Transportation 2025: BENNETT, P. DALE

Bennett adopted the love of trucking from his late father, a professional truck driver, and has advocated for the trucking industry for more than 40 years.

The nation’s trucking industry has been hit hard in recent years by driver shortages, supply chain woes and high diesel prices. At the federal level last year, the VTA supported the Veterans Improvement Commercial Driver License Act to eliminate a two-year waiting period for new CDL training facilities to accept GI Bill benefits. It passed the U.S. Senate in 2023 and the House of Representatives in September 2024, becoming law on Oct. 1, 2024.

Earlier this year, Bennett expressed hope that President Donald Trump would lift regulations on the trucking industry.

In 2019, Bennett was recognized by the American Trucking Associations for his 30 years of service to the ATA federation as president and CEO of the VTA.

A University of Richmond graduate who grew up in Burkeville, Bennett worked for the Virginia State Crime Commission from 1982 to 1984 as a research analyst and legislative coordinator before joining VTA’s predecessor organization. As a teen, he drove a tractor on his uncle’s tobacco fields.

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