GLOBAL TRADE MAGAZINE LEADING 3PL HONOR

Global Trade Magazine Names Tucker Company Worldwide among America’s Leading 3PLs for 2017

Tucker Company Worldwide was thrilled to be chosen as one of Global Trade Magazine’s Leading 3PLs – an annual list that honors 100 of the best, biggest and brightest 3PLs based on a year’s worth of study that includes industry reputation, innovation and exceptional operational excellence.

Tucker Company Worldwide is featured by Global Trade Magazine as a “Specialty Cargo” focused 3PL: reflecting our dedication to all types of difficult freight. “Oversized, delicate, high value, hazardous… each of these freight types is wildly different,” said Jeff Tucker, CEO of Tucker Company Worldwide, “however - they have one thing in common: all require the utmost care, and must be handled by competent professionals and carefully designed procedures. At Tucker, we’ve spent over 56 years perfecting our approach.”

We are grateful to Steve Lowery, Senior Editor of Global Trade Magazine for this recognition!

ISO 9001:2015 CERTIFICATION

TUCKER CERTIFIED FOR NEW ISO 9001:2015 STANDARD

Part of Tucker’s differentiation in the transportation market has always been our focus on excellence. And whether it’s in our industry, or within our company or service offerings, we feel that nothing worth doing is easy. In late 2007, we put our company through an expensive and rigorous 9-month training program to become certified to the international quality Standard known as ISO 9001, a disciplined quality management system designed to ensure that companies consistently meet and exceed the needs of customers and other stakeholders. To stay certified, firms must undergo annual on-site audits by independent third party firms. Tucker has been ISO 9001 certified continuously since 2008.

This past June, the annual audit was particularly challenging because we were being audited against the newest ISO Standard issued in 2015. Though the deadline for compliance to the new 2015 Standard is September 2018, we are so very pleased to report that we’re now ISO 9001:2015 compliant - and over a year ahead of time!

 “As a risk management focused company, I particularly appreciated ISO 9001:2015 for its higher emphasis on performance monitoring, and the introduction of a more disciplined approach to engage in risk-based thinking in everything we do. As an intermediary that serves the needs of so many parties in every single movement, the 2015 Standard really complements and enhances the way we operate the business,” said Jim Tucker, president and COO. 

Tucker is proud of our team for putting in the extra hours, and the hard work it took to learn a new Standard and earn this prestigious certification.

INBOUND LOGISTICS' TOP 3PL DISTINCTION

TUCKER AWARDED INBOUND LOGISTICS' TOP 3PL DISTINCTION IN 2017

Inbound Logistics editors informed Tucker that we’ve once again earned a spot on their “Top 100 3PL” list in 2017. This marks 17 years of consistently being ranked among the top. In an industry with nearly 16,000 licensed 3PLs, that’s some rarified air.

From Felecia Stratton, Editor, Inbound Logistics: “Tucker Company Worldwide  continues to provide the logistics, transportation, and supply chain solutions Inbound Logistics readers need to achieve the visibility and control that drives successful supply chains. Tucker is flexible and responsive, anticipating customers’ evolving needs. Tucker deserves recognition for providing the innovative solutions empowering logistics and supply chain excellence in 2017.”

On behalf of our company and all of our tremendous staff, our CEO Jeff Tucker thanked Ms. Stratton and the editors at Inbound Logistics, as well as our customers and carriers who value what we do. As our company evolves from a traditional transportation service provider to a data-centric, organizational behavior modifying 3PL, we appreciate the recognition of our team’s hard work. 

CAPACITY WOES

CAPACITY'S TIGHT

So tight, in fact, that large trucking firms are turning away hundreds of loads per day. One of our carrier friends is turning away hundreds of EDI tendered loads (typically, contract rates and lanes) per week. So what’s going on? There are more causes than you can shake a stick at, but here are just a few:

• We’re 4 months from the USDOT’s ELD mandate, expected to remove 5-10% of capacity from an already tight marketplace.
• We’re 4 months into the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which is shuffling the deck of carriers that food shippers risk using—shifting from owner operators to more sophisticated fleets. ATA reported in 2016 that only about 5% of the nation’s products move in temperature controlled equipment. With much of that typically being moved by owner operators, the shift to more advanced outfits, coupled by higher rates, are seriously impacting temp control markets. Making things worse for trucking - but good for our farmers - 2017 was largely a more “fruitful” growing season, further straining capacity.
• Major retailers who are trying to catch Amazon have instituted very aggressive new compliance fees, penalizing suppliers for things like late deliveries, rescheduled appointments, early deliveries, and so on. A vendor can get dinged for its carrier being late, and again for rescheduling a delivery. You can’t argue the need to pace Amazon, but restricting flexibility during a time of tight capacity - which is only expected to worsen - spells missed sales, huge fees, unhappy consumers, and a nightmare for retail suppliers’ customer service teams.

Typical reactions to capacity tightening involve shippers using more intermodal, but maybe not this time. The nation’s third largest railroad, CSX is having a heck of a time right now as it seeks to revamp its network toward higher productivity. According to Cowan & Company, “more than 80% of respondents to a CSX Service Quality survey say they’ve experienced service issues,” since the switch, and “67% of respondents have transferred freight to a trucker.” Other reports indicate Jacksonville, Memphis and Atlanta are among the hardest hit areas. Coincidentally, those markets have been toughest on truck capacity! 

ELD ROULETTE

ELD Roulette: “I’m not worried: my carriers are compliant and the mandate will probably be delayed!” Not so fast!  

If you’re not worried, you should be. Even if all of your carriers really are compliant, they will still be fielding a gold rush of calls from other shippers whose carriers aren’t.  In brief: the ELD Mandate requires all commercial motor vehicles to be equipped with technology which tracks drivers’ hours of service before December 18, 2017. ELDs replace paper logs, which are fraught with errors. Despite having 3 years notice, many experts estimate that nearly 50% of all commercial motor vehicles still haven’t met the ELD requirement, a mere four months from the mandate. Every buyer of freight will be impacted if even a small portion of those currently noncompliant carriers choose to leave the industry. And compliant carriers lush with load offers will likely give their trucks and drivers to the highest bidders.

When the mandate takes effect, two things are certain. First, many carriers won’t be ready, and will be placed out of service until they become compliant. That means other shippers and brokers will pay top dollar to steal your carriers and your capacity from you. Secondly, experts who are studying the impact of converting paper logs to ELDs find some fleets are driving 100-120 additional miles per day! That’s nearly 20% excess/illegal hours. If 50% of fleets lose 20% of miles, it’s as if 10% of the nation’s capacity disappears. Even if it’s only 5%, it’s a heck of a lot worse of an impact than the 2003-2004 crisis, when hours of service were reduced.

A challenge to delay the ELD mandate failed in the U.S. Supreme Court in June. A bill was introduced in the House of Representatives (HR 3282) which is designed to delay the mandate. The bill does not have support of house or committee leadership, and there’s no support in the Senate. To put it simply: it’s doomed to fail. Planning a business around a delayed ELD mandate is a fool’s game. 

New Certified Transportation Brokers on Staff

We are thrilled to announce that three (3) Tucker staff members have recently passed their Certified Transportation Broker (CTB) test, given by the Transportation Intermediaries Association. The recipients each work in the customer service center, and they are: JoAnn Matczak, Matt Riley and Kye Snauwaert. Congratulations, JoAnn, Matt & Kye!

The CTB exam increases the professionalism and integrity of property brokerage, meets the educational needs of brokers, and expands basic knowledge of the brokerage and transportation industry through a rigorous certification program. Former Tucker president, Bill Tucker co-designed the CTB program a quarter century ago.

Tucker Receives Highest SmartWay Transport Partners Score

It is inherent in the nature of transportation intermediaries like Tucker to be green, by the very nature of our business. Before brokers/forwarders (“3PLs”), motor carriers were very often loaded in one direction, and empty in the other. 3PLs have dramatically reduced, or controlled the carbon footprint of the trucking industry since 1980.

However, to be recognized by the U.S. EPA’s SmartWay Transport Partner program, it takes much more than that. Tucker retains the highest attainable SmartWay score of 1.25. SmartWay’s program is changing, and Tucker is ready for that change. Our utilization of SmartWay carriers continues to improve, and is at an all-time high.

For more information on SmartWay, please contact Tucker. Depending on how much your business uses Tucker for your freight, you may qualify to be a SmartWay Partner already. To learn more about the program, visit: www.epa.gov/smartwaylogistics.

Tucker Wins New Business Awards

In keeping with our 50-year legacy of intensely guarding our information and that of our customers and carriers, we’ll be brief and intentionally vague, but we’re too excited and pleased not to let you know what’s stirring. During the past few months, Tucker has been awarded new business from new customers, and some significant new business from existing customers. Most of this has been years in the making.

The business includes a variety of industries, including energy, healthcare, express freight, chemicals and more, but the common thread is the need for excellence.
Tucker has worked diligently for 50 years to develop the best, most comprehensive and intelligently designed freight brokerage/3PL model in the country. In challenging economic times, we’re grateful for the opportunity to grow.

Golfing for Alzheimer’s Association a Success!

This summer marked the 12th anniversary for Tucker’s Golf Outing benefitting the Alzheimer’s Association of South Jersey. We had a beautiful day with great weather and fun, with limited good golf, too. Thanks to our sponsors and attendees, we raised a 12 year best of $8,378 this year, for a grand total of $66,618.

Alzheimer’s Disease is an incurable disease of the brain, which worsens over time. Alzheimer’s represents 50-80% of all dementia and is the 6th leading cause of death in America. Of the top 10 causes of death in the U.S., Alzheimer’s is the only one without a way to prevent, cure or slow the disease. The Alzheimer’s Association is “the leading global, voluntary health organization in Alzheimer’s care and support, and the largest private, nonprofit funder of Alzheimer’s research.”

Federal Reserve Banker, Top Transport Economist, Freight Security Experts, Former Top USDOT Official Addressed Tucker’s Strategic Council

Tucker’s 4th annual “Strategic Council” meeting was held in Haddonfield, NJ. The Strategic Council is a select assemblage of Tucker leadership, Tucker customers, industry experts and economists, who formally and informally discuss the most important industry issues of the moment. This year’s agenda was exciting and packed with relevant information. Preliminary feedback was very positive. Thank you.

Tucker Named Top 100 3PL 2011

Inbound Logistics Magazine again named Tucker a Top 100 3PL. Inbound Logistics is a monthly supply chain magazine. We’re honored to be recognized by Inbound Logistics and its readers. The freight business is a tough business, but it can also be fun. Doing a job well and being recognized for it by one’s peers is rewarding. Thank you.

Tucker Passes ISO-9001:2008 Comprehensive Audit

In August, Tucker passed its 3-year comprehensive ISO-9001:2008 audit. Every three years, the certification process in ISO is a more intensive, deeper level of analysis of procedures, work instructions, corrective action processes, and document policies.

We’re pleased to report that once again, Tucker has been recertified. ISO certification in the transportation industry is not widespread. We are one of the few ISO certified transportation companies in the country. Many of our customers have strict tolerances for the handling of their products. Strong and thoughtful procedures are critical to successfully meeting those demands.

Earthquake, then Hurricane Irene Test Tucker’s Emergency Operations

For nearly 30 years, Tucker has been honored to be trusted relied on as a first responder, supporting the United States military, FEMA and other U.S. government agencies, and many non-governmental first responders, with emergency trucking, transportation and storage services. We’ve supported emergency relief for hurricanes, floods, tornados, the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster, and Ground Zero on 9/11, to name a few.

A few weeks ago, Tucker’s own emergency preparedness was put through a tough test, when Hurricane Irene was predicted to strike our area directly. Our team prepared and performed admirably, with members from operations, sales and senior management preparing during the days before the storm, going through emergency preparedness, and preparing backups to our backup plans.

While our area was close to Irene’s eye, and we experienced major flooding and some wind damage, amazingly our office never lost electricity or phone service. Business crisis averted! Just a few of our team members lost power at home for up to a couple days. As with every experience, we’ve identified some opportunities for improvement that we’re already pursuing.

As far as natural disasters go, New Jersey is generally insulated from most (Housewives of New Jersey and Jersey Shore television shows, noted). Tornados, hurricanes and earthquakes are exceedingly rare here. Last month, we had all three hit in the same week. Thankfully, our teamwork prepared us well.

Freight Activity Holding Strong

The U.S. freight economy is still good, despite the U.S. credit rating downgrade, ongoing European economic troubles, and a leaderless Congress that can’t pass any important bills. Thankfully, the manufacturing sector is holding its own during a lull in our economic recovery. Good news, for sure.

According to the American Trucking Associations (ATA), truck tonnage declined 1.3% from June 2011 to July 2011; however, July 2011was still 3.9% stronger than July 2010 (YOY growth).
Data reported by TransCore reinforces ATA’s findings, and shows additional insights. According to TransCore’s North American Freight Index, spot market truckload freight volume jumped 22% in July 2011 when compared to July 2010, while July’s volume dropped 24% from June’s volume. But don’t sweat it. TransCore suggests that this is normal market behavior. According to them, in the last 10 years, June to July load volumes in the same calendar year have declined on average 19%, and the predictable June-July decline has exceeded this year’s 24% in 4 out of the last 10 years.

Traditionally, August marks the start of each year’s second and largest “freight season.” Hopefully for the American and world economies, we continue to move forward and upward. Very few recoveries have been exclusively up, up, up, without pauses or hesitations along the way. We may not be in the most robust recovery, but let’s keep it going.

Ten Years After 9/11—A Blundering USDOT HazMat Disconnect

Ten Years after 9/11, America, has a spectacularly inexcusable problem regulating motor carriers who haul hazardous materials (“HazMat”). The United States Department of Transportation (“USDOT”) and its bureaucratic dysfunction are to blame.

Under the law, shippers of HazMat freight are required to use only motor carriers who are HazMat certified. Unfortunately, shippers can’t turn to USDOT for timely, reliable information about which carriers are, or are not, certified. What is more, USDOT, the sole source of this kind of information, cannot rely on its own data to determine which motor carriers are authorized to handle hazardous materials. Yes, you read that correctly.

USDOT’s knowledge of certified HazMat haulers is spotty, at best. Shippers seeking to verify a carrier’s certification face substantial uncertainty. Verifying hazardous materials certificates from carriers of course is a good idea, but relying on faxed paper certificates presents risks of forgeries, expired certificates, and other significant risks.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) is the agency within USDOT that regulates motor carrier safety, except for issuing HazMat certificates. Goodness knows why, but HazMat certificates are issued to motor carriers by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (“PHMSA” pronounced “Fim-suh”)—a different USDOT agency. PHMSA is failing in this critical national security and safety responsibility.

PHMSA HazMat data is made available to the public in a file named “REGIS10.” This file is intended to list company names, certificate numbers, and expiration dates and so on, so the public can identify and verify HazMat-certified carriers. Unfortunately, the REGIS10 file is useless, fraught with errors and omissions, with few, if any database rules to prohibit alpha characters to show in numeric-only fields. It’s a disaster. Shippers, law enforcement agencies, and carriers, depend on PHMSA to do its job, so we can all do ours. PHMSA’s failures leave our nation and our citizens on the roadways in harm’s way.

Over at FMCSA, they are busy completely overhauling America’s motor carrier highway safety regime with its new Compliance, Safety and Accountability (“CSA”) program. FMCSA issues and revokes operating authority, and regulates every interstate motor carrier in America, and many intrastate carriers. FMCSA’s CSA program is designed to improve commercial vehicle safety and FMCSA’s ability to review more carriers each year.

Here’s FMCSA’s problem. Partly, because PHMSA’s data is so appalling, the FMCSA isn’t connected to the PHMSA database. This leaves FMCSA in the unenviable position of not knowing what motor carriers are certified HazMat, so it must (gasp!) guess.

CSA more strictly scrutinizes and regulates HazMat carriers, compared to non-HazMat carriers, by design. In order to do this, FMCSA has been forced to develop a system for (literally) guessing which are HazMat carriers. FMCSA’s first attempt at guessing was to count every carrier who self-reported that it hauls HazMat. Wrong! The FMCSA’s second attempt at guessing, announced August 22, 2011, was to track data reported via roadside inspections or safety audits, identifying where a carrier was carrying placarded quantities of HazMat. An ever so faint improvement, but it is still guessing.

No guess will ever be as effective or justifiable as getting the data cleanly and clearly from PHMSA—the source of the problem, err, data. Then yes, by all means supplement that HazMat certified data with roadside inspections, audit findings and hazmat permits.

Proposed Bill Would Increase Public Liability Requirement for Carriers

A proposed bill, supported by broker C.H. Robinson Worldwide, may raise public liability insurance requirements for “for-hire, non-hazardous freight” hauling carriers from $750,000, to as high as $2 million. If passed, carriers will be better insured, and their insurance dollars will go farther. But some estimate the additional insurance premium may be $1400-2,000 per truck—a huge tax to large and small fleets. This jeopardizes the health of the industry at a tough time. A larger insurance requirement will not in itself improve safety, but it does increase costs and may reduce equipment availability, and speed consolidation.

Electronic On-Board Recorders (EOBRs)

The FMCSA will issue a NPRM concerning EOBRs by June 2011. FMCSA is deciding if EOBRs should be mandatory or voluntary. They are mandatory for certain repeat offenders.

EOBRs are expensive, ranging from a few hundred dollars to $4,000 per unit. Universal use of EOBRs would eliminate forever, drivers “fudging” log book entries. Carriers who voluntarily use them now, support EOBRs, to level the playing field, and see the chance to buy smaller operators who can’t afford the increased cost.

Combined with CSA, shippers should expect mandatory EOBRs to: increase highway safety; lengthen transit times; increase freight cost, due to loss of “illegal” hours of productivity; increase cargo theft, due to HOS expirations while in less than ideal locations.

CSA (formerly CSA 2010) Compliance, Safety & Accountability. Don’t Panic!

In December 2010, FMCSA launched the CSA program, which replaced SafeStat as a key safety measurement system, or SMS. FMCSA uses SMS data to prioritize carriers for interventions, inspections and possible enforcement action. CSA data is not a safety rating. CSA scores 7 BASICs, or behaviors (4 related to driver and 3 related to carrier). Under CSA, far more motor carriers will be reviewed and inspected by FMCSA and result in swifter action to remove drivers and carriers from the marketplace when serious safety issues are proven.

In CSA, there are now four (4) scores focusing on different aspects of driver conduct, where under SafeStat, there was only one (1) driver score. This puts a lot more focus on driver behavior, like fatigued driving, unsafe driving, and driver fitness. Carriers are complaining that that headlight and turn signal violations, and scores, are mounting quickly. Violations remain on the carrier’s record for 2 years—even after they terminate bad drivers.

CSA will cause carriers to be more selective in hiring drivers; to offer lucrative signing bonuses to safer drivers; to add capacity slower, due to a smaller driving pool of highly compliant drivers. CSA, and perhaps a rush to judgment, are leading some shippers and brokers to cut off carriers because they have one BASIC score over FMCSA “intervention thresholds.” Being aware of your carriers’ scores makes sense. Drawing hard lines regarding carriers using CSA is probably premature.

Tucker’s CEO, Jeff Tucker, and former FMCSA Administrator, Annette Sandberg, co- wrote a “CSA Orientation” document for the Transportation Intermediaries Association. Tucker is also chairing TIA’s Carrier Qualification Committee for the second time, which is the only such publication by any trade association. Contact your Tucker sales representative to discuss any aspect of CSA.

For more information on CSA, visit http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/sms. For inexpensive tools to evaluate your carriers for compliance and safety, please visit https://qualifiedcarriers.com/services.aspx.

Driver Hours of Service (HOS)

Politics is the key driver here—not safety. FMCSA was forced to revisit the new HOS rules implemented in 2004, despite the significant declines in truck related fatalities brought about by the 2004 rules. FMCSA issued its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on HOS. Safety groups and one Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) want to cut hours. The changes are dramatic, representing a 7% to 9% instant reduction in truck productivity, and changing distribution center and carrier terminal locations, costing money.

Tragically, the move would put many more trucks on the road (7-9% more), not rails, and increase the truck-car congestion. FMCSA may ignore the true economic impact too. A 7-9% productivity decrease equals 7-9or more trucks on the road, and cost. In other words, special interest groups and one Senator are trying to levy a tax of 7-9% on the $670 Billion transportation bill without a single vote—a $60 Billion tax! FMCSA—please don’t cave in.

Please visit http://www.tuckerco.com/HOS to review the changes. Public comment period is over.

U.S. Regulatory Update – Trucking & Capacity Focus

Experts suggest there is reason to fear that 2011- 2012 “peak seasons” will see the worst equipment shortages ever. Couple that with rapidly escalating fuel, and 2011-12 spell much higher transportation costs for everyone. , So what is happening to trucking? Rapid-fire, unchecked regulatory changes are reshaping the industry overnight, and may create serious drags on US GDP. This special edition of Tucker’s Freight Forum reviews the changes underway and coming.