David Smith and Sharon Middleton joined the board, while four members were re-elected
The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) announced the reappointment of Noelene Watson as the chairperson for the second term in a row during its annual general meeting in Canberra this week.
The meeting also saw four other re-elections to ATA’s board of management, two farewells and two additions.
After many years on the ATA’s board, Watson was first appointed the chair in 2014.
Watson is the current managing director of Don Watson Transport, a refrigerated logistics company, and is a member of TruckSafe, the industry’s safety accreditation scheme.
Watson has a “deep understanding of the industry both as an operator and at an association level”, the ATA says.
ATA also welcomed two new directors to its board, David Smith and Sharon Middleton.
Smith is the president of the Livestock and Rural Transporters Association of South Australia and the current MD of D&S Smith Haulage.
He is also a member of the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Australia National Council.
“It’s critical that we encourage and promote chain of responsibility and safety in our own industry,” Smith says.
“I look forward to working with the Chair and the Board to ensure the ATA is really connected with the grassroots of the trucking industry.”
Middleton is the president of the South Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA) and the owner and director of Whiteline Transport.
“As someone who still actively drives high productivity vehicles across the Nullarbor, I get to see firsthand the challenges faced by small to medium operators in rural and remote Australia,” Middleton says.
“Their issues are quite unique, and need to be accounted for in national decisions.”
Andrew Garrety, Kathy Williams, Mike Almond and Austin Vella were re-elected unopposed to the board, while Andrew Garrety was re-elected as the ATA’s secretary/treasurer.
The members also paid tribute to ATA’s two retiring directors, Trevor Martyn and Gordon Martin.
“Trevor, you’ve been contributing heavily for 10 years now – we’ve seen you step in, not having a background with the ATA, and picking up with a new CEO,” ATA former chair David Simon says.
“The time and effort you had to put in to that was enormous.”
Of Martin, Watson says: “Gordon has contributed greatly to the ATA over the past two years.
“He’s just an on the road guy – when we needed some advice or a little bit of knowledge about what’s happening out there he was there for us.”