Heavy-duty trucking is a relationship industry, it is said time and again.
Politics, as Jodie Teuton, vice president of Kenworth of Louisiana points out, is a relationship, too.
“Trucks and trucking touch everything and is America’s lifeblood,” Teuton says. “However, far too many folks who govern this nation haven’t a clue about supply chain. If we as citizens want good government, we have to participate for the strength of this country we call home.”
Teuton sits on the American Truck Dealers (ATD) board of directors as the Kenworth line representative, a position she’s held since 2014.
“Becoming politically active in your profession is easiest, in my mind,” Teuton says. “Participate in the trade organizations you belong to.”
Scott McCandless did. He is the chairman of ATD and president of McCandless Truck Center in Aurora, Colo. He, too, started out as a truck line representative, but for International.
“It’s always a challenge to get involved either at the state level or the federal level,” he says, adding the present challenge for dealerships is to get lawmakers to understand what increasing environmental regulation is doing to the trucking industry.
