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New TRALA Chairman to Focus on Advocacy and Industry Scholarship Program

Alexandria, VA – March 26, 2014 – The Truck Renting and Leasing Association (TRALA) Board of Directors unanimously elected Dan Murphy, President and CEO of Idealease, Inc. of North Barrington, Illinois, as the Association's 2014-2015 Chairman. Murphy addressed the membership for the first time at TRALA's 2014 Annual Meeting held March 10-14 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

“I am honored to accept this gavel and grateful to the Board of Directors for electing me and giving me the privilege to serve TRALA as its Chairman over the next year,” said Murphy during his acceptance speech on March 13.
 
Murphy's speech focused on TRALA's core mission of advocacy. Under his Chairmanship, Murphy intends to use his role to nurture and support TRALA's efforts in this area. “Never before has our industry faced challenges as numerous and serious as the ones posed by the federal government and state and local governments. We are all fortunate to have such an effective and results-oriented team in Washington, DC and the fifty state capitals working on our industry's behalf. It will be up to all of us as TRALA members to be sure that our team has the resources they need to get the job done and done right. Raising money for TRALA's 2014 Legal Action Fund and Political Action Committee, TRALAPAC, will be critical this year.”
 
Murphy also focused on TRALA's Industry Scholarship Program during his remarks, “one of Steve Lawrence's legacies at TRALA that I will continue is to strongly support the Industry Scholarship Program.   The program is aimed at providing opportunities for TRALA employees and their children to pursue training as diesel maintenance technicians. TRALA currently offers four scholarships a year, and I hope to be able to lay the groundwork to expand the number of scholarships that TRALA is able to offer,” said Murphy.
 
 “Towards that goal, I am committing tonight to contribute $10,000 per year for the next five years from Idealease, Inc., to the TRALA Industry Scholarship Program to help increase the number of annual scholarship awards and ultimately, the number of much-needed trained maintenance technicians working within our industry.”
 
Murphy's election to Chair TRALA's Board of Directors came at the end of another banner year for attendance at TRALA's Annual Meeting. The Association saw over 100 different truck renting and leasing companies and 56 supplier companies participating in the organization's 36th Annual Meeting representing one of the largest turn-out of leasing companies at a TRALA meeting in history. The NationaLease System, Mack Leasing and Volvo Truck Leasing System and the PacLease System all held meetings of their respective organizations in conjunction with the TRALA meeting.
 
“This organization means a great deal to my business and to the entire industry, but it also means a great deal to me personally,” said Murphy. “JoAnn and I consider the people here tonight not only as colleagues, but close friends. I am sure that those of you who are newly active in TRALA will very soon have a better understanding of why we call this the “TRALA family.”
 
About TRALA
TRALA, based in Alexandria, VA, is a voluntary, non-profit national trade association, organized in 1978 to provide a unified and focused voice for the truck renting and leasing industry. TRALA's membership includes more than 500 leasing and rental firms and 100 suppliers that make up nearly the entire truck renting and leasing industry. The renting and leasing industry is responsible for approximately 35 percent of all new Class 3 through 8 commercial truck registrations.
 
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