Shannon Newton Is In the Driver’s Seat

Editor’s note: This article appears in the latest magazine edition of Talk Business & Politics, which you can read here.

Shannon Newton’s career in the trucking industry happened purely by accident and being selected as the president of the Arkansas Trucking Association wasn’t on her road map either. The appointment happened on the heels of welcoming a new son into her family. Shannon and her husband, Josh, recently adopted a teenage boy out of foster care, making her a mom of three.

Newton, a Saline County native, graduated from the University of Central Arkansas with a double major in accounting and computer information systems.

“Trucking was not an obvious choice or field of industry that was even on my radar,” Newton said. “However, I met a recruiter from Maverick Transportation that was on campus promoting some openings in the corporate office, and the story becomes somewhat predictable after that.”

Just out of college, she was hired by Maverick to work in the payroll department, where she stayed for about a year before she was offered a position at the ATA. She’s been with the association since 2003, and she was appointed president in June, replacing Lane Kidd, who stepped down after serving 22 years as president.

She said her No. 1 goal in leading the association is to meet the needs of its membership.

“There are general ideas and themes that I personally believe will help the association serve as a vehicle for its members,” she said. “But essentially, if the industry’s interests are being served, issues like membership and engagement and morale tend to take care of themselves.”

The ATA works with more than 300 trucking companies, and members range from self-employed owner operators to some of the country’s largest freight and logistics companies.

ATA board member Al Heringer IV said he is looking forward to working with Newton.

“She was the only choice as far as I am concerned,” said Heringer, who is vice president of sales at Star Transportation, Inc., in Jonesboro. “I am looking forward to working with her for years to come. She understands what we do in the trucking industry and works hard to make sure we are successful in this industry.”

“All the years that I have been a member of the board of directors, she has always had the answers to any questions that I needed to make a decision,” he said.

THE TRUCKING INDUSTRY
Newton also believes in educating the public and making people aware of the economic impact of the trucking industry in Arkansas. The industry employs 86,000 people in Arkansas, that’s one in every 13 working people; it pays $2.5 billion in wages to support Arkansas families; 90% of the state’s towns depend exclusively on the trucking industry to deliver necessary items; and the demand for trucking will likely increase by 20% over the next 10 years, according to the ATA.

“[The public] is grossly unaware of the exorbitant taxes that we pay to support Arkansas government and infrastructure,” she said. “As an industry, we haven’t done a good enough job convincing the public that our industry places a huge amount of effort and expenditures to ensure that we are operating as safely as possible on our roads and highways. And that we are doing all of these things in an environment calling for increasingly high capital expenditures and an incredible amount of regulation.”

According to the American Transportation Research Institute, the top four issues for the trucking industry are hours of service; compliance, safety and accountability (CSA); a shortage of drivers; and the economy. Newton said those issues haven’t changed much in the past few years; however, other items on that list are fuel supply and prices and the lack of spending for infrastructure and the cost of congestion.

“When the economy is steady or improving, workforce – specifically the driver shortage – is the number one economic issue,” she said. “When the economy is not good or declining, a lackluster economy is the number one issue. It’s a very, very slow revolving door. Currently, the industry is facing a huge driver shortage that is only expected to get worse.”

With an aging workforce, Newton said the industry isn’t attracting young drivers at the same rate that current drivers are retiring or leaving the trucking business.

“All of this is overlaid on the fact the bar is being raised with regard to the requirements and qualifications for individuals to qualify to become drivers,” she said.

FAMILY OF FIVE
Just as Newton wants to increase understanding of the trucking industry, she also has a passion for raising the awareness of the need for adoptive families in Arkansas.

The Newtons recently became parents to their third child, David, who just turned 17. The couple has two other children, Nash, 7, and Nyla, 5. But Newton says she was moved when she learned that teenage boys are the least likely to be adopted out of foster care.

“I was truly broken once I became aware of the need,” she said. “These waiting kids are not just numbers or statistics. Each one is a real kid with hopes and dreams just like all of the other children I knew.

“My husband is a wonderfully magnificent man, and we decided very early on that our family had something to offer those children that might not otherwise have the opportunity to be part of a family. … We were up for the challenge.”

After searching available children through the Department of Human Services’ Arkansas Heart Gallery – which introduces prospective adoptive families with children in need of homes – Newton said there were six boys for whom she and her husband began praying, and David was one of them. The Newtons had met David at several events, and he compared his adoption to winning the lottery on a Today’s THV news segment.

David had not had a family in 10 years, and he lived in a group home for six years. This is the first time he’s had his own room.

Newton says David has been with their family since November 2013, and he has excelled in school and will be playing football for the first time this fall.

Although David’s adoption isn’t final yet, the Newtons still consider him their son.

Through the adoption process, Newton said she became very involved with Project Zero, which is a nonprofit organization that promotes awareness of the need for adoptive homes for children in foster care.

“I am honored to now serve on the board of Project Zero, forwarding their mission until no child is waiting in Arkansas for an adoptive home,” she said.

For more information on Project Zero, visit www.theprojectzero.org.