COMTO

In 1971, with a goal to provide a forum for minority professionals in the transportation industry, Rev. Jerry Moore, then pastor of the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, DC, partnered with Harold B. Williams, then Urban Mass Transit Administration (UMTA) Director of the Office of Civil Rights, to organize a conference for Minorities in Transit at Howard University. The conference was coordinated by UMTA’s Project Director, Carmen Turner, who later became the first Black woman to serve as General Manager of a major transit system, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). The event drew 77 participants and eventually led to the formation of COMTO.

Today, COMTO has grown to more than 3,000 members in more than 30 chapters across the nation. We represent the more than three million minorities in the United States who work in all modes of the transportation industry. From highways and roads to mass transit systems; from subways to rail systems and from port authorities to airports, COMTO members represent every facet of the transportation industry. This includes trucking, taxi and limousine services.

Our members are individuals, students, transportation agencies, corporations, academic institutions, industry non-profits and Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs). We are the presidents and chief executive officers who determine the direction of major transportation systems and the mechanics and operators who ensure the safe passage of millions of transportation riders every day.

COMTO-MD