10 questions with the ATHS

We sat down with ATHS Executive Director John Gravley to learn more about the organization he represents and what it’s doing to continue its mission of preserving trucking history.

Q. OLD CARS: What separates the ATHS apart from other organizations?

A. ATHS: Many of our members would say that what they’re in the ATHS for is the national convention and truck show, where we have around a thousand trucks and many more people who come to the event, and then the chapters where our members meet in various locations and get together locally and have a local show. So there is that component to it, but beyond that, the thing that we do, that actually no one else does, is we were founded almost 55 years ago to preserve the history of trucking. So our mission is to collect the documents, information and stories about the history of trucking, so that that information is not lost, and to keep that part of our shared history alive. 

Trucking touches everything that we do, and yet most of us, many people that aren’t in the trucking industry, wouldn’t know that. And so our mission is to communicate that, and to keep the information available. For example, Kenworth, their archives are coming to ATHS because they’re important to Kenworth, and Kenworth entrusted us with them. Our mission is to take those and go through them and see what could be available for people to see easily... and to make sure that history is not lost. 

Q. OLD CARS: In what ways does the ATHS preserve materials?

A. ATHS: We have a library and document archive at our facility in Kansas City, and that’s on shelves and in files. It’s easy for someone to go there and look through the material. It’s all organized. 

We don’t yet have a digital outline of everything to make it available, so it does kind of require a person to go there. But our goal is to collect relevant information and then work on making it accessible to the general public. And the work on making it accessible is still sort of an aspirational part of we’re working on. But right now, we collect and house historical documents. 

Q. OLD CARS: What successes has the society recently seen? 

A. ATHS: Well, like any large membership organization with 21,000 members all around the world and a demographic that’s aging, it’s tough to have big growth. But recently, we have developed a relationship with the Women in Trucking Association. They have 8,000 members and do their own work at highlighting women in the trucking industry. And so we developed an affiliate partnership with them so that their membership could be a part of our membership and have access to our flagship magazine, Wheels of Time, which is published six times a year, plus the digital version, and share stories in that magazine and work to get more closely connected, because that’s a way for us to grow our membership — through other groups that love trucks or are interested in trucks — and we find a way to relate together in ways that are mutually beneficial. 

Q. OLD CARS: That leads me to the next question. If somebody was contemplating membership in the ATHS, what would be the big benefits to joining? 

A. ATHS: There are two big benefits, I would say. One, you’re participating in assisting in the preservation of the history of trucking. And that sometimes gets lost on people, but that’s our core mission, and like I said, we’re the only ones that are doing that. 

There are a lot of truck museums, there are clubs that love all trucks in terms of keeping the history alive, but we’re the only one doing that (preserving the history of trucking). So you get to participate in that financially, and in any other way that you want to be a part of that. And the second is the truck club component, so you get a magazine, Wheels of Time, six issues a year. It’s a well-regarded, glossy print magazine.

You also get the opportunity to join a local chapter. We have chapters all over the the U.S., Canada, Australia and maybe Mexico coming soon. And so you can be a part of a local chapter of people that love trucks. Our sort of tagline is, “people come for the trucks, but stay for the people.” So it’s about getting together with like-minded folks to talk about the truck that you’re restoring, or want to restore, or have restored, or someone else is restoring.

And, I mean, a club is certainly a component of who we are, but we’re much more than that, and that’s the differentiation. For example, there’s a competitor group in the Northeast, and they always talk about their club, and they have a nice club, but it’s only a club, and they try to compare themselves to us, but there’s a difference. We’re not just a club. We’re keeping the history of trucking alive. Kenworth is giving us their archives. Peterbilt is thinking about giving us their archives. We’re going to be the place that’s going to tell the story and keep the story alive. 

Q. OLD CARS: What made you want to be exective director of the society?

A. ATHS: My background is in nonprofit leadership, fundraising and executive management, and I was approached because, as a large organization with a $2 million budget and 21,000 members, there’s just staff that’s needed to run it. While some... would like to sit around the table and just decide what we need to decide, and run it that way, it’s bigger than that, and more complex than that. And so I was invited to see if I could help assist the organization and develop some new thinking about our future. And there’s where my expertise in working with large donors, large corporations, comes in. Unfortunately, membership dues only cover about 40% of our operation, so we need to fund our operation with other kinds of sources of revenue. So there’s kind of one of the reasons they brought me on board to try to work with that. 

I get that some of our members think it’s just a group of guys sitting around talking about trucks, but it’s a little more complicated than that.

Q. OLD CARS: Who would you say is the typical ATHS member these days? Is it somebody who’s been in trucking or just likes big trucks and pickup trucks or both? 

A. ATHS: Yeah, it’s somebody who has some connection to the trucking industry or a truck that’s been restored. These are the Kenworths or Peterbilts or Freightliners that are out in the cornfield that somebody’s driven by and seen and thought, “I want to love that back to life.” And so they’ve pulled it out of the field and restored it. There are a lot of different degrees of restoration, but they’ve restored it, and they love it that way. So people that love to do that, people that love the story of trucking. We do have drivers, we do have people in the industry, so it’s kind of everything, really, and you don’t have to own a truck to be a member. 

Q. OLD CARS: Has membership been growing, declining or level over the last five years? 

A. ATHS: It declines bit by bit. It’s just we have an aging demographic. We can’t replace members as fast as people leave to move on to the next whatever’s after this life, but we continue to get new members. We do have a new member group “NextGen” that reaches our younger members 40 and under, so we are doing something to get the younger generation interested in ATHS. And like I said, this partnership with Women in Trucking is a big addition to us, but like most membership organizations, we face a kind of a steady decline. 

Q. OLD CARS: What would you say are the biggest misconceptions about the organization? 

A. ATHS: I would say the biggest, probably the biggest, is that it is a club or a magazine subscription. It is a club and it’s a historical society, and that’s intentional. It was founded by leaders in the trucking industry that wanted to preserve the history. And so we’re the ones doing that. The Wheels of Time magazine is the biggest member benefit, but that is not who we are.

And probably another misconception is that somehow we could function just like a weekend group of people getting together, sitting around a table, but it’s actually a pretty complicated organization at this stage. And so it requires professional staff and a lot of volunteers to make it work. 

Q. OLD CARS: How do most people hear about the society? 

A. ATHS: A lot of it is word of mouth, and we encourage our members to tell others, because there are lone wolves who do the restoration themselves, but often it’s a group project, and so getting people that are part of the restoration engaged. We do have some people that come to us because of the industry, but not so much our members. 

The membership’s pretty much driven by the hands-on part of it: restoration and the chapters. So I would say for most of our members, that’s true. But our strategy is to also find other groups that already have an interest in trucking that haven’t been approached. 

There’s a group of 80 people just south of Monterey, in Mexico, that have classic trucks there. They have a group, and we’ve talked to them about joining ATHS, and they’re interested. So there’s groups of people that love trucks, and we just need to find them and let them know what we’re doing. 

Q. OLD CARS: My last question for you is, which truck brand’s history most appeals to you? 

A. ATHS: The one that’s most curious to me is one that I’ve never heard anything about, and even when they told me the name of it — Autocar — I was a little confused about it. “Wait, we’re talking about trucks, but Autocar?” 

Autocar was founded by Louis Semple Clarke, and Mr. Clarke was one of the most amazing engineers and inventors that most people don’t know anything about. Spark plug — who invented the spark plug? He did. Who made transmissions versus chain drives the way trucks are driven? He did, and most people wouldn’t have any idea who he is. So, Autocar, and I guess my hero would be Louis Semple Clarke.

www.aths.org

If you like stories like these and other classic car features, check out Old Cars magazine. CLICK HERE to subscribe.

Want a taste of Old Cars magazine first? Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter and get a FREE complimentary digital issue download of our print magazine.