The American Trucking Associations has a new leader. Mark Colson, who has headed the Alabama Trucking Association since two thousand nineteen, will become ATA's president and CEO on December first, stepping into the role after the sudden departure of Chris Spear this past August. Colson is the tenth person to hold the position, according to FreightWaves, which reported the appointment Wednesday afternoon.
The trade group confirmed the move in its own announcement, saying Colson's appointment takes effect December first. Commercial Carrier Journal reported that Colson brings a background leading Alabama's state association and a stated vision for the industry. Colson's elevation comes as the federation's member carriers are pressing Washington and Sacramento on two fronts: fuel costs that smaller operators say they cannot absorb, and a federal language rule that the ATA itself has flagged as open to subjective enforcement.
On the fuel question, California Trucking Association President Tim Pollock told Trucking Dive on Monday that California diesel on-highway average prices statewide have been retreating in recent weeks, but that smaller carriers are still bearing the brunt of the operating challenges. Pollock, who is also vice president of CPS Express, said small carriers can lack the upfront cash to cover fuel costs before fuel surcharges kick in, and that even when surcharges arrive they might only cover some seventy or seventy-five percent of the cost.
Pollock described a workaround his own company uses. "We primarily service all of California with our trucks, but we do send trucks over to Arizona or Las Vegas, and so when we get our trucks out of state, we encourage them to fill up," he said. The strategy reflects the gap between California's diesel market and neighboring states, a gap that has widened as global supply routes have been disrupted.
An energy expert told Trucking Dive that elevated costs could extend well into next year. Matt Kropf, associate professor of engineering technology and director of the Harry Halloran Energy Institute at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, said dozens of refineries and energy sites have been damaged amid attacks tied to the Iran war, and that such damage could take months to reverse, or longer if facilities must be rebuilt from scratch. "I personally expect that we would see elevated diesel prices well into 2027, and I base that just on the type of refining capacity equipment that needs to be repaired, rebuilt, replaced, that that has suffered damage through international conflicts," Kropf said.
The Trump administration last week ordered dyed diesel, traditionally used for off-road agriculture vehicles, to expand to on-road use. The order seeks to defer taxes for the remainder of the year, but trucking groups suggested the measure does not address market fundamentals. The California Farm Bureau said Friday in an online newsletter that the dyed-diesel provision means little to California, which restricts the use of such tax-free fuel on public roads anyway. If California also removed its state tax on diesel, the bureau said, that could save businesses seventy-three cents per gallon.
Freight and supply chain groups including the California Trucking Association reached out to Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month, calling on the state government to help. President Donald Trump also said he was seeking to secure installments of diesel from Russia, according to the Trucking Dive report.
Separately, the Sikh Coalition is calling on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to scrap its proposed English language proficiency rule, arguing that vague enforcement standards create real risks of discrimination against Sikh truck drivers. Even the American Trucking Associations flagged concerns about subjective enforcement, according to FreightWaves. The coalition's position puts it alongside the industry's largest trade group in opposing the rule as written, though for different reasons: the ATA's concern centers on how inspectors would apply a standard that leaves room for judgment, while the Sikh Coalition frames the risk as one that falls disproportionately on drivers whose appearance or accent draws added scrutiny.
The two disputes converge on the same complaint from carriers: rules and costs handed down from Washington and state capitals land hardest on the smallest operators, the ones without the reserves to float a fuel bill or the legal staff to contest an enforcement action. Pollock's point about surcharges covering only part of the cost is the same point the ATA has made about regulatory compliance, namely that the margin for error shrinks as the fleet shrinks.
Next News Network could not independently verify the claims described in this report.
The ATA's own recent activity has focused in part on driver amenities. The group welcomed a two hundred million dollar federal investment in fourteen truck parking projects across twelve states, highlighting safety, freight efficiency and relief for drivers who lose fifty-six minutes of drive time daily, according to IndexBox. The funding announcement and the Colson appointment arrived within a day of each other, giving the incoming CEO an early item to point to when he takes over December first.
Our Take
The establishment press will frame Colson's rise as a routine leadership change at a trade association nobody outside the industry watches. That misses the story. The ATA is walking into a fall where its own members are telling anyone who will listen that the fuel math does not work, that a federal language rule could be weaponized against drivers, and that Sacramento has been asked for relief that has not come. Colson ran a state association in Alabama, a right-to-work state where carriers know what it costs to comply with mandates written by people who have never priced a load. That is the resume the moment calls for. The Trump administration's dyed-diesel order is a real attempt to give carriers breathing room, but as the California Farm Bureau noted, it does nothing for the largest diesel market in the country. If the White House wants to help small fleets, it should push Newsom to suspend California's seventy-three-cent state diesel tax instead of watching carriers route their trucks to Arizona and Nevada to fill up. And if the FMCSA wants an English proficiency rule that survives court, it should write one with objective standards rather than leave inspectors to guess, which is exactly what the ATA warned about. The trucking industry moves the country's freight. The least Washington and Sacramento can do is stop making that harder.
