions, Inc.CEO, OwnerMARK MORRISMorris Transportation Services, LLCPresidentG.E. “BUTCH” RICE III Stallion Transportation Group PresidentALAN RIELS Dedicated LogisticsPresident & CEOPATRICK SIMMONSTyson FoodsVice President Transportation GABE STEPHENSC.C. Jones, Inc.Vice PresidentLANCE STEWARTPAM TransportPresident & CEODOUG VOSSUniversity of Central ArkansasProfessor of Logistics & SupplyChain ManagementDrivers Legal PlanDrivers Legal PlanCHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD John Culp Maverick Transportation PresidentShannon NewtonPresident, Arkansas Trucking AssociationARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 7

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THEY SAID IT“Truck drivers are the backbone of our economy and a source of pride for our state … I am proud to lead the Senate in showing professional truck drivers gratitude and respect.” —U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-Ark.) in a bipartisan resolution recognizing National Truck Driver Appreciation Week.“Licenses to operate a massive, 80,000-pound truck are being issued to dangerous foreign drivers—often times illegally. This is a direct threat to the safety of every family on the road.” —U.S. DOT Secretary Sean Duffy“The No. 1 thing … they all talk to me about is the fact that they just do not know how to plan … given this on-again, off-again tariff implementation strategy.” —Zach Strickland, freight market intelligence director“IN ORDER TO PROTECT OUR GREAT HEAVY TRUCK MANUFACTURERS FROM UNFAIR OUTSIDE COMPETITION, I WILL BE IMPOSING, AS OF OCTOBER 1, 2025, A 25% TARIFF ON ALL ‘HEAVY (BIG!) TRUCKS’ MADE IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD.” —President Donald Trump in a Truth Social post“It’s not goingto beperfect.” —Vice President J.D. Vance, on how government services will be disrupted during the shutdown“‘TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT,’ according to Pollsters.”—President Donald Trump on the Truth Social platform after Democrats were acknowledged as winning elections in New York City, New Jersey, and Virginia.ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 9

NEWS IN BRIEFSENATE CONFIRMS DEREK BARRS AS FMCSA ADMINISTRATOROn October 3, the U.S. Senate confirmed Derek D. Barrs to lead the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), installing him as the agency’s first full-time, Senate-approved administrator in roughly three years. The confirmation vote came via an en bloc resolution (S. Res. 412) that passed 51-46. Barrs brings decades of law enforcement and commercial vehicle safety experience to the post. He previously served as Chief of the Florida Highway Patrol and held leadership roles in the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA). During his confirmation hearing in July, Barrs pledged to make road safety his “highest priority” while stressing the need for collaboration with industry, enforcement agencies, and safety stakeholders. The trucking industry and safety advocacy groups largely welcomed the decision. The American Trucking Associations praised Barrs as a wellqualified leader capable of strengthening accountability, compliance, and safety regulation. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance pledged close cooperation with the new administrator to advance crash reduction efforts and regulatory modernization. TRUCK TARIFFS IN EFFECTPresident Donald Trump announced that a 25% tariff on all medium- and heavy-duty trucks imported into the U.S. are effective as of November 1, a pushback from the original October 1 start date. The tariffs, imposed on national security grounds, aim to shield U.S. manufacturers such as Peterbilt, Kenworth, and Freightliner from what the administration calls “unfair outside competition.”The measure affects a wide range of vehicles—from delivery and utility trucks to tractor-trailers and buses—and could disrupt trade with key allies. Mexico, the largest exporter of heavy trucks to the U.S., has strongly opposed the move, emphasizing that its exports contain roughly 50% U.S.-made components. Industry groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have urged the administration to reconsider, warning the tariffs could strain supply chains and raise costs across the trucking sector.TRADE GROUPS CLASH OVER LIGHTS-ONLY WARNING SYSTEM FOR PARKED AUTONOMOUS TRUCKSEmergency Safety Solutions has petitioned the FMCSA for a five-year waiver that would allow commercial trucks equipped with its H.E.L.P. DeliverSAFE system to forego placing traditional warning triangles when stopped—relying instead on intensified flashing lights. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association strongly opposes the request. OOIDA President Todd Spencer stated the exemption’s supporting studies fail to account for diverse weather, road, lighting, and traffic conditions encountered nationwide. Photo: fmcsa.dot.gov10 Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORTPhoto: istockphoto.com

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FMCSA previously denied a similar waiver sought by Aurora and Waymo in 2024, citing insufficient data and lack of safeguards for highway safety. This issue of is significant importance for autonomous trucking interests, since it limits the ability to operate without a human on board. Of the 19 public comments submitted on the new exemption request, OOIDA voiced opposition while groups like the American Trucking Associations and Truckload Carriers Association support it. Kevin Grove, ATA’s director of safety and technology policy, praised the potential of innovative lighting solutions to enhance safety. FUTURE FREIGHT TECH ON DISPLAY AT BENTONVILLE’S UP.SUMMITBentonville, Ark., played host recently to the UP.Summit, an inviteonly gathering of transportation innovators, investors, and policymakers focused on the future of mobility. While the event grabbed headlines for flying taxis, jet cars, and humanoid robots, the trucking and logistics sector was also well represented, with sessions highlighting technologies aimed squarely at modernizing freight movement.Demonstrations and discussions showcased autonomous truck platforms capable of hub-to-hub operation, AI-driven routing and dispatch systems that learn from live traffic and weather data, and connected fleet management tools designed to improve uptime, maintenance forecasting, and driver safety. Several sessions explored the scaling of low-emission and alternativefuel technologies, including batteryelectric and hydrogen systems tailored for long-haul applications. Executives from major OEMs, logistics startups, and fleet operators shared insights on how regulatory readiness, infrastructure investment, and digital freight optimization are converging to reshape supply chain efficiency.Held at Bentonville’s Thaden Field, the summit drew more than 350 leaders from across the transportation ecosystem, offering a front-row view of how automation, electrification, and data intelligence are blurring the lines between freight and passenger mobility.DRIVE-SAFE ACT REINTRODUCEDA bipartisan group in Congress has reintroduced the DRIVE-Safe Act (Developing Responsible Individuals for a Vibrant Economy), a bill aimed at opening interstate opportunities to younger CDL-holders.Under current federal law, drivers under 21 can operate commercial vehicles only within state lines. The DRIVESafe Act would change that—allowing qualified 18- to 20-year-old CDL holders to cross state lines once they complete a rigorous apprenticeship program. The proposal outlines at least 400 hours of on-duty time and 240 hours of supervised driving, with every mile monitored by an experienced driver riding along.To enhance safety, trucks used in the program must be equipped with active braking and collision-mitigation systems, and forward-facing cameras. Previous versions of the proposed act have included a mandate for speed limiters, but they are not included in the current legislative text. Apprentices would also face performance benchmarks and additional training if involved in preventable crashes or violations.The September 2025 version, H.R. 5563, was introduced in the House by Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.-1), along with cosponsors Jared Golden CALENDAR OF EVENTSDECEMBERDECEMBER 3ACCOUNTING & FINANCE COUNCILABF FreightFt. Smith, Ark.DECEMBER 8-12NATMI CERTIFIED SAFETY SUPERVISOR/CERTIFIED DIRECTOR OF SAFETY COURSEVirtualJANUARYJANUARY 12-16NATMI CERTIFIED SAFETY SUPERVISOR/CERTIFIED DIRECTOR OF SAFETY COURSEVirtualJANUARY 21-22NATMI SAFETY & DOT COMPLIANCE COURSEVirtualAPRIL 27-29ARKANSAS TRUCKING ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE (ATAC26)Little Rock, Ark.JUNE 25-27ARKANSAS TRUCKING CHAMPIONSHIPRogers, Ark.For calendar information, visit arkansastrucking.comNEWS IN BRIEF,Continued from page 10SAVE THE DATES FOR 2026!12 Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT

(D-Maine), Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.-4), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), Darin LaHood (R-Ill.), and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.).Supporters say the measure would create a career pathway for younger drivers and help replenish an aging workforce without compromising safety. ATA President Shannon Newton noted, “The DRIVE-Safe Act is a practical, safety-focused step toward solving our industry’s workforce challenges. By creating a structured path for young, well-trained drivers to begin interstate careers, this bill helps us attract new talent while maintaining the high safety standards Arkansas carriers are known for. Congressman Crawford’s leadership reflects an understanding that trucking is both an essential service and an essential opportunity for the next generation.”ATA REITERATES OPPOSITION TO LOG TRUCKS ON INTERSTATE HIGHWAYSIn a late-September letter to House Appropriations Committee leaders, Arkansas Congressman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.-4) requested the inclusion of a provision in pending legislation that would allow log trucks weighing up to 85,000 lbs. to operate on interstate highways in Arkansas. While Westerman cited the potential for “exponential growth” for the state’s forestry industry, the Arkansas Trucking Association continues to oppose industry-specific waivers of the federal 80,000 lb. weight limit on the interstate system. Earlier this year, ATA President Shannon Newton wrote to each member of Arkansas’s Congressional delegation on behalf of the ATA Board of Directors. In her letter, Newton noted that while proponents argue that heavier trucks on interstates would reduce risk by reducing miles traveled on secondary roads, this ignores a critical fact: incidents at interstate speeds are far more severe than the alternative. Wide turns and fender-benders on county roads may cause property damage or minor injury, but a crash at 70 miles per hour with an 85,000-pound log truck has potentially catastrophic consequences. If the interstate truly is the safest, most efficient route, the solution is simple: use it at the legal weight of 80,000 pounds.DOT PROPOSES TO ADD FENTANYL TO DRUG TESTING PANELSThe U.S. Department of Transportation is proposing to amend its drug testing regulations to add fentanyl (a synthetic opioid) and norfentanyl (a metabolite of fentanyl) to its drug testing panels.The proposed rulemaking would harmonize 49 CFR Part 40 with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs, which DOT must follow for the minimum list of drugs for which DOT requires testing.“Adding fentanyl and norfentanyl is also in the interest of transportation safety, given compelling information regarding the number of overdose deaths in the United States involving fentanyl,” DOT said in a Federal Register notice published in early September.In a January 2025 Federal Register notice, HHS added fentanyl and norfentanyl to the authorized drug testing panels. DOT’s proposal would adopt those into its drug testing panels.The public comment period for the notice of proposed rulemaking closed in mid-October. NEW I-55 BRIDGE TO BE NAMED IN HONOR OF THREE KINGS The Arkansas and Tennessee departments of transportation announced the new Interstate 55 bridge that will cross the Mississippi River between West Memphis and Memphis will be named Kings’ Crossing. The $800 million bridge’s name honors civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and musicians B.B. King and Elvis Presley. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968, B.B. King began his legendary blues career in Memphis and Presley, the King of Rock and Roll, moved to Memphis when he was 13 and his home, Graceland, is still a Memphis tourist attraction.“It’s only fitting to name this vital crossing after three historic figures from this region,” ARDOT Director Jared Wiley said. “We’re grateful for the partnership and collaboration with TDOT on this project.”ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 13Photo: istockphoto.com

The new bridge is still in the design stage and construction isn’t expected to begin until 2026. The bridge will eventually replace the current I-55 bridge, known as the Old Bridge since it opened in 1949.In July 2024, the states’ DOTs received word they would receive a $393 million grant made available through Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Tennessee and Arkansas have pledged $200 million each for their share of the construction cost.“Kings’ Crossing is more than just a piece of infrastructure; it is a symbol of our collective history, heritage, and the enduring spirit of unity that defines this region,” TDOT Commissioner Will Reid said. The design for the new Kings’ Crossing bridge isn’t final but it is expected to include six lanes, an emergency lane and expanded shoulder. The new bridge is being designed to handle as many as 64,000 vehicles daily and will meet modern seismic code requirements because it will be on the New Madrid fault line.BRAD DELCO NAMED CFO AT J.B. HUNTJ.B. Hunt Transport Services has promoted Brad Delco to chief financial officer and executive vice president of finance, effective Sept. 1. He succeeds John Kuhlow, who will continue as chief accounting officer.Delco joined J.B. Hunt in 2019 and has led the company’s investor relations, corporate development, financial planning, and ESG initiatives. Before that, he spent 14 years with Stephens Inc. in corporate finance and equity research, focusing on the transportation industry.“Brad’s deep background in finance and capital markets, coupled with his transportation industry knowledge, continues to fuel our financial strategy as we look toward disciplined future growth and greater returns on our strategic investments,” said Shelley Simpson, J.B. Hunt president and CEO.ATA CROWNS NATIONAL TRUCK DRIVING CHAMPIONSDavid Comings, a professional driver with FedEx Freight from North Dakota, is being celebrated as the Bendix Grand Champion at the 2025 National Truck Driving & Step Van Championships.“Over the course of three decades and 3.1 million accident-free miles, David has proven his driving prowess and commitment to safety,” said Chris Spear, president and CEO of American Trucking Associations. “This week, David put on a master class of precision and professionalism that define NTDC, emerging from an elite field of highly skilled competitors.”ATA’s National Truck Driving & Step Van Championships took place from August 20-23 in Minneapolis, bringing together 425 drivers representing 56 companies from 49 states with a combined total of nearly 756 million accident-free miles. Comings took home the Bendix Grand Champion award, as well as first place in the 5-axle vehicle class.Dave Hall of ABF Freight represented Arkansas in the finals competition, finishing third in the Twins class. FMCSA TO LAUNCH STUDY INTO FATAL TRUCK CRASH CAUSESThe Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is formally starting the process to launch a new study into fatal heavy-duty truck crashes, as required by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA).The agency announced in July it will submit an information collection request to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a study titled “Crash Causal Factors Program: Heavy-Duty Truck Study Data Collection.”The information collected will support the first phase of the Heavy-Duty Truck Study, mandated by the IIJA. It will collect data from state jurisdictions that were identified as part of a nationally representative study sample of fatal crashes involving Class 7 and 8 trucks.The study will collect data aimed at identifying key driver, vehicle, motor carrier, and environmental factors that may contribute to fatal crashes involving heavy-duty trucks.After the data collection phase is complete, the data will be analyzed to identify crash trends and inform the development of effective, targeted safety policies and programs to help prevent crashes. The new effort at causation analysis follows almost two decades since the agency’s study in the mid-tolate 2000s took a deep dive into why crashes occur. ARDOT LAUNCHES ROAD EDUCATION AND SAFETY CURRICULUM “STREET SMART” FOR 2025-26 SCHOOL YEARArkansas state officials accompanied by five local teenage actors in August announced the completion of the new “Street Smart” curriculum, a joint effort by the Arkansas departments of Transportation and Education aimed at promoting road safety among students.NEWS IN BRIEF,Continued from page 13Dave Hall, ABF Freight and Arkansas Road Team CaptainBrad Delco at ATAC 202514Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT

The teens star in a series of nine videos that teach kids everything from buckling a seat belt properly to crossing the street safely. The videos are just one part of the curriculum, which also includes worksheets, quizzes and computer games.“Safety is our primary focus here at ARDOT. It always has been. We take it very seriously, and this just builds upon that culture of safety here at our agency,” ARDOT Director Jared Wiley said. “Now, we’ve been working for years to improve safety through engineering, enforcement and education. This takes to the next level.”According to Wiley, the curriculum will educate Arkansans before they ever get behind the wheel in order to instill good driving habits that last. The curriculum, Wiley said, “touches on all aspects of roadway safety,” teaching students how to be safe passengers, pedestrians and cyclists.The Transportation Department worked closely with the Arkansas Department of Education to make this curriculum a reality, Wiley said. In its inaugural year, the Street Smart curriculum will be taught to sixth- through eighth-graders. While there are plans to expand the program in the future, this specific curriculum is geared toward middle schoolers.“A very important part of developing this program was brainstorming about what might resonate with sixthto eighth-graders. That’s why we wanted real Arkansas teens to start in the videos that were fun, informal, and relatable to our students,” Wiley said. State Education Department secretary Jacob Olivia said Street Smart could be a major benefit to traffic safety in the state, especially among younger people.“We feel very strongly that when learning about driving and safety prevention is the best intervention, and it shouldn’t start when a student walks into the first day of driver’s ed,” Oliva said. “There’s things that we can start doing to teach students how to be good passengers, how to be aware, learn the ways of the roads and how to keep themselves safe while they’re in a car.” ATRWELCOME, NEW ATA MEMBERS!Together, We Are the Power of AssociationWe welcome the following new members. Each new member adds to the Arkansas trucking industry’s collective strength to promote, protect and serve with a unified voice. ALLIED MEMBERSARCAP ENVIRONMENTALNorth Little Rock, AR501-690-3460arcapenvironmental.comEnvironmental clean-upCONLAN TIREWarren, MI586-939-7000conlantire.comTires and Roadside ServicesJOHNSON ENERGY SOLUTIONS LLC Crawford & CompanySan Antonio, TX816-344-4748crawco.comClaims managementHUB INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORTATIONTulsa, OK314-471-7462hubinternational.comInsuranceIMI PRODUCTSFranklin, TN800-233-7086imiproducts.comWheel end systemsINSURICALittle Rock, AR501-690-2443insurica.comInsuranceJOHNSON ENERGY SOLUTIONS LLCSoddy Daisy, TN423-580-2790jenergysolutions.comFuel ManagementNIRVANA INSURANCESan Francisco, CA770-881-5674nirvanatech.comInsuranceSAF-HOLLANDHolt, MO816-289-5315safholland.comEquipmentTECTRAN GROUP INC.Buffalo, NY416-346-4540tectran.comEquipmentVANTAGE SOLUTIONS/REACHCuyahoga Falls, OH234-437-4676reach24.netMaintenance softwareCARRIER MEMBERSCRAM-A-LOT LOGISTICS LLCSpringdale, AR479-725-2772cramalot.comFlatbed; machineryARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 15

Arkansas Joins Feds in Out-of-Service EnforcementCDL training the keyBy Steve BrawnerContributing WriterArkansas Highway Police removed roughly 80 commercial drivers from the roadways between June 25 and Sept. 3 after non-English proficiency became an out-of-service violation.The stepped-up enforcement reflects a needed new focus by the federal government and the industry on driver qualifications. Other issues being raised by the federal government and/or the American Trucking Associations include work visas, entry level training requirements, the practice known as “cabotage” where foreign drivers illegally transport freight point to point after crossing the border, and the integrity of self-certified electronic logging devices (ELDs).Arkansas Highway Police Chief Jeff Holmes said his 155 officers had started placing drivers out of service on June 25, the day the requirement went into effect.“As far as nationwide, we’re kind of at the top as far as drivers that have been placed out of service at the roadside,” he said. “We encounter it every day, and we’re taking steps to get disqualified drivers off the road.”English language proficiency requirements have existed since 1937, but failure to speak English hadn’t been an out-of-service violation since the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued guidance voiding the out-of-service component in 2016.That changed starting April 28, 2025 when President Donald Trump issued an executive order stating that English proficiency “should be a nonnegotiable safety requirement for professional drivers.” The order directed Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy to rescind the 2016 guidance. In May, Duffy signed an order announcing the new policy would go into effect June 25. The policy was further spelled out by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance 16 Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORTPhoto: istockphoto.com

(CVSA), an organization comprised of law enforcement officers from across the United States, Canada, and Mexico sets enforcement standards in accordance with relevant regulations. The requirements have had an effect. Duffy said on the X social media platform July 30 that roughly 1,500 drivers had been taken out of service since the FMCSA changed its policy.The American Trucking Associations supports the move. On April 10—eight days before Trump’s executive order—President & CEO Chris Spear wrote a letter to Duffy asking the agency to update the English language proficiency standard. After the policy was announced, Spear issued a statement calling it a “necessary and welcome step toward ensuring safety and accountability on our nation’s highways.”Arkansas Trucking Association President Shannon Newton said the state association also supports the executive order and supports national standards. Unqualified, non-Englishspeaking drivers are a federal problem requiring a federal solution to prevent inconsistent enforcement across the states, she said. Unless other states are doing as Arkansas is, then the state, its trucking companies and its motorists are all at risk. “The cutting of corners allows some companies to compete at an advantage over trucking companies that are doing it the right way,” she said.U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio expanded the administration’s efforts by announcing August 21 that it was pausing its issuance of work visas for all commercial truck drivers, effective immediately. According to American Trucking Associations COO Dan Horvath, the organization supports the visa pause. However, it believes carriers doing things the right way should be allowed to continue employing qualified non-domestic drivers. The Arkansas Trucking Association also supports the pause. Newton said the industry and regulatory bodies need more information about the current situation. It’s unknown how many foreign drivers there are, where they are, and what needs they are filling.The Arkansas Trucking Association earlier this year successfully lobbied for the passage of Act 604, which requires commercial drivers to demonstrate English proficiency or be subject to fines of $500 for the first offense and $1,000 for each subsequent one. The law, sponsored by Rep. R.J. Hawk, R-Bryant, and Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, also requires drivers presenting a nondomestic CDL to carry a work permit or work visa. Individuals who don’t have either in their immediate possession are guilty of committing a Class D felony, which can be reduced to a Class A misdemeanor if they can establish that they had been issued one at the time of the offense. Individuals who knowingly present a false foreign driver’s license are guilty of a Class D felony. Newton said the law is meant to prevent individuals from obtaining a fraudulent Mexican commercial driver’s license on the black market. The law allows the Arkansas State Police, city police, and county sheriff’s offices to join with the Arkansas Highway Police in enforcing the requirement. An FMCSA internal enforcement policy laid out a two-part process for roadside inspectors to determine English language proficiency. If an inspector’s initial contact indicates the driver cannot understand instructions in English, the inspector is to conduct an assessment starting with an interview. The driver is not allowed to use communication tools such as cue cards and smart phone applications. If the driver does not respond sufficiently, the inspector performs an assessment that includes identifying printed traffic signs and dynamic message boards. Holmes said the test begins when the officer approaches the driver, introduces himself or herself, and starts asking routine questions about where they are going and what they are carrying. If the driver can’t converse or attempts to use a phone to translate, the officer knows to start asking questions.Jeremy Disbrow, roadside inspection specialist for CVSA, is a retired trooper now overseeing the driver aspect of roadside inspections. He said out-ofservice violations serve not as a punishment but instead to protect motorists from an imminent hazard. An inspector near the Southern border for 20 years, Disbrow said it’s quickly obvious that a driver can’t speak English when he looks at the officer with a confused facial expression.Disbrow said that CVSA strives for consistency and uniformity, THE REQUIREMENTS HAVE HAD AN EFFECT. DUFFY SAID ON THE X SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM JULY 30 THAT ROUGHLY 1,500 DRIVERS HAD BEEN TAKEN OUT OF SERVICE SINCE THE FMCSA CHANGED ITS POLICY.ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 17

whether the stop occurs in Arkansas or Manitoba. FMCSA’s list of questions and signs are standardized, but there is some room for subjectivity. While the guidance says that drivers must correctly answer three of the four signrelated questions, there is no passing score assigned to the initial interview. Secretary Duffy announced on July 27 that the U.S. Department of Transportation would conduct a nationwide audit of non-domiciled CDLs to gather data about how states issue the licenses, to identify misuse, and to ensure drivers meet federal safety and English proficiency standards. On Aug. 28, his agency threatened to withhold federal funding from states that did not fully enforce English language requirements.In his April letter, the ATA’s Spear had asked Duffy to focus on entry level driver training in addition to English language proficiency. Spear wrote that the ATA believes the current Training Provider Registry can’t protect the public from fraudulent and non-compliant entities that grant licenses to applicants with little if any training. The letter said the FMCSA’s website showed that only four trainers had been removed from the registry since 2003. Spear called for greater FMCSA safety monitoring, auditing and enforcement to remove more unqualified trainers. The letter also had encouraged the agency to improve its tracking of new CDLs on a state-by-state basis, including the number of non-domiciled CDLs issued annually. A serious conversation is needed about whether state driver’s licensing agencies should be testing for English language proficiency, said Horvath, ATA’s COO, in an interview. Currently, the written part of the exam can be given in other languages. The driving part of the exam is supposed to be given in English only, but that apparently does not always happen. Horvath said ATA is working with members of Congress to potentially introduce legislation.While non-English-speaking drivers are a problem, the real issue is that there are too many unqualified drivers—foreign and American—who shouldn’t have CDLs, Horvath said. Then the system relies on law enforcement to catch those unqualified drivers after they are already on the road.“If we’re issuing CDLs to individuals that shouldn’t be getting CDLs, then everything we’re doing after the fact is band-aiding a problem,” he said.Horvath said the ATA supports a multi-pronged approach. The U.S. DOT should better police and patrol training entities to ensure they train drivers properly. ATA supports a rigorous new entry-level audit process when a prospective carrier applies for a USDOT number. Enforcers also must be on the lookout for “chameleon carriers” that shut down their operations when penalized and then reopen as a new entity. Furthermore, entry level training should be based on competency and not on completing a minimum number of hours.Spear’s letter also called on FMCSA to focus on the illegal practice of “cabotage” whereby Mexican and Canadian commercial drivers legally transport loads into the United States using a B-1 visa but then illegally deliver domestic loads point to point. Cabotage is not a new issue, and enforcing it can be challenging. The laws that prohibit it are immigration laws, which fall under the Department of Homeland Security. State police are not authorized to enforce federal law. Newton said that cabotage is hard to quantify but is clearly a problem, especially for Arkansas, which sees a lot of cross-border freight travel into and through its borders.The growing problem of ELD tampering is another driver qualification issue. At its fall conference in late September, CVSA’s membership was expected to review a draft inspection bulletin guiding inspectors on how to recognize a manipulated ELD, while also updating its criteria to place drivers out of service for either 10 or 34 hours. The changes would go into effect April 1, 2026.ELD tampering came to the forefront after an accident in December 2022 in Virginia where a truck driver falsified his records in order to drive past the 11-hour limit. The driver struck a party bus, killing three and seriously injuring nine plus himself. As reported by Transport Topics, the driver would contact his carrier’s Lithuania-based hours-of-service department whenever he reached his limit and add the name of a fictitious or former driver. If asked, [CHRIS] SPEAR’S LETTER ALSO CALLED ON FMCSA TO FOCUS ON THE ILLEGAL PRACTICE OF “CABOTAGE” WHEREBY MEXICAN AND CANADIAN COMMERCIAL DRIVERS LEGALLY TRANSPORT LOADS INTO THE UNITED STATES USING A B-1 VISA BUT THEN ILLEGALLY DELIVER DOMESTIC LOADS POINT TO POINT. 18 Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT

he would tell the inspector he had dropped off that driver at a truck stop to address a family emergency. Disbrow said motor carriers are using ELDs produced in other countries and paying a monthly fee for the provider to alter logs and also alter supporting material such as fuel receipts. The technology has made it harder to discern if falsification had occurred. He noted that manufacturers currently self-certify with no verification process for the more than 1,000 registered devices on FMCSA’s website.“What we find with ELDs being tampered with is the entire eight-day record is tampered with to the point where you don’t know what’s true and what’s not anymore,” he said. “The whole file is basically false, so it’s basically like not having a logbook at all.”American Trucking Associations is considering supporting third party ELD certification, as is required in Canada, Horvath said.Finally, Arkansas’ Newton said that in addition to laws and policies, the federal government must support enforcement efforts. The Department of Governmental Efficiency, previously led by businessman Elon Musk reduced the number of state investigators in Arkansas by half and left the state without an FMCSA administrator. Instead, Arkansas’ program is headed by a multi-state administrator based in Oklahoma. “We can write all the rules, the regulations and the laws, and all the greatest ideas that we can think of,” she said. “But if we don’t have the enforcement resources to enforce it, it doesn’t really matter.” ATR“THE CUTTING OF CORNERS ALLOWS SOME COMPANIES TO COMPETE AT AN ADVANTAGE OVER TRUCKING COMPANIES THAT ARE DOING IT THE RIGHT WAY.”—SHANNON NEWTON, PRESIDENT, ARKANSAS TRUCKING ASSOCIATIONARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 19

By Alex Leslie, PhDGuest WriterTrucking is now in its third year of a prolonged freight recession, one that has combined stagnant freight rates with sharply rising operational costs. Managing this dual challenge has increasingly felt like steering the narrow path between the monsters Scylla and Charybdis of Homer’s Odyssey.The American Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI) annual Operational Costs of Trucking—the industry’s leading public benchmarking tool—is full of data to help navigate this challenge and better understand the path ahead. It includes costs, operations, and revenue data directly submitted by motor carriers and analyzed by sector and size. COSTS DECELERATING BUT STILL INCREASING; MARGINS SQUEEZEDThe cost to operate a truck in 2024 excluding fuel was $1.779 per mile, a 3.6% year-over-year increase. Costs with fuel included were $2.260 per mile. The silver lining here is that costs decelerated compared to the steep increases of recent years (12.0% in 2022 and 6.6% in 2023). Furthermore, 2024’s 3.6% increase in trucking costs was only slightly higher than the national inflation rate of 2.9%. In most years, this would be welcome news.In 2024, however, stagnant freight rates offered no leeway for cost increases. Revenues per truck were flat or down in every sector except flatbeds. As a result, operating margins were squeezed severely across the industry. Flatbed operating margins averaged 0.4% on the year, refrigerated operating margins averaged 0.1%, tanker operating margins averaged 1.9%, and the truckload dry van sector had an average operating margin of -2.3%.TOP CONTRIBUTORS TO RISING COSTS: EQUIPMENT, DRIVER BENEFITS, INSURANCEThe single largest increase in per-mile costs came from equipment payments, which includes all costs associated with purchasing or leasing trucks and trailers. This line-item rose to a new record of $0.390 per mile in 2024: that is 8.3% higher than in 2023 Freight Recession Tightens Trucking MarginsRising costs and flat rates continue to strain carriers“MANAGING THIS DUAL CHALLENGE HAS INCREASINGLY FELT LIKE STEERING THE NARROW PATH BETWEEN THE MONSTERS SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS OF HOMER’S ODYSSEY.” —ALEX LESLIE, PHD,AMERICAN TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE20Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORTPhoto: istockphoto.com

and 70% higher than just 10 years ago in 2015. If equipment payments continue to increase at this rate, the industry could see per-mile equipment costs surpass per-mile fuel costs in the coming years. Given that used truck prices returned to pre-pandemic levels, new equipment is likely the primary driver of these increases. While new truck orders have fallen in 2024 and 2025, higher prices—especially with new tariffs—could mean that carriers end up spending the same for less on a per-mile basis.Cost trends were mixed in the driver compensation category. Industrywide driver wages averaged $0.798 per mile in 2024. In one sense, this was a relatively moderate year-over-year increase, of 2.4%, compared to the huge spikes experienced during the pandemic (such as 2022’s 12.0% increase in driver wages). In another sense, however, it essentially reinforced the record permile wage increases of the preceding years—even as overall driver employment fell during 2024. The labor market for trucking has been cooling, but with an uptick in employment during the first half of 2025 it is far from cold.By contrast, driver benefits—which had been relatively stable from 2018 through 2022—increased by 4.8% in 2024. This was partly attributable to rising medical inflation and partly attributable to an increase in benefits spending among small fleets in particular.Insurance premiums also increased in 2024, by 3.0% to $0.102 per mile. Much as was the case with driver wages, this was a mixed result. Though 2024’s increase was much smaller than 2023’s increase of 12.5% (and only slightly higher than inflation), it reinforced the prior year’s sizeable increase.Repair and maintenance costs offered a small respite for carriers in Top Contributors to Rising Costs: Equipment, Driver Benefits, Insurance -costs associated with purchasing or leasing trucks and trailers. This line-item rose to a new record of $0.390 per mile in 2024: that is 8.3% higher than in 2023 and 70% higher than just 10 years ago in 2015. If equipment payments con9nue to increase at this rate, the industry could see per-mile equipment costs surpass per-mile fuel costs in the coming years. Given that used truck prices returned to pre-pandemic levels, new equipment is likely the primary driver of these increases.While new truck orders have fallen in 2024 and 2025, higher prices – especially with new tariffs – could mean that carriers end up spending the same for less on a per-mile basis.“EVEN WITH COST INCREASES SLOWING TO 3.6%, FLAT REVENUES MEANT OPERATING MARGINS FELL TO NEAR ZERO — OR BELOW — IN NEARLY EVERY SECTOR.”—ALEX LESLIE, PHD,AMERICAN TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH INSTITUTETop Contributions to Rising Costs: Equipment, Driver Benefits, InsuranceARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 21

2024, falling by 2.0% (to $0.198 per mile) compared to 2023. This decrease was driven partly by a cooling labor market and partly by improved parts access and pricing.Carrier data from the first quarter of 2025 indicates that this year’s trends were more of the same, with the greatest cost increases once again in insurance premiums (5.8%), equipment payments (4.3%), and driver benefits (3.5%). Unfortunately, cost trends in the near term appear to be more of the same.OPERATIONAL IMPACTS: CUTTING COSTS AND SHEDDING CAPACITYThe consequences of these rising costs on fleet operations in 2024 were stark. Deadhead mileage rose by half a percentage point, to 16.7%, as carriers went farther out of their way to obtain viable backhauls. Carriers reduced their truck counts by 2.2% on average. The average driver-to-truck ratio fell to a seven-year low of 0.93, indicating that carriers are leaving trucks parked due to a lack of financially viable freight and not replacing drivers who retire or leave. Finally, the ratio of drivers to non-drivers widened in most sectors, indicating widespread reductions in administrative, sales, and support personnel.These metrics point to two broadlevel conclusions. First, freight capacity finally began leaving the market at a meaningful level in 2024. This was not the case in 2023, when carriers were still increasing their truck counts by an average of 4.1%. Commentary on capacity often focuses on FMCSA registration and revocation data, but that data is most reflective of owner-operators and very small carriers. Changes in the number of trucks or the number of seated trucks among carriers that remain in the market can easily eclipse the entries and exits of one- or twotruck operators.The second broad conclusion is that these operational metrics highlight a widespread change in industry attitude about the freight market cycle during 2024. Back in 2023, carriers were still increasing fleet sizes (by 4.1%) and retaining employees—to position themselves for growth in the expectation of an imminent market turn and improvements in freight rates. By contrast, the 2024 data portray a more pessimistic industry outlook: one that is focused on retrenchment in anticipation that this freight recession will become even more prolonged.In this adverse environment, the opportunities for cost management outlined in ATRI’s Operational Costs of Trucking are more important than ever. Beyond core costs, these include vital performance measures such as turnover and mileage between breakdowns that carriers can manage to ensure that every mile counts. The full report, like all of ATRI’s research, is available for free on our website. Motor carriers seeking more tailored benchmarking should reach out and consider participating in next year’s Operational Costs of Trucking, which will begin data collection in February 2026. Each participant receives a customized report directly plotting their costs and KPM alongside an anonymized peer group of the same sector and size. ATRAlex Leslie, PhD is a senior research associate at the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI).Cost trends were mixed in the driver compensa9on category Industry-wide driver wages averaged $0.798 per mile in 2024. In one sense, this was a rela9vely moderate year-over-year increase, of 2.4%, compared to the huge spikes experienced during the pandemic (such as 2022’s 12.0% increase in driver wages). In another sense, however, it essen9ally reinforced the record per-mile wage increases of the preceding years – even as overall driver employment fell during 2024. The labor market for trucking has been cooling, but with an up9ck in employment during the first half of 2025 it is far from cold.By contrast, driver benefits – which had been rela9vely stable from 2018 through 2022 –increased by 4.8% in 2024. This was partly aGributable to rising medical infla9on and partly aGributable to an increase in benefits spending among small fleets in par9cular.Insurance premiums also increased in 2024, by 3.0% to $0.102 per mile. Much as was the case with driver wages, this was a mixed result. Though 2024’s increase was much smaller than 2023’s increase of 12.5% (and only slightly higher than infla9on), it reinforced the prior year’s sizeable increase.Repair and maintenance costs offered a small respite for carriers in 2024, falling by 2.0% (to $0.198 per mile) compared to 2023. This decrease was driven partly by a cooling labor market and partly by improved parts access and pricing.Carrier data from the first quarter of 2025 indicates that this year’s trends were more of the same, with the greatest cost increases once again in insurance premiums (5.8%), equipment 22 Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT

877.235.8194 brucknertruck.comTRUCKS | TRAILERS | ALL MAKES PARTS | SERVICE | MOBILE SERVICE | BODY SHOP | LEASING | FINANCINGROAD-READYTHE TRUCKS, TRAILERS, PARTS AND SERVICE TO KEEP YOU Bruckner’s of Lowell479.770.6040324 S. Bloomington St. | Lowell, AR 72745M-F: 7:00am - 7:00pm | Sat: 8:00am - 12:00pmMobile Service AvailableBruckner’s of Pottsville479.498.8260620 Mountain Base Rd. | Pottsville, AR 72858M-F: 7:30am - 7:00pm | Sat: 7:30am - 12:00pmMobile Service AvailableBruckner’s of Van Buren479.782.8281209 Rena Rd. | Van Buren, AR 72956M-F: 7:00am - 5:30pm | Sat: 8:00am - 12:00pmMobile Service Available

40 UNDER 40 COUNCILAUGUST 21Walmart HeadquartersThe 40 Under 40 Council met in Bentonville at the Sam Walton Hall Conference Center, where we were joined by our featured speaker, Chad Donath, Senior Vice President of Walmart International Operations. Mr. Donath shared valuable insights on the importance of leadership within his role and reflected on his career journey, highlighting the experiences that have shaped his success throughout his many years with Walmart.ACCOUNTING & FINANCE COUNCILAUGUST 27ATA Headquarters SPONSORED BY BELL & COMPANYThe AFC held its third quarter meeting at ATA’s office in Little Rock. In the first session, Dr. Alix Lesie gave an ATRI Operation Costs of Trucking update. This session dove into the data and analyzed the latest cost trends and how carrier operations responded to the prolonged freight recession.The second session featured Jeff Lovelady with Bell and Company. He provided a focused overview of how the legislation affects key areas such as bonus depreciation, Section 179 limits, the QBI deduction, and interest expense limitations. He also covered practical year-end tax strategies to help companies align their planning with the new provisions. Attendees left with a clear understanding of what to watch for in Q4 and how to position their organizations for 2026.Because Arkansas Trucking Association is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, AFC attendees received three CPE credits for these sessions.MAINTENANCE & TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL AUGUST 26ATA HeadquartersSPONSORED BY DOGGETT FREIGHTLINER OF ARKANSASAt the third quarter MTC meeting in Little Rock, attendees heard from Hunter Smith, enterprise sales executive at Diesel Laptops, who shared how an integrated approach can help shops and fleets streamline diagnostics, reduce downtime, and upskill their teams with accessible, real-world tools and resources.Following a networking lunch, the group shifted focus to updates and modernization efforts for the SAE J560 protocol. A panel featuring Dan Forthoffer, Corporate Vice President of Research and Development at Phillips Industries; Bruce McKie, Principal Owner and Chairman of Tectran; and Larry Rambeaux, Sales Application Engineer at Purkeys, discussed the current J560 7-way connector, outlined the industry’s need for updates, and COUNCIL QUARTERLYNetworking . Professional Development . ServiceATA members have the opportunity to be represented in a variety of industry councils that address issues specific to safety, maintenance/technology, accounting/finance and industry leadership. Each council holds quarterly meetings, hosts speakers and panels on relevant industry topics, serves as a forum for interchanging ideas and best practices, and discusses new strategies and implementation practices. Bruce McKie of Tectran Dan Forthoffer of Phillips Industries24 Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT

presented proposed designs along with the roadmap for implementing these changes.Thank you to Doggett Freightliner of Arkansas for sponsoring.SAFETY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL SEPTEMBER 11Maverick Transportation SPONSORED BY THOMPSON DOT SAFETY & COMPLIANCE SMC members gathered in North Little Rock for their third-quarter meeting, kicking off with remarks from Jared Wiley, Director at the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT). Wiley shared updates on work-zone safety, inspections and permits, the K-9 program, and the Arkansas Commercial Truck Safety and Education Program (ACTSEP). He also highlighted ARDOT’s distracted-driving campaign with Street Smart and underscored the ongoing need for enhanced equipment to keep Arkansas roads safe and clear.To end the session, attendees heard from Sergeant Greg Dycus of the Highway Patrol Division Administration, Crash Reconstruction, who presented the latest Arkansas crash statistics.Special thanks to Maverick Transportation for hosting the meeting and to Thompson DOT Safety & Compliance for sponsoring the event. ATRIF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN HOSTING A FUTURE ATA COUNCIL MEETING OR SPONSORING A COUNCIL IN 2026, CONTACT US AT [email protected] ADVERTISER RESOURCE INDEXAon..................................Inside Front CoverArcBest.......................................................44Bruckner Truck Sales.................................23Custard Insurance Adjusters .....................32FedEx .........................................................41Great West Casualty Company.................43McGriff .....................................................11MHC............................................................8PrePass.......................................................19Rush Truck Centers .....................................4Southern Tire Mart .....................................3Stallion Transportation ...............Back CoverTLG Peterbilt .............................................48TravelCenters of America..........................37Utility Tri-State, Inc.....................................6W&B Service Co........................................31This edition of Arkansas Trucking Reportwas made possible with the support of these corporate advertisers. They support the trucking industry by enabling ATA to provide this publication to its members, prospective members, elected officials and the national trucking and business community at large. They deserve your consideration and patronage when making your corporate purchasing decisions. Thank you! Jared Wiley of ARDOTARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 25

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACOB SLATONLearningBy Doing Entry level job turns into career for W&B Service Company’s Robert Janes“I’VE NEVER BEEN GOOD AT SAYING NO.” —ROBERT JANES, W&B SERVICE COMPANY 26 Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT

By Todd TraubContributing WriterRobert Janes was looking for a summer job. He found much more: a career.Janes, 43, is service director at W&B Service Company. Based in Lowell, he spends much of his time traveling to customer locations or W&B’s branches in other states, especially Texas, where W&B is headquartered.Janes has risen from his first job as an entry level technician to his current position. It is the only full-time employment Janes has ever had and it’s a role in what more or less looks like the family business.On Thanksgiving in the Janes household, the table conversation wasn’t about politics (mercifully), or sports. The discussions frequently centered on trucking. “I needed a job for the summer,” said Janes from behind his desk at W&B’s Lowell facility. “My dad [Robert], he worked at Tyson in trucking, along with my grandpa [Charles]. Dad had a connection here and the rest is history. I was just looking for six months to get me a job for the summer. I fooled around and made a big career out of it.”Janes grew up in Siloam Springs and took a stab at college, but quickly realized it wasn’t for him.“I figured out I liked working better than I liked going to school. So it’s paid off,” he said.He may not have gone the traditional college route, but Janes is a proponent of scholarship and education. As a member of the Arkansas Trucking Association’s Maintenance and Technology Council, Janes is heavily involved in the Carl Tapp Memorial Scholarship Fund and plays a role in selecting annual recipients for the award.The technician scholarships support students in their pursuit of certifications and education, culminating in their completion as workforce-ready diesel techs. It’s an age when people are reconsidering what an advanced education looks like and embracing trade schools as a way into tech-based industries.For a guy like Janes, who turned an entrylevel job into a career, he’s a believer. ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 27

“I want to make sure there’s some man or young lady out there that knows that there is an opportunity to come to this world and succeed and be a president or CEO or CFO.”SERVICE ORIENTEDFounded in 1952, W&B Service Company, recently added its 23rd location in Toledo, Ohio, with other operations based in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. With more than 100 trucks, W&B is one of the nation’s leading transport refrigeration and semi-trailer dealers, providing new and used equipment, parts and service.That’s where Janes comes in, working behind the scenes to help solve customer problems, assuring that training is up to date, and seeing to it that breakdowns and technical issues are swiftly resolved.“Just kind of behind the scenes making sure we’ve got staff, making sure everybody’s prepped, making sure the training is in place,” Janes said.A typical day at his job is usually anything but typical. “For me it might be team meetings all day on Monday, and Tuesday we might be at a customer’s location … solving some issues,” he said. “You never know where I’ll be from day to day. We’re problem solvers, I guess, or firefighters.”On-the-job challenges, Janes said, include repairs done incorrectly or customers outside the W&B footprint who aren’t getting or finding the service they want. Cold transport brings its own set of problems.“Refrigerations, summer times and breakdowns are always critical. It seems like a breakdown never happens at a good place. It’s always at a place that’s outside our coverage or a dealer doesn’t want to take care of them.”W&B offers complete refrigeration, trailer, truck and liftgate repair and lays claim to being the largest Carrier Transicold dealer in the nation while its Superior Trailer Sales is the top dealer for Hyundai Translead, Fontaine, Dorsey and Doonan. W&B’s clients include refrigerated hauler Freymiller Inc., out of Oklahoma, and Arkansasbased Tyson Foods.“I wish the general public knew that trucks are a necessity,” Janes said. “They’re not just out there to be there. Everything we touch comes on trucks. I think so many people are blind to that.”With his wife Whitney, Janes has a 13-year old daughter named Brinkley and helps Whitney run their 60-acre cattle ranch, with an additional 700 acres leased. Janes see similarities between ranching and trucking.“It’s the same thing. People don’t understand where our food comes from and how it gets to the table,” he said.The highlight of Janes’ job is making people happy as he sends them on their way.“[We’ve] done them a favor,” he said. “Done them a good deed. Usually they’re in a time of need when they show up here.”From his entry level technician job Janes worked his way up to mobile service technician.“I think a turning point of my career was when I moved to Carrier and got master tech accredited in probably 2015,” Janes said, “and then shortly after that moved into a service manager role and running the store.”From branch manager Janes became a regional manager before landing where he is today. He is the sum of his experiences, Janes said.“Today I think I’m service director. Half and half. I’ve still got my old title,” he said. Thanks to his family situation, Janes has carried a soft spot in his heart for the trucking industry and the people in it, which includes the many non-drivers working behind the scenes like he does. For each driver, Janes said, there could be 1,000 people making sure he or she has proper safety equipment and scheduled loads.“Trucking has touched so many people’s lives that we don’t know about,” Janes said. “I think there’s a place for any skill set in trucking.”TECHNICAL ISSUESAlong with his Maintenance and Technology Council responsibilities, Janes is a member of the ATA Board of Directors, which he joined in May. He fills one of the board’s two Allied positions reserved for representatives of companies that provide a service or product to the industry.The Allied positions underscore Janes’ point that there are all sorts of jobs in trucking.“So many people think about trucking as a guy driving a truck,” he “I WAS JUST LOOKING FOR SIX MONTHS TO GET ME A JOB FOR THE SUMMER. I FOOLED AROUND AND MADE A BIG CAREER OUT OF IT.”—ROBERT JANES, SERVICE DIRECTOR, W&B SERVICE COMPANY28 Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT

Rep. Brandon AchorRep. Sonia BarkerRep. Howard Beaty, Jr.Rep. Stan BerryRep. Harlan BreauxRep. Keith BrooksRep. Karilyn BrownRep. Matt BrownRep. Nick BurkesRep. Rebecca BurkesRep. Joey CarrRep. John CarrRep. Fran CavenaughRep. Paul ChildressRep. Bruce CozartRep. Cindy CrawfordRep. Hope Duke Rep. James EatonRep. Les EavesRep. Jon EubanksRep. Brian EvansRep. Tony FurmanRep. Zach GramlichRep. Brad HallRep. RJ HawkRep. Mike HolcombRep. Steve HollowellRep. Lane JeanRep. Lee JohnsonRep. Robin LundstrumRep. Roger LynchRep. John Maddox Rep. Mindy McAlindonRep. Austin McCollumRep. Richard McGrewRep. Jon MilliganRep. Jeremiah MooreRep. Kendra MooreRep. Jason NazarenkoRep. Stetson PainterRep. Shad PearceRep. Mark PerryRep. Chad PuryearRep. David RayRep. Scott RichardsonRep. Johnny RyeRep. Bart SchulzRep. Mathew ShepherdRep. Tracy SteeleRep. Trey SteimelRep. Randy TorresRep. Dwight ToshRep. Kendon UnderwoodRep. Steve UngerRep. Steven WalkerRep. Les WarrenRep. Carlton WingRep. Jeremy WooldridgeRep. Jim WootenSen. Justin BoydSen. Steve CrowellSen. Breanne DavisSen. Tyler DeesSen. Jonathan DismangSen. Jim DotsonSen. Jane EnglishSen. Scott FlippoSen. Ben Gilmore Sen. Kim HammerSen. Bart HesterSen. Ricky Hill Sen. Missy IrvinSen. Blake JohnsonSen. Matt McKeeSen. Jim PettySen. Matt StoneSen. Dave Wallacesaid. “There’s so many aspects of trucking that it takes to get him driving that truck.”Board membership, Janes said, allows him to compare notes and ideas with colleagues as well as to learn.“I feel like it’s a good place for me to go advocate and listen to everybody on the board and listen to their struggles that I might not have,” he said. Learning about such struggles, Janes said, can only help make a service company like W&B better.“It also gives somebody like me a chance to go back to our president or to somebody that might not understand trucking and say ‘Hey, these are challenges trucking is facing and we can offer a service to them or we can offer fair prices across the board,’” Janes said. “This is a place where we can offer something to make their life a little better, and at the end of the day that’s all we have to sell someone is our service.”It’s important, even as companies compete for business and dollars, for industry members to band together for the greater good. Janes said the ATA board is a good place to do that.“I feel like the ATA advocates for our customers every day in so many ways that I have no clue of,” he said. “In my opinion it’s so awesome to see the networking and all the people coming together for one cause. Some of us are competitors, but we kind of put it to the side for this. It speaks volumes for what ATA is able to do for our customers and the people of Arkansas.”From his position as service director and through his board membership, Janes is seeing a shortage of qualified technicians to go with the ongoing shortage of drivers. As someone who is responsible for training, that is a concern that makes it hard for companies to provide service and can affect growth, he said.“I feel like there is more work than we could possibly go get right now,” Janes said. With more attention being paid to trade schools in the U.S., Janes said CHAMPIONS OF TRUCKINGThese Arkansas Legislators supported the policies and issues that matter most to the members of the Arkansas Trucking Association and recognize the trucking’s essential contributions to the state of Arkansas.ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 29

professions like plumber and electrician have gotten a lot of notice while the trucking industry technician shortage has flown under the radar.Obviously skill sets are important, but when seeking a technician, Janes said he looks for intangibles like demeanor and teachability. Identifying such traits early in the process can keep a company from wasting its time on certain candidates, Janes said. “As we’re interviewing candidates, we’re trying to narrow it down to what that technician should look like,” he said. “What skills should they have? What, in a sense, their hobbies are.”“In my opinion we need to be advocating to get the kids that are in high school that have decided the path of a four-year education is not the direction they want to go,” Janes said. “We need to be out in front of people and saying this is a really good way to make a good living.”TEACHABLE MOMENTWhen Janes advocates recruiting young people who are on non-traditional education tracks, he has the perfect example. Himself.When it comes to finding such young people he has the perfect platform. The Carl Tapp Memorial Scholarship Fund.“There’s a shortage of technicians and that’s just a path to gain more,” Janes said.A one-time maintenance supervisor for PAM Transport, Tapp, who passed away in 2016 from complications with multiple sclerosis, spent a lifetime in trucking and was focused on working with engineers, improving technician efficiency and improving and testing products. He began the Maintenance and Technology Council and was its first chairman.The scholarship fund was begun in Tapp’s name in 2017. Scholarship applicants must be seniors graduating from accredited schools who enroll in a minimum of two semesters at an Arkansas educational institution, where they undergo a medium- and heavy-duty truck technician program.The number of recipients varies from year to year, but the fund has awarded more than $100,000 in scholarships. Monticello High School graduate Trey Riley was awarded $7,500 this year.ROBERT JANESAt-A-GlanceWhat is your favorite hobby or pastime when you’re not working?“My wife runs and operates a decent size cattle farm and a big hay operation. …That is my fun. Take care of her stuff and make sure everything is up and operational on her end.”Favorite sports team?“The Razorbacks.” Favorite place to get away? “Maybe out west somewhere. New Mexico. Any time we can get to the mountains.”Best restaurant in the area, in your view?“One of the 100 Mexican places.”Last book you read?“Probably the last book I read was a service manual.”Best piece of advice you ever received?“Stay put. Give something a chance. I had an ag teacher tell me to stay at a career for five years before you move. We wouldn’t be here today if I hadn’t listened to him.” “YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE I’LL BE FROM DAY TO DAY. WE’RE PROBLEM SOLVERS, I GUESS, OR FIREFIGHTERS.”—ROBERT JANES, SERVICE DIRECTOR, W&B SERVICE COMPANY30 Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT

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“There’s so many good things that come from it,” Janes said. When Janes learned the scholarship fund was looking for people, he knew he wanted to be part of it. “I saw a chance that not only can I help people by serving on it, but we also have customers and friends that are involved in it,” Janes said. “It was important for me to help the young people of Arkansas and get them involved in the technical world and technical schools.”Naturally for Janes, there is a family connection. He has an aunt who worked under Tapp at PAM and was able to surprise her with his role on the scholarship fund selection panel.“She’s like ‘I had no idea. You should tell me this stuff,’” Janes said.Janes helped narrow down the field of 20 candidates this year and is happy to continue to look for more. In his view, Janes is widening what to some might look like a narrow horizon. “I want to make sure that there’s not some 18-year-old young man or young lady that is stuck or feels like they’re going to be stuck in an entry level position,” Janes said. From personal experience, Janes can tell them that just isn’t so and enjoys getting in front of young people to present himself as a walking example.“It’s really cool to tell them my background and they get to see ‘Here’s a person that was just like me,’” Janes said. “They get to follow the same path. There was a lot of luck in mine but I’m here.”Janes said it is hard to count the people who mentored him along the way, but he enjoys seeing aspiring young technicians in the same situation. “Just give them the tools. …I’ve had so much help getting here,” he said. “If you asked me to name one person I couldn’t do it.”TRUCKING UIf Janes is concerned about a qualified technician shortage, it may be because industry technology continues to make demands.“Since I was a young kid and entered the field, this technology has kept coming,” he said. Transport refrigeration units, for example, have gone from “basic basic,” Janes said, to using modern microprocessor units. “Technology has surpassed me to be able to fix one,” he said. “It’s really cool to see your young people come in and be able to do that.”Unfortunately the tech dates him a little bit, Janes said. “You say it’s older than me and I can remember when it was new,” he said. Since Janes’ entry into the industry, other things have evolved as well. “I think that when I started, we had 50 fleets of 10 trucks. I think now many of the 10-truck fleets have gone away. Now we work on 100-sized truck fleets or bigger.”Inflation and tariffs, among other contributing factors, have caused economic uncertainty within the industry. Janes said the environment is “tough on our people” and added that, despite predictions for improvement in the first quarter of 2026, there aren’t sure signs of that happening. Nonetheless, W&B Service Company wants to grow its footprint, Janes said, preferably to the north and west. The company is about as big as it can be in its current territory, he said, and will need to grow outward.“As a whole we’re in acquisition mode,” he said. “In the next three to five years we would like to double in size. I don’t know how feasible that is. It has a lot to do with my role right now. We’re actively looking.” Finally, Janes’ concerns for the future returns to the role of the trained technician, how to find them and how to keep them from leaving for competitors. Janes recalled interviewing a job seeker who told him he had taken a different educational path than Janes and said “I paid for my education.”“And I said ‘I paid for mine but in a different way,’” Janes said. “He noted that I paid for mine with time and dedication, and it meant a lot to me.”Maybe it could be said that Janes got his degree on the job.“Generational is what this is about,” he said. “I’ve seen this from young kids to today. Just the opportunity. I watched my grandpa and my dad make a really good living without being educated and they pushed and pushed and pushed for me to go get an education and be somebody.“Trucking did it for me.” ATR“I WANT TO MAKE SURE THERE’S SOME MAN OR YOUNG LADY OUT THERE THAT KNOWS THAT THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO COME TO THIS WORLD AND SUCCEED AND BE A PRESIDENT OR CEO OR CFO.”—ROBERT JANES, SERVICE DIRECTOR, W&B SERVICE COMPANYARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 33

Truck Parking Issue Starting to Gain Free Market SolutionsSafe, secure and scarceBy Dwain HebdaFor the past decade, the trucking industry has withstood a maelstrom of challenges from skyrocketing lawsuits to supply chain issues to the ongoing driver shortage.One additional challenge has added to the industry’s woes, the seemingly simple act of drivers finding a place to park at the start of their mandatory rest period. An oft-cited survey by the Federal Highway Safety Administration pegged the problem at one space in the U.S. for every 11 trucks in 2019 and subsequent data has shown the situation hasn’t changed for the better since. The American Transportation Research Institute, which has regularly pounded a drum for the problem, reported that in 2020 , truck parking was No. 3 issue on the list of industry issues, behind the driver shortage and driver pay, two spots higher from the previous year. In April, ATRI released another survey that found there were just over 30,400 truck parking spaces at rest areas across 47 participating, an average of 662 per state. The average rest area offered just 19 truck parking spaces, the data showed. Meanwhile industry estimates put the number of big rigs in service at more than a million trucks. “Parking is important to the supply chain,” Shannon Newton, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association, told Arkansas Business in May. “It’s a very precarious situation that we’ve created.“We’re obviously not in a good place and we got to this not-so-great Photo: istockphoto.com34Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT

place from a very long period of underfunding infrastructure .”Newton’s assessment, keep in mind, was even with $6 million spent by the Arkansas Department of Transportation to expand an existing lot on Interstate 40 in West Memphis by 84 spaces in 2023. It also follows U.S. Congressman Steve Womack’s efforts last year to include $200 million in the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee funding bill to expand the availability of truck parking. One of the big holdups for creating more truck parking is cost. Krystyna Shchedrina of Truck News reported this spring that the average construction cost per public truck parking space was reportedly $113,395 with a median of $93,500. “Funding remains challenging,” she wrote. “Forty-one percent of states rely on a mix of federal and state dollars for projects, and 40% have applied for U.S. Department of Transportation grants. Between 2022 and 2026, nearly $752 million has been awarded through federal programs. However, dedicated state funding for truck parking is uncommon.”As public leadership grapples with the challenge of funding more tuck parking spaces, a growing number of private enterprises have begun to spring up to address the problem while providing substantial return on investment. Some of these ventures have grown exponentially, including Austin, Texas-based Outpost, founded in 2021 as Semi-Stow, which announced in a release last year it has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding, led by GreenPoint Partners with support from Speedwagon Capital Partners, to be used in expanding its network of 18 properties and 8,000 parking spaces. Another major player, Truck Parking Club, announced this summer it had reached 2,000 parking locations with over 40,000 spaces across the lower 48 states, doubling its holdings since December. This despite only having been founded about two years ago in Chattanooga, Tenn., when founder Evan Shelley came face to face with the problem. Working in the real estate world, he’d heard of the parking shortage and set out to open a couple of lots for truckers in an industrial zoned area. He approached the municipality for approval and was turned down, which caused him to think more creatively.“At that point he was like, OK, well if there’s not enough parking but it’s a pain to buy and build, then something’s gotta give or else how does this problem get solved?” said Reed Loustalot, chief marketing officer. “That’s when he took a step back and did some research and was looking at other business models.”Shelley decided the solution lay in individual parking locations, from the humble to the expansive, that were already in operation and didn’t need improvement or the capital outlay of an outright purchase. “It was like, why not just leverage existing space where trucks might already be parking,” Loustalot said. “Perhaps it’s private property or it’s a trucking company’s yard and they’ve got a couple extra spaces and they’re already parking their own trucks there. It’s space that doesn’t need to be changed, doesn’t really need construction, it just needs to be connected to a network and made easy for drivers to find and transact with.”The idea literally created a marketplace overnight, democratizing the business in the process by empowering the very small and the very large property owners equally. “We’ve built technology that essentially enables a business owner or a property owner to put their property on with as little as one space, up to locations that have hundreds of spaces,” Loustalot said. “We make it easy for folks to essentially document their location, then we built payment processing and bookings and customer service. We’ve really dialed in that whole process over the last two and a half years and scaled the network.”The business model has been replicated in any number of ways, from partnerships with sports arenas, shopping malls and other properties to derive income during dead times to wholly-owned private developments offering a range of amenities. Some companies approach large carriers to form fleet agreements while others market to individual drivers in transit. Like Truck Parking Club, all rely on some type of app by which spots can be reserved, not unlike a hotel room or Airbnb, with more sophisticated companies looking to tie into a carrier’s fleet management system to allow better control over mapping stops at appropriate intervals. Tra Williams, owner of Floridabased Fleet Force, got into the private “SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE OR ELSE HOW DOES THIS PROBLEM GET SOLVED”—REED LOUSTALOT, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, TRUCK PARKING CLUBARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 35

truck parking game in part to complement the company’s highly successful driver training school operations. “We are the largest CDL training provider in the state of Florida and we’re actually getting ready to open in Texas and in North Carolina,” he said. “What really exposed us to this challenge a few years ago was we have a very high enrollment of female students, double the national average. “What we kept hearing from our students was, ‘I love the idea of driving. I love the idea of being out there. I’m a little iffy on whether I want to do this, because I’m a little uncomfortable with being alone somewhere, once my HOS runs out.’ We just said, ‘Hey, why don’t we address this?’”The solution, ParkPro, sought to leverage existing parking spaces coast to coast and pair it with what it calls the nation’s only hourly truck parking reservation platform. “Our method is different than some others who may be doing something similar,” Williams said. “We are connecting carriers with large-event retail venues, such as stadiums, arenas, coliseums, malls, civic and conference centers. These guys are sitting on, and I’m not exaggerating when I say this, tens of thousands of acres of empty existing parking.“In fact, and you can quote me on this, America does not have a parking shortage. We actually have more parking than the rest of the world combined. We just have a lack of connectivity between those who have it available and those who need it.”The company made the conscious decision to market at scale, approaching carriers on a whole-fleet basis and building its platform around the idea that a company can integrate it into its end cap technology such as route planning software. The app also allows property owners to manage available space on any given day in response to the needs of the business.“Let’s talk about Amerant Bank Arena where the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers play,” Williams said. “We work with them to where they would set the price, the frequency, the capacity and the availability of their property. They are totally in control of that. If they say, ‘Hey, we have a game on Saturday and Sunday, so we’re going to lock it down Friday evening and not open it back up until Monday morning,’ that’s totally their prerogative.’”An Arkansas-based startup, Truck Park Management, also has big plans for the future. The Little Rock-based company secured $15 million in growth and development capital last year to commence its nationwide rollout. “We had researched that there were some truck parking things going on and it kind of fell into the iOS, industrial outdoor storage, space,” said CEO Danny Loe . “It was a lot of people focused on real estate, but they really weren’t focused on what the true problem was. They weren’t focused on the driver and solving issues for the driver. We thought with our group, who have a background in transportation, that that’s something we could address.”A major differentiator for Truck Park Management is its Trucklots software and app, a dedicated technology platform designed exclusively for realtime parking reservations by drivers and fleets as well as lot management capabilities for property owners. The app streamlines the process of finding secure, reservable parking, ensuring ease of access and convenience, as a means of building loyalty among drivers.“We’re trying to really create this experience for the drivers that is much better than a dirt lot that is not maintained, that has no security, that has no reservations, that’s just out there,” Loe said. “We want to bring a level of sophistication so that the drivers can, through our software and technology platform, make a reservation and rely on that reservation being there. Then, when the driver shows up, he can use our app to open the gate.”Loe said the company is expanding rapidly and expects to be at 100 locations by the end of the year. However, the desire for a quality driver experience means that growth won’t happen at the expense of the company’s vetting process for partnering properties.“We think that there’s got to be a focus on the driver in this,” he said. “Drivers are the force behind anything with regard to transportation so we’re trying to take care of them and set standards for our lots. We want a gated lot, we want a fenced lot. The lot has to be lighted, it has to have security cameras. We think of that as the base level of things that we want to provide.“We have added 35 locations in the middle of the year and since that point, we’re over 70 now. “We’re very excited to be on a significant growth rate that we don’t see slowing down. The need for parking is not going away.” ATR“WE ARE CONNECTING CARRIERS WITH LARGEEVENT RETAIL VENUES, SUCH AS STADIUMS, ARENAS, COLISEUMS, MALLS, CIVIC AND CONFERENCE CENTERS. THESE GUYS ARE SITTING ON, AND I’M NOT EXAGGERATING WHEN I SAY THIS, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ACRES OF EMPTY EXISTING PARKING.—TRA WILLIAMS, OWNER, FLEET FORCE36 Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT

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By Dwain HebdaContributing WriterOf all the hazards that over the road truck drivers must contend with, one of the most dangerous is found in the cab itself: impaired driving. One of the industry’s major challenges, impaired driving often results in catastrophic outcomes from injury and fatalities of drivers or other motorists to mammoth lawsuits following an incident. And despite steps taken and money spent to deal with the issue, experts say the problem is only getting worse.“The industry’s investing millions into safety, into training, into compliance and various technologies and yet impairment really remains one of the industry’s biggest blind spots,” said PJ Barclay, president and CEO of Impirica. “There’s a well-established stat out there that an average driver in North America on a given day makes 18,000 decisions in any given shift and those are decisions that stakeholders can’t necessarily control.”The statistics lend a sobering credence to the problem. Truck Driver News reported earlier this year that while National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data showed motor vehicle crash deaths and injuries in the United States are continuing to decline, those incidents involving impairment are headed in the opposite direction. NHTSA stats showed just under 41,000 people were killed in traffic crashes overall in 2023, down 4.3% from the previous year. As the administration reported in September, the trend continued this year with all roadway fatalities decreasing 8.2% to 17,100 roadway fatalities between January and June 2025, compared to the first six months of 2024.Specific to truck-involved accidents, fatalities in 2023 dropped by nearly 500 deaths over 2022, an 8.3% improvement. This includes a 12% overall decline in the number of deaths among occupants of large trucks defined by the administration as having a gross vehicle weight rating over 10,000 pounds. Fit to DriveDriver impairment a major problem in trucking industryPhoto: istockphoto.com38 Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT

The bad news, as reported by Forbes, is 5.2% of traffic incidents were caused by impairment and another 5.2% by inattention, tying these two factors as the second-leading cause of crashes. The culpability in crashes of driver fitness to perform is so great, it supersedes other important factors such as visibility and time of day. The latest NHTSA data showed 73% of crashes involving large trucks happen during clear weather and 80% happen during daytime hours. Brad Klepper, president of Driver’s Legal Plan Ltd., an Oklahoma Citybased national legal firm, is not surprised by the prevalence of impairment in these incidents. He said a lack of uniform testing protocols and the rise of medical and recreational marijuana threaten to neutralize other safety efforts by regulators and the industry. “I can’t really think of any other time in U.S. history where we’ve had something like this,” he said. “The federal government, regardless of what the states say, holds that any type of marijuana is illegal. Yet the majority of states allow some type of medical or recreational marijuana and you have a whole generation of people that have grown up with this being legal and not having a stigma on it. There’s a level of acceptance that didn’t exist in my generation.”Klepper said even cannabis’ one remaining federal shackle—the substance’s status as a Schedule I narcotic where it resides alongside heroin and ecstasy—is under assault in Washington. Last May, no less than the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency submitted a proposal to downgrade marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, a less serious category. The measure drew the attention of the American Trucking Association, which sent a letter to federal transportation, health and legal officials saying the group was “alarmed by the possibility that certain industries could be prohibited from screening for drug use by workers performing safety-sensitive roles.“If the trucking and broader transportation industries’ ability to conduct drug testing is restricted, the risk of impaired drivers operating on our nation’s roadways undetected would increase, endangering all who share the road,” ATA’s letter warned.Earlier this summer, ATA COO Dan Horvath again reached out to administration officials seeking clarity on the proposal and subsequent options the industry would have to test for driver impairment due to cannabis. “In the trucking industry alone, marijuana accounts for roughly 60% of all positive employer drug tests reported to the [Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Drug & Alcohol] Clearinghouse since 2020,” Horvath wrote. “The National Transportation Safety Board has found marijuana to be one of the most frequently detected substances in impaired driving crashes resulting in serious or fatal injuries.“Without the deterrent and detection power of marijuana testing … preventable tragedies will only become more frequent. Given the heightened public attention to marijuana policy and the possibility of a federal rescheduling of marijuana in the near term, we are requesting clarity on DOT’s plans to address such a change.”Despite defending carriers and CDL drivers in such cases, Klepper made clear his desire to get impaired drivers of all descriptions off the road, a task that becomes substantially more difficult by easing drug laws.“I am 100 percent for whatever we need to do to make our roads the safest. I don’t want anybody driving on the road that’s impaired for any reason,” he said. “This is something we’re going to have to address as the industry. We can’t ignore it as we have somewhat of a driver shortage, and now we’re seeing this whole class of young people who have had access to [marijuana] and utilize it and don’t think anything about it. Klepper said addressing the problem starts with a new understanding of what impairment really means. In an article he penned for the Tennessee Trucking Association, he defined impairment as when “an individual loses their functional ability to operate safely within a given environment. In its most basic form, a person determined to be impaired is not fit for duty.”“The most fundamental question is, is a person impaired at the point in time they’re getting behind the wheel of a vehicle or operating a forklift in a warehouse or as a Lyft driver or as an airline pilot, whatever it is,” he said. “An impairment can come from marijuana, obviously, alcohol, fatigue, sleep apnea, early onset dementia. The point is, I want to know if someone is impaired at that particular point in time.”Barclay agreed, saying while it is important to distinguish between “AN IMPAIRMENT CAN COME FROM MARIJUANA, OBVIOUSLY, ALCOHOL, FATIGUE, SLEEP APNEA, EARLY ONSET DEMENTIA. THE POINT IS, I WANT TO KNOW IF SOMEONE IS IMPAIRED AT THAT PARTICULAR POINT IN TIME.”—BRAD KLEPPER, PRESIDENT, DRIVER’S LEGAL PLANARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 39

impaired driving, such as due to alcohol, fatigue or drugs, and distracted driving due to inattentiveness and cell phone use, parsing causation too far is part of the problem. He said while authorities and operators are justifiably concerned about drivers under the influence, dismissing other factors leaves out an important part of the problem. “When you understand or address that blind spot of impairment, what you’re able to do is establish a level of confidence that the right decisions would be made when they matter most,” he said. “When you look at the problem as just a matter of drug and alcohol testing, you really are not answering the question of whether that person is fit to perform their task right now in a safe manner.“I want to be very clear here: I’m not taking a dig at drug and alcohol testing or telematics for that matter. I think they have their place within the ecosystem. The thing is, those approaches are not necessarily addressing the question of whether a person is in fact fit for duty, what they do is they tell you what is in someone’s body and how a person performed.”Barclay said rather than learning after the fact that a person was impaired, the challenge is to preempt an incident by gauging a person’s fitness to perform in the moment and then taking steps accordingly. That underlying goal formed the basis for DriveABLE, Impirica’s cognitive assessment tool, that is designed to identify at-risk drivers with precision.The tool is made up of two components, DriveABLE Cognitive Assessment Tool (DCAT) and the DriveABLE On-Road Evaluation (DORE). DCAT is a 30-minute, tablet-based assessment that evaluates cognitive abilities crucial for safe driving such as mental flexibility, memory and judgement, and provides immediate, objective results. DORE is an on-road test that measures cognitive skills in real driving scenarios.Barclay said one major benefit of the assessment tool is its ability to detect impairment caused by everyday life events, which are far more subtle than those symptoms associated with mood-altering substances “With some of the organizations we work with, we’ve identified people who are high-risk even though they don’t have drugs and alcohol in their system and are not fatigued,” he said. “They might be going through a nasty divorce, however, which can impact one’s ability to focus on the job at hand. “What our cognitive assessment does is ultimately assess capacity relative to driving a commercial vehicle, and in that way, we’re able to project a risk of whether they’re high or low risk to do that job.”Klepper cited Impirica’s product in his piece to the TTA, saying such an assessment can pay ancillary benefits that go beyond pinpointing fitness in the moment to identifying broader health and wellness issues.“Impairment can be an early indicator of a treatable condition, allowing companies to better support the health of their workforce providing more engaged employees and reducing turnover,” he said. “Impirica’s impairment assessments have assisted in identifying two drivers at two separate companies who both needed heart bypass surgeries. In both cases, the drivers survived and were able to return to their driving careers. “Not only did this testing likely save their lives, it very likely saved these drivers from inadvertently hurting others if their hearts failed while they were behind the wheel.”Barclay is quick to add that for as good as his company’s product is, it is only one step in the kind of comprehensive process needed to address the problem.“I want be clear here that the assessment that we’ve got is not a silver bullet,” he said. “When you look at driver risk, there’s three aspects to it. There is the driver fitness, is this individual fit to do the job that you’re asking of them. Second, there is the driver’s attention and ability to focus on the job. The third component to risk is training and experience.“When you think of it, all three of those have to work together to provide the appropriate level of mitigated risk to drive safely.”Klepper said even as new tools such as Impirica’s are developed, there is much work to be done to get impairment assessment and remediation consistently up to par across the nation. He said moving forward that effort will most likely start at the grassroots level. “The carriers themselves are going to start testing their drivers for legal protection,” he said. “If your driver’s involved in an accident they want to be able to say, ‘Hey, I had this guy take a test before he went on duty, he was not impaired.’ “Every carrier I know wants to put the safest fleet drivers out there on the road and this is another thing they can do to make sure their drivers are safe and doing the job while also getting the benefit of something they can point to in litigation to show what they’re doing to put safe drivers on the road.” ATR“WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE PROBLEM AS JUST A MATTER OF DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTING, YOU REALLY ARE NOT ANSWERING THE QUESTION OF WHETHER THAT PERSON IS FIT TO PERFORM THEIR TASK RIGHT NOW IN A SAFE MANNER.”—PJ BARCLAY, PRESIDENT & CEO, IMPIRICA40Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT

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Miles of ThanksCelebrating the professional drivers who keep Arkansas movingBy ATA StaffOn Thursday, September 18, the Arkansas Trucking Association rolled out welcome mats, lunches and goodie bags at the TA Petro in North Little Rock, continuing a tradition of showing appreciation to the men and women who keep America on the move.Each day, more than 15,000 trucks pass through that stretch of I-40, carrying everything from groceries and medical supplies to construction materials and holiday gifts. One this midSeptember afternoon, many of those drivers parked their rigs, grabbed a hot meal, and accepted a heartfelt thankyou from an industry that knows just how vital their work is.“Professional drivers are the link between production and possibility,” said ATA President Shannon Newton. “They cover the miles so the rest of us can go about our days without worry. National Truck Driver Appreciation Week gives us the chance to pause and recognize the people who quite literally keep Arkansas moving.”Governor Sarah Sanders echoed that sentiment with an official proclamation declaring September 14–20, 2025, as Truck Driver Appreciation Week in Arkansas. At the national level, Sen. John Boozman helped ensure those shoulders didn’t go unnoticed. His bipartisan resolution honoring America’s drivers called attention to their service and sacrifice, noting that, “truck drivers are the backbone of our economy and a source of pride for our state. These men and women spend long hours away from their families to deliver the goods that keep our communities moving.”Back home, ATA’s fifth annual billboard campaign amplified that gratitude. Seen by more than a million motorists throughout September, the message was simple: For Every Haul, Thanks, Y’all.This year’s event—and the goodwill it inspired—was made possible through the generous sponsorship of ATA member companies who share a deep respect for professional drivers and the essential work they do.To every driver who stopped by for lunch, conversation, and connection—thank you for keeping Arkansas rolling.42 Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT

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2025 DRIVER APPRECIATION SPONSORSABF FreightAONBill Davis TruckingC.C. Jones TruckingCCMSIDoggett Freightliner of ArkansasGreat West Casualty CompanyHurricane ExpressJ.B. Hunt TransportJHook Towing & RecoveryJM Bozeman EnterprisesLoggins LogisticsMcKee Foods TransportationMHC Truck LeasingPenske Truck LeasingPrePassRich Insurance ServicesStar TransportationTA PetroTracy Law PLLCTyson Foods, Inc.W&B Service CoARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 45

ATR46Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT

Insider TruckingA look at the latest products, services and news from ATR advertisersTLG PETERBILT KEEPS YOU ROLLING WHEN IT COUNTSTLG Peterbilt is more than just a dealership. As drivers-turned-dealers, you can rely on us to provide you with the products, programs and service solutions you need most, on or off the road. From our industry-leading mobile service program, Road Guru, to our state-of-the-art dealerships with driver amenities, we’re dedicated to maximizing your uptime and building relationships that last. TLG Peterbilt proudly offers:• 25+ locations in 8 states• High-quality new and used trucks • Leasing & Rental• Competitive in-house financing• All-makes parts inventory with text or email options• 24/7 Guru Call Center• Road Guru mobile service Check out our website tlgtrucks.com or visit our locations in Arkansas today: TLG Peterbilt–NW Arkansas in Lowell, TLG Peterbilt–Fort Smith in Van Buren, and TRP NE Arkansas in Southside, to find out how TLG Peterbilt can help you and your business.We’re all about your success. The programs and services we offer are groyou need most. Inside the cab and under the hood, we know what it taTLG Peterbilt - NW ArkansasLowell, AR | 479-439-8116 New Trucks | Used Trucks | Parts | Service | Leasing & ReHEAVY-DUTY ROLL-OFF TRUCKS AVAILABLE NOW AT MHCStreamline your operations with the Kenworth T880 roll-off, equipped with Galfab’s exclusive outside rail cable hoist system. Designed for the most demanding jobs in waste, recycling and construction, this powerhouse combination delivers fast and easy loading, enhanced operator safety and reduced maintenance costs. Standard features include:• Dual supported side rollers (5 per side)• Mechanical auto-fold ICC bumper• Heavy-duty cast tail frame and hydraulic system• Electronic controls with optional wireless remote• 60,000–75,000 lb. lift capacity• Greaseable working points• 18–22’ container range• 48-degree dump angle• 0.88” cable with swivel eye hook• Hoist up alarm and backup alarm• Pioneer tarping system add-on • Integrated hydraulics and rear-view camera We’re committed to delivering dependable solutions that keep your operations running efficiently. Visit mhc.com/trucks to browse our inventory or contact our team today at (501) 490-1500. FOCUS ON OPERATIONAL SAVINGS AND SAFETY WITH WEIGH STATION BYPASS PrePass helps pre-approved fleets save time and money with every bypass. Based on ISS and CSA scoring, each successful bypass can help save up to $11.75 in operating costs, an average of five minutes per stop and up to half a gallon of fuel. Not having to pull into a weigh station may also reduce collision risks. With the flexibility of using a transponder or mobile app, customers often use both to maximize bypass opportunities. The PrePass mobile app offers parking, safety, traffic and weather features, to help keep drivers on the road, safely. Being able to track and benchmark your DOT inspections can help fleets pinpoint areas that need more attention or training. INFORM™ Safety from PrePass offers detail into DOT inspections, helping fleet managers understand what they need to focus on, which helps to keep fleets safer.Get your PrePass bypass solution todayhttps://pages.prepass.com/Mobile-App.htmlATRARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 47

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STAT VIEWATR Source: American Trucking TrendsU.S.-Canada/Mexico Surface TradeTRUCKS MOVED 67% OF SURFACE TRADE BETWEEN THE U.S. AND CANADA, AND 85% OF GOODS ACROSS THE MEXICAN BORDER IN 2024.ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 5 2025 49

THE LAST WORDOpinions expressed on this page may not reflect official policies or opinions of the Arkansas Trucking Association or the American Trucking Associations.The Power of Association in Trucking (and Beyond)By David O’NealA version of this article originally appeared on the scopelitisconsulting.com website. Approaching 30 years in trucking, I’ve learned a lot—mostly the hard way—but one truth has always been clear: no one moves the world forward alone. Not the driver hauling the load, the nurse caring for patients, or the policymakers shaping our future. Associations—whether in trucking, health care, real estate, or agriculture—prove that when voices unite, impact multiplies.Take advocacy. One driver or company might get a legislator’s attention. But when a state trucking association or American Trucking Associations speaks for thousands, lawmakers listen. That collective voice helps shape realistic regulations, safety initiatives, and keeps freight moving efficiently. It’s the same strategy used by the American Hospital Association or National Association of Realtors.Associations aren’t always trade groups. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), for example, brings together U.S., Canadian, and Mexican enforcement agencies to align inspection criteria and safety practices. That consistency strengthens safety and provides predictability for carriers.Education is another cornerstone. Associations offer training on compliance, leadership, technology, and workforce challenges. They create spaces to share best practices. Other professions do the same—project managers, contractors, builders—and a 2023 report from the American Trucking Research Institute (ATRI) even found that association membership makes carriers safer.Then there’s public perception. Trucking isn’t always shown in the best light, sometimes through our own missteps. Associations work to change that narrative, highlighting drivers and industry workers as essential professionals. Think of “Got Milk?”—that wasn’t one farmer, it was an industry speaking with one voice.Knowing where to focus can be challenging. In trucking, research helps. ATRI conducts an annual survey to identify top issues, guiding advocacy and research priorities.At their core, associations make the collective stronger than the individual. They advocate when stakes are high, educate to keep professionals sharp, and promote industries so the public understands their value.That’s why I’m excited to return to the Arkansas Trucking Association to help tell trucking’s story, to carry collective experiences forward, sharing the innovation, resilience, and, most importantly, the stories of the people who keep America moving. Trucking has challenges, but also incredible opportunities. I’m eager to help shine a light on both.David O’Neal is the Vice President of Engagement for the Arkansas Trucking Association. He most recently served as Senior Associate at Scopelitis Transportation Consulting. AT THEIR CORE, ASSOCIATIONS MAKE THE COLLECTIVE STRONGER THAN THE INDIVIDUAL.50 Issue 5 2025 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT