UP CLOSE & PERSONAL
Rebecca Brewster, President & COO of American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) As President and COO of ATRI, Rebecca has the overall responsibility for ensuring that ATRI delivers on its mission of research to improve the trucking industry’s safety and productivity. That includes oversight of ATRI’s research portfolio, ensuring that they have the resources – staff and financial – to deliver on their mission, and serving as the public voice of ATRI to disseminate their research far and wide.
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What motivates you to come to work every day?
The opportunity to make this great industry even better, whether it means improved safety training for drivers, benchmarking to improve a fleet’s bottom line, or quantifying the impact of regulations to better inform policy and regulatory actions, our work is critical for the industry.
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REBECCA BREWSTER ATRI President & COO
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hat are the three W biggest challenges that ATRI faces as an organization at the current time?
ATRI’s annual budget is fairly evenly split between charitable contributions from the industry and revenue generated from government contract research, so ensuring we have adequate resources from both is a perennial challenge. And, while we rely on a core group of trucking industry supporters who make annual contributions to ATRI, we really need to expand that number of contributors so that it is more in line with the value our research delivers to the industry.
ow do you believe the trucking H industry will fare under the Biden Administration?
Any change in administration brings with it new agency heads and priorities and the potential for regulatory impacts. ATRI’s research over the years has been used to quantify the impact of regulatory changes on the industry and we’re prepared to do that under the Biden administration as needed.
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IOWA TRUCKING LIFELINER
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hat does ATRI have in its toolbox that W makes it an effective organization?
ATRI’s research agenda is set by its Research Advisory Committee (RAC), an external group of trucking industry stakeholders representing motor carriers, professional drivers, industry suppliers, law enforcement, government and academia who are tasked with annually identifying the trucking industry’s top priorities. The varied experience and expertise of RAC members ensures that our research priorities are addressing the industry’s most pressing needs.
Additionally, ATRI’s staff size is relatively small compared to the volume of work we produce for the industry but combined, our staff has over 150 years of trucking industry experience. That depth and breadth of experience is unmatched in terms of what we bring to our work on behalf of the trucking industry.
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hat is the most rewarding and the W most frustrating aspect of your job?
I love telling the ATRI story – and I’m very passionate about the value of our research to the industry. So presenting at industry events, being interviewed on radio or TV, or these days, doing virtual presentations, is the most rewarding part of my job. As part of our mission to provide the research to improve the industry’s safety and productivity, we make all of our research available on our website free of charge. Unfortunately, there are times when individuals or groups who believe something counter to what our research findings are will publicly criticize our research. That frustrates me for our staff as I know the hard work they put into our studies and how much time and resources are spent to ensure that our research methodologies are transparent and our findings are accurate.
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hat are your guiding principles and W how do you rely on those principles daily to do your job?
I have always believed that hard work and honesty are what make you successful in business and I keep both as my personal barometer of success, always asking, “have I done my best work and have I been honest with everyone?”
