Tucker's Different. Here's Why.

Tucker’s mission in life is simple—be the nation’s best, most professional broker and forwarder. We’ve spent three generations of family business dedicated to this goal. We hope to work closer with more of our carrier friends, and want to give you some reasons to consider why it’s smart business for you to consider doing just that. Here are a few things that differentiate us:

• We're the oldest privately held freight broker in America.
• We pay our carrier bills - even when a shipper doesn't pay us.
• We pay our dues - we're active members of ATA, TIA, NITL, and NASSTRAC. Knowing the issues helps us make happier customers and carriers.
• We have long-term customers - some of whom have been with us for 50+ years!
• Our staff has an average longevity of over 13 years, with several exceeding 20+.
• We seek to solve your imbalance issues and our customers needs.

TIA Industry Professionals Advising the FMCSA

Darin Day, General Counsel at Tucker Company Worldwide, has replaced Tucker’s CEO, Jeff Tucker, as TIA’s only Broker Representative on the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC). Darin recently spoke about the importance of industry professionals advising the FMCSA.

“This is the one place…the most effective place…where the industry can have an impact on the rules that are being proposed by the FMCSA and the way that the CSA program is developing,” he said.

Darin’s presence on the TIA Committee helps to bring some balance to the table in Washington – the perspective of a 3PL Provider who is also a TIA member – which enables all parties involved to accomplish their respective goals.

“We all care about safety,” he continued. “Everybody wants as few accidents, incidents, deaths of course, on the highways as possible. But at the same time, the whole point of the transportation industry is to get important goods to people on time, efficiently, and in a way that doesn’t slow down commerce.”

Learn more and watch the full feature on TIA TV here.

FMCSA ADMINISTRATOR FERRO NAMES TUCKER TO CSA SUBCOMMITTEE, SUBCOMMITTEE MAKES RECOMMENDATIONS TO FMCSA

Administrator Ferro named Jeff Tucker to the CSA Subcommittee of the Agency’s Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC). Tucker was selected from many applicants, due in part to his work with the TIA Carrier Selection Framework and many years serving as an advocate and educator in the area of motor carrier safety and shipper and broker liability.

There have been four meetings of the MCSAC subcommittee since October 2012. The subcommittee is comprised of bus operators, state police officials, a truck insurance firm, a large motor carrier, a bus operator, a bus driver union representative, a representative from an owner operator’s group, and two professional safety advocates. Senior FMCSA officials attend and participate in the meetings. 

      On April 9, 2013, the MCSAC agreed to pass to FMCSA the CSA Subcommittee’s recommendations for improvement to the CSA system.  Tucker remains baffled that the agency didn’t recognize and act on the obvious need for these changes long ago, but we believe certain elements within FMCSA have internal agendas that outweigh reason and due process. Those elements seem to be ruling the day.  We hope this partial list of recommendations will begin to turn the tide: 

1. For a carrier’s Crash BASIC, exclude crashes where there is a clear determination that the carrier was not at fault or (in the language of the regulations), the crash was non-preventable. (e.g., don’t penalize the carrier when a car runs into it while the truck was stopped at a red light) 
2. Evaluate changing the definition of reportable DOT crash for purposes of CSA to include only fatalities or injuries (e.g., exclude deer kills where no cars or people were involved).
3. Remove CSA scores from public view (their purpose is exclusively law enforcement) or, at a minimum, remove the Controlled Substance/Alcohol and Driver Fitness BASICs. (Carriers with higher scores in two (2) BASICs are involved in fewer accidents than carriers with lower scores!). 
4. FMCSA should standardize the data it gathers from the individual 50 states. 
5. FMCSA should not encourage non-law enforcement personnel (e.g., shippers, brokers, insurance companies, etc.) to use CSA data for carrier selection, and should not provide “guidance” on using CSA data to determine a carrier’s “qualification” for use.  The purpose of SMS is exclusively for internal law enforcement prioritization.

DID YOU KNOW?

TIA’s 2013 Carrier Selection Framework was published in April. Call Tucker for your copy.

TUCKER SELECTED VICE CHAIRMAN OF TIA

Jeff Tucker was appointed the next Vice Chairman of the Transportation Intermediaries Association (“TIA”) on April 10, 2013. Jeff’s dad Bill was one of the co-founders of the TIA in 1978, as deregulation was beginning. 

Jeff has previously served as Secretary and Treasurer, as well as Chairman of the TIA’s first Legislative Committee, its first Carrier Selection Committee, and Chairman of TIA’s Government Freight Committee.

TUCKER DOES INTERVIEW ON “BIG TRUCK TV”

On April 11, 2013, Jeff Tucker sat with the producers of “Big Truck TV” to discuss carrier selection, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s public policy vs.  conflicting agenda tug-of-war, and the new 2013 Carrier Selection Framework co-authored by Tucker as chair of TIA’s Carrier Selection Framework Committee. The interview will appear on its video blog, www.bigtrucktv.com in a future segment.