Arkansas Trucking Association insurance trust pays out $2 million dividend

Lane Kidd, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association/ The Trucker file photo

The Trucker News Services

4/18/2008

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Arkansas Trucking Association’s Self-Insurers’ Fund has declared a $2 million dividend to 48 trucking companies that participate in the program, the largest dividend in the fund’s 16-year history.

The state trucking association’s insurance trust provides small- and mid-sized trucking companies with the opportunity to self-insure as a group for the purpose of providing workers compensation insurance and paying defined benefit injury claims to employees, the lobby group stated in a news release today.

“We are so excited to be able to reward our member companies for excellent performance,” said Shannon Newton, the association’s director of corporate services, adding that “We hope the timing of these dividends provides some relief in what is a tough operating environment for many trucking companies.”

She continued that, “Our fund is a proven and reliable way to insure workers against injury claims.”

The trust has paid $22.6 million in benefits to injured workers since 1992. Dividends can be declared by the fund’s board of trustees after claims and expenses are paid. Newton said the trust as of the present time has distributed more than $12.2 million in dividends to enrolled trucking companies.

Founded in 1932, the Arkansas Trucking Association provides governmental affairs and other services for the benefit of some 320 companies.