Trucking Moves America Forward (TMAF), an industry-wide education movement, shared its latest accomplishments in a telephone press conference that discussed their ongoing educational and awareness activities, success in influencing decision makers, their expanding social media campaign and their goals moving forward.

Kevin Burch, co-chairman of TMAF, president of Jet Express, Inc. and chairman of American Trucking Associations (ATA) began the conference with a discussion of TMFA’s recently published first annual report. The report, he said, illustrates how TMFA met their 2015 goals in expanding their reach, building their donor base and further engaging the lawmakers, the industry and the media, along with the motoring public.

Burch also emphasized the success of the TMAF Trailer Wraps program, citing a recent study that shows that a Trailer Wrap can be seen by 16 million people per city, and that 98 percent of those who see the Trailer Wraps actually recall the message. “We are now focused on the next generation of Trailer Wraps,” Burch said. “We’re talking about three dimensional Trailer Wraps and also a new type a bottom rail trailer wrap that would be even more cost effective.” TMAF has sold 140 Trailer Wraps, and would like to reach 200 Trailer Wraps on the roads in the future.

Elizabeth Barna, COO and executive vice president of industry affairs for ATA discussed TMAF’s campaign to promote the industry in front of decision makers and the public. She spoke of TMAF’s success in advocating for better roads and bridges in partnership with others from the transportation industry.

“Our story is so powerful, and TMAF gives us a platform to tell our story with a unified voice. We are truly building, and have built, a grass roots movement one step at a time. We are seeing examples of our efforts working, and we are really excited about that.”

Wendy Hamilton, senior manager of sales marketing at Pilot Flying J, expanded on TMAF’s public outreach education and expanding online presence. Some of the major accomplishments this year include:

• Reaching 10,000 likes on Facebook
• Increasing Twitter following by 25 percent
• Adding a LinkedIn page for sharing business news
• Adding an Instagram handle
• More than 800 Facebook shares on the #ThankATrucker call-to-action

Steve Ponder, TMAF co-chair, wrapped up the conference by touching on TMAF’s earned media placements. Since March, TMAF has been in 66 news stories and seven editorials, and their ad buy yielded more than 8 million impressions.

“Part of our efforts are to demonstrate not just the economic value of trucking, but to improve the image of drivers – proving that drivers are family members, neighbors and community members just like anyone else.” Ponder said.

TMAF’s success highlights how the movement is changing public perception through outreach and education.