One of the co-founders of the Australian Trucking Association (ATA), Bruce McIver, has been recognised in today’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

The ATA represents the 50,000 businesses and 200,000 people in the Australian trucking industry.

Mr McIver has been appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia for his significant service to politics and the road transport industry.

Mr McIver co-founded the ATA in 1989, held the position of Chair from 1991 to 1994 and was a trust fund director from 1992 to 2015. He was the inaugural President of the Livestock Transporters’ Association of Queensland and President of the Australian Livestock Transporters’ Association (now the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters’ Association).

The current Chair of the ATA, Geoff Crouch, said that Mr McIver was one of the industry leaders who recognised the need for change when the industry was genuinely in crisis.

“At the time of the horrific 1989 Grafton truck and bus crash, Bruce McIver was the president of the Australian Livestock Transporters’ Association,” Mr Crouch said.

“He joined other industry leaders to call for practical safety measures like speed limiters and agreed to found the Road Transport Industry Forum (RTIF) to lead a national approach to safety.

“We are called the Australian Trucking Association now, but we still look back with pride at the extraordinary leadership of Bruce McIver and his counterparts thirty years ago this year.

“I know I speak for the whole of the Australian trucking industry when I say that Mr McIver is extremely deserving of this honour,” he said.

The Queen’s Birthday Honours list has also recognised the achievements of David Anderson, a former director of the ATA’s safety accreditation program, TruckSafe, and CEO of ATA member association NatRoad.

Mr Anderson has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his significant service to the maritime and road transport industries.