Tim Squires has been elected to the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) board at its annual general meeting held today.
A leading figure in the Queensland trucking industry, Squires owns and directs two trucking companies, the Tothag Transport Group and Auto Pacific Freightlines.
He has been the president of the Queensland Trucking Association since 2008, and was first elected to its board in 2001.
Squires said he became involved in industry associations because he wanted to have a voice on issues affecting the trucking industry.
At the QTA, he focused on fatigue management issues. Squires was invited by the then Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard to join the Government’s safe rates advisory group.
“I took this responsibility very seriously and devoted a great deal time to it, because I was the only person on the group with actual skin in the game,” Squires said in a statement.
Of his election to the ATA board of management, Squires said he will aim to have an input into the direction the ATA takes over the next few years.
“There is so much going on, and small to medium operators need to understand the impact that issues like registration charges and the proposed carbon tax could have if they go against us,” he said in the same statement.
Also in attendance at annual general meeting: Kathy Williams who was re-elected unopposed as the ATA’s Secretary/Treasurer; ATA Chairman David Simon who was re-elected to the board unopposed; as were Doug McMillan, Noelene Watson, Gemma Gordon and Derek Nathan.
Recently, Frank Black from Coopers Plains in Queensland was elected as the owner driver representative on the ATA General Council. Black, who previously held the owner driver position from 2003 to 2009, said that owner drivers and their families were an important sector of the transport industry.
The ATA is the peak body that represents the trucking industry throughout Australia. Its members include state and sector trucking associations, the Transport Workers’ Union and some of Australia’s major logistics companies.
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