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May 1, 2000 8:50 AM, EDT

The NatiPrivate Truck Council has an identity crisis. It is not well-known among its potential members: companies that operate trucks to haul the goods they produce or distribute but that do not consider freight transportation to be their primary business.

One problem may be the archaic nomenclature. “Private” trucking may not really describe what’s going on.

“The use of the word private comes from the Interstate Commerce Commission, which used the word to denote the difference from for-hire carriers. The ICC has been dead since 1995, so the phrase private trucking has become anachronistic,” said John A. McQuaid, president of the National Private Trucking Association.

Market research in 1999 by his Alexandria, Va.-based group found a lack of awareness about the association among managers of manufacturers’ trucking operations. “We have no name identity among the people who run private fleets,” McQuaid said.

For the full story, see the May 1 print edition of Transport Topics. .