ATA Update

Dan Van Alstine Named 2023 ATA Chairman – First ATA Chair from Iowa

Dan Van Alstine, COO of Ruan Transportation was elected the 79th Chairman for the American Trucking Associations at its annual MC&E in October. Dan is the first person from the State of Iowa to serve in this capacity and will spend the next year in the national spotlight providing leadership for the nation’s trucking industry.

“We are so proud to have Dan in this role and I think it is fitting that the first ATA Chairman from Iowa is someone from Ruan, especially given that Mr. Ruan was one of the founders of the Iowa Motor Truck Association. Dan will do an incredible job and we wish him the very best,” said IMTA President & CEO, Brenda Neville. Dan was the Chairman of the Board for IMTA during the pandemic and served for two years in the top spot, 2020 and 2021.

As the ATA chairman, Van Alstine said he plans to focus on issues important to ATA while also taking time to tell Ruan’s story to truckers across the nation; it’s a unique tale of putting people first, while respecting the values and traditions of the third-generation family enterprise that was founded in 1932 by John Ruan.

Van Alstine said his platform at ATA will be “to be loud and consistent about the virtues and the opportunities of this industry. I owe it to ATA, and I owe it to its members. I lead with my heart and will continue to do that.”

“Dan is inspiring,” said ATA President Chris Spear, who has worked with Van Alstine for some time. “He listens, asks questions and takes action. He creates momentum by challenging people to give their very best. It’s why Dan makes a difference and ATA is most fortunate to have him as our chairman.”

Since taking over his role at Ruan, Van Alstine has overseen significant growth of the company’s integrated supply chain solutions offerings, including dedicated contract transportation, managed transportation, value-added warehousing, and brokerage support services. Ruan, which ranks No. 38 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America, has more than 5,600 employees, 300 operations across the nation, 4,000 power units and 10,000 trailers. Van Alstine said the company’s revenue has now reached roughly $1.5 billion. “Our industry indisputably enables the standard of living that we all enjoy,” said Dan. “Each of us has known this since the time of our start in this business, yet it took a global pandemic for our country to truly understand and appreciate that without our industry, without trucking, everything simply stops.”

“Dan’s very thoughtful, and he’s strategic,” said longtime friend and former co-worker, Paul Herzog, chief financial officer for Dubuque, Iowa-based Hirschbach Motor Lines, Inc. “He definitely will bring that to ATA. He has a genuine interest in leaving things better after he’s touched something.”

Hugh Ekberg, CEO of CRST The Transportation Solution, said that while he himself had run large manufacturing companies before coming to CRST in 2016, he had no experience in trucking. He and Van Alstine hit if off quickly after their first meeting.

”He became for me a go-to resource as I continued to learn the industry,” Ekberg said. “He made himself available. He was very sincere about reaching out. I took full advantage of his years of experience in the industry.

Ekberg calls Van Alstine “a man of human connections.”

As the ATA Chairman, Dan will spend the next year traveling the country to meet with ATA members and government policymakers to develop, advocate for, and advance innovative research based policies that promote highway safety, security and environmental sustainability.