The American Trucking Associations has named Mark Colson, president and CEO of the Alabama Trucking Association since 2019, as its next president and CEO, effective December 1. He becomes only the tenth person to hold the top job in an organization founded in 1933.

The appointment fills a vacancy created by the sudden departure of Chris Spear in late August, which jolted the industry's largest lobbying group. In barely three months, ATA moved from an unexpected leadership rupture to a permanent successor drawn from its own state-association ranks.

Colson is not a stranger inside the federation. According to a statement released by ATA, he has served on the association's Strategic Priorities Committee and on the Board of Directors of Truck PAC, its political action committee. He also sits on the Advisory Committee of the American Transportation Research Institute, ATA's research arm.

His peers at other state trucking associations elected him vice chairman of the Trucking Association Executives Council, ATA said. That record of internal leadership suggests the national board prioritized continuity and existing relationships over an outsider hire.

Who is Mark Colson?

Colson has run the Alabama Trucking Association for roughly six years, taking the top post there in 2019. Before that, he worked for several Alabama-based business organizations, most notably the Business Council of Alabama, the state's principal business lobby.

He holds an undergraduate degree from Huntingdon College and an MBA from Troy University. His career has been built in association management and advocacy rather than in freight operations — a profile closer to Spear's Washington-facing tenure than to a carrier executive.

What does the change mean for trucking policy?

For carriers and fleets, the practical question is whether ATA's legislative and regulatory agenda shifts under new leadership. The association's core priorities — fought largely in Washington over hours-of-service rules, truck parking, litigation reform and driver classification — are set through its committee structure, and Colson has already sat inside that structure through the Strategic Priorities Committee.

For shippers and forwarders, ATA leadership matters less for rates than for the regulatory climate that shapes trucking capacity. The handover arrives at a delicate moment for the sector, with freight demand soft and carriers still working through a prolonged market downturn.

The abruptness of Spear's exit in August had left the industry's chief advocacy organization without a confirmed public face for the fall policy season. Colson's December 1 start date closes that gap just as a new administration and a new Congress prepare to take shape in Washington.

A short history, a short list

In an organization spanning more than nine decades, only nine people have previously held the presidency. Colson's accession to the tenth seat underscores how rarely the top job changes hands — and how quickly ATA moved to stabilize itself after August.

ATA has described the appointment in a statement, and the story remains developing, with further details on Colson's agenda and any transition personnel expected in the coming weeks.