USA Truck Names James Reed President and CEO

James D. Reed has been named president and chief executive officer of USA Truck effective immediately, the company announced.

Reed succeeds Randy Rogers, who is leaving to pursue other opportunities, according to the company. He will also take over Rogers' position on the USA Truck board of directors. Prior to the new appointment, Reed was the company's chief financial officer.

Before joining USA Truck, Reed served as CFO of Interstate Distributor, an asset based trucking business and as president of its subsidiary, Interstate Distributor Logistics. He began his career with Intel Corporation in 1997 after graduating from Brigham Young University.

“In his brief tenure at USA Truck, James already has demonstrated his ability to drive operational excellence across the organization, drawing upon his more than two decades of experience in trucking, logistics, finance, and business development,” said Robert Peiser, chairman of the company's board of directors. “He is an action-oriented executive with a strong attention to detail, and has already implemented procedures to improve operational performance.”

Also effective immediately, Jim Craig has been appointed executive vice president and chief commercial officer, a newly created position. Craig will focus on driving the company's topline revenue through increased coordination of USA Truck's internal operations and by improving customer service. Craig had been acting as president of the company's USAT Logistics business and will continue to oversee the logistics business in addition to his new responsibilities.

“Last year was a tough year for our industry in general and specifically for USA Truck,” said Peiser. “With the need for a different approach to the company's strategy to improve its operations, we are extremely pleased to have executives of James' and Jim's caliber assume leadership of the company.”

USA Truck has had three different presidents and CEOs in the past three years, after John Simone stepped down from the position in ...Read the rest of this story

Chao Confirmed as Transportation Chief

Image via Elainelchao.com

As expected, Elaine Chao was easily confirmed on Jan. 31 as Secretary of Transportation by the U.S. Senate.

Secretary Chao has stated that one of her top priorities will be cooperating with Congress to enact the trillion-dollar infrastructure investment plan that has been floated by President-elect Trump since right after the election.

Speaking at her Senate confirmation hearing earlier in January, Chao emphasized the “significant difference between traditional program funding and other innovative financing tools, such as public-private partnerships.” She said getting private capital flowing into infrastructure projects will require “incentivizing” equity firms, pension funds, and endowments to invest in “a bold new vision” for building highways and other infrastructure.

In addition, Chao pledged in that hearing to keep safety a “primary objective” for DOT on her watch. She has also asserted that regulatory decisions should be “based on sound science with solid underlying data.”

Chao is no stranger to the power elite in Washington. She served as secretary of labor throughout both terms of President George W. Bush. Her first major executive appointment was deputy secretary of transportation under President George H.W. Bush.

Related: Chao Pitches Private Infrastructure Investment in Confirmation Hearing

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