Over 100 of our members attended the 2021 Annual Membership Conference & Expo in French Lick, Indiana, the first weekend of August. We had a wonderful time at the Welcome Reception and Sponsors Awards, where we found out what some of our members learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and Art Potter shared his “new talent” with the group.
During our educational sessions on day two, we learned about upcoming changes and challenges for new CDL drivers. We looked at the data from the drug and alcohol clearinghouse and we heard from Mr. Dan Cook of the TrueNorth Companies on strategic risk financing in a challenging litigation environment. We had outstanding weather for our golf and sporting clays outings during the afternoon – Chris McDonogh, Wade Bryant, Matt Goudy, and Adrien Voellinger won the golf tournament and Mr. David Meiners was the best shot of the group.
At the Chairman’s Banquet, Mr. Bob Costello, the Chief Economist & Senior Vice President of International Trade Policy with the American Trucking Association, spoke about the trucking demand and the trucking supply, including the driver shortage. Mr. Dan Martin with Great West Casualty and Rick Taylor with KTA presented the Safety Awards. Mr. Matthew Alpaugh with ABF Freight was named Driver of the Year and the Castellini Company was our Grand Champion.
On our final day, we had an eye-opening presentation from Ms. Jennifer Hall, General Counsel and Executive Vice President for Legal Affairs for the American Trucking Association on lawsuit abuse. She presented on various issues from other states such as failure to equip, preventable determination, phantom damages, seat belt gag rule, and the reptile theory. Our final speaker was Ms. Mindy Peterson with C2 Strategic Communications. She provided updates to several major projects, including the Ohio River Crossing I-69 bridge in Henderson, KY, the rehab of the Sherman Minton bridge in Louisville, and the upgrade of 24 miles in Indiana between Evansville and Indianapolis that is part of completing the I-69 corridor.
We want to thank all those who attended and helped make this event such a success!
