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. 

Truckload Capacity Tightens; Drivers Flee to Owner - Operators

Capacity is reaching its boiling point— well maybe it’s more of a simmer. Nevertheless, large truckload fleets are awash in loads, and short on drivers. They’re shedding shippers for better volumes, better freight, better lanes and higher pay. Large carriers are increasingly investing in their dedicated fleets (turning over truck and driver to shipper for set fees and costs), since it’s more profitable and more predictable than spot market, or retail freight.

Since early spring, carriers have been seeing higher turnover, and driver loss. Some large carriers have hundreds of

trucks parked, wishing they had drivers to drive them. Where are the drivers going? Two places: they’re getting better jobs, where they are home more, or get more miles and more pay; or they’re going into business for themselves. According to our affiliate. QualifiedCarriers.com, 11,570 new trucking companies entered the marketplace since February 2011, for a 7.5% increase. 


So what’s the trick for shippers? Stick with your most trusted providers and treat them well. Remember who stuck by you in the tough times and forget the ones who did not. Shippers and brokers who chase the low rates are the first ones left holding the bag, chasing new “friends” when the going gets tough. Low price providers have no problem leaving shippers the minute they find better freight. Capacity is predicted to remain tight in 2012 and 2013.

Tucker's Managed LTL Program Hugely Popular

Our fastest growing and most popular service for shippers is what we call our “Managed LTL Program.” Many of our customers and prospective customers have grown weary of dealing with LTL discounts, general rate increases, comparing discounts and net costs between companies, comparing routings, and dealing with claims. In short, they’re looking for simplicity and savings, and we’re delivering.

One customer recently told us that one particular LTL carrier damages about 10-20% of the product they receive, so they scrap the freight, don’t file a claim, and get a credit from their supplier. Our Managed LTL Program folks are working with this customer to (a) identify its true costs, including freight, time, resources, disposal and loss of sale; and (b) establish pricing with carrier(s) that value its freight, and can handle it without damage; and (c) establish customer service procedures that save the customer time, but more closely monitor performance; and (d) save money. 

Do you ship $100,000 to $1,000,000 of LTL freight? Do you experience any of the issues above? Please call us and ask to speak with a sales representative about our Managed LTL Programs.

Tucker Holds 5th Annual Strategic Council

Tucker Company Worldwide and QualifiedCarriers.com provided logistics professionals with two days of energetic, informative and data driven sessions. This year’s event brought together leading experts in transportation, regulation, industry economics and best practices and trends in complying with shipper and broker contract compliance and expectations.   A select group of participations had the opportunity to hear from former FMCSA Administrator Annette Sandberg, noted transportation economist Noël Perry, Managing Director Equity Research for Wells Fargo Securities Anthony Gallo, and compliance and auditing professional Allan Goldberg. The meeting dove deep into the issues directly impacting the logistics realm and provided participants with the opportunity to discuss and strategize ways to remain competitive in a capacity stifled, heavily regulated industry that continues to experience very slow recovery since the economic downturn.

In addition to industry issues Tucker Company Worldwide and QualifiedCarriers.com provided company updates and showcase their latest State of the DOT^TM report.  The sentiment regarding this year’s Strategic Council was overwhelmingly positive with requests for additional time at each session due to the captivating discussions that followed each presentations.

If you are interested in presenting or attending at next years Strategic Council please contact Rebecca Bierbach.

 We hope to see you Spring of 2014!