ALEXANDRIA, Virginia—Jim Ward retired as president and CEO of one of the larger motor carriers in the U.S. earlier this year. But he wasn’t ready to withdraw from the trucking industry, which he said is seeing one of its most exciting historical transformations.
The longtime leader of D.M. Bowman (No. 256 on the FleetOwner 500: For-Hire list) had been a Truckload Carriers Association member for years before rising through association leadership ranks to chairman. Now he is leading TCA as its new president.
The Maryland native sat down with FleetOwner in his new office at the Truckload Carrier Association’s headquarters here in Old Town, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., where he recently took over as president, replacing John Lyboldt, who retired in April. Since he took over TCA, Ward has been working with his team to plan out its next fiscal year, including seeking ideas from associates on improving the group’s many events and educational programs. And Ward has a lot of ideas of his own.
“Jim definitely lets his opinions be known,” Marli Hall, TCA’s senior director of outreach and engagement, told FleetOwner. “He’s full of ideas and is bringing an outside perspective.”
TCA has advocated for carriers since it began as the Contract Carrier Conference in 1938, going through various mergers and name changes until it became the Truckload Carriers Association in 1997. Its members are all truckload carriers, representing operators of more than 220,000 trucks, producing annual revenues over $40 billion.
Ward’s background as a carrier and TCA member for 30 years is helping the organization shape its new future, according to Zander Gambill, TCA VP of membership and outreach. “He knows what people in his shoes are looking for if they are C-level in terms of information and events,” Gambill told FleetOwner. “He has a lot of insight that someone from outside wouldn’t know. We’re getting great perspective that is leading to some changes. He’s very focused on membership value.”
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One of the first big moves Ward made as president was to promote David Heller to senior vice president of safety and government affairs. Heller was most recently VP of government affairs for TCA, where he’s been since 2005. “We’ve always been engaged in safety but I didn’t want people to think we’ve lost sight on it,” Ward said. “We’re looking at safety and compliance and what we can do to continue to develop safety directors, safety personnel, and risk management people in this industry.”
Just more than 90 days into the new job, Ward shared his thoughts on the industry's future, its role in the U.S. economy, how driver’s jobs can be improved, and the role that industry groups such as TCA play in the modern world.
Trucking in the 21st century
The following Q&A from FleetOwner’s visit to the Truckload Carriers Association has been edited for clarity.
FleetOwner: What function do TCA and other industry associations play in the 21st century?
Jim Ward: It’s interesting how the associations have transitioned. For someone like me—having been with D.M. Bowman Inc. for over 30 years, the last 20 as president and CEO—I was on the TCA membership side. My first introduction to the motor carrier industry as an association member would have been in 1986. Then, the association business was about having this big meeting and being entertained, which reception had the biggest seafood spread or the largest filet mignon, outlining the year for the officers and the board members, getting news into the magazines, and the great networking opportunities.
While most of those things are still important, the association business has transitioned into the 21st century. Creating membership value all year is even more critical today. So you have to have quality touchpoints and good membership engagement to be successful.
At TCA, where I’ve gone through the officers line the last eight years—rising to the chairmanship last year—we’re very blessed with a quality staff. Very blessed with our educational training offerings. We have momentum behind our Truckload Academy to continue to develop it. Tied into that is our benchmarking program, which is growing significantly and creating significant value. We’re also growing and developing our certification programs with the North American Transportation Management Institute. It’s great to be part of those things.
FO: Did the COVID-19 pandemic play a role in these changes?
Ward: We’ve always known of the essentiality of our business. But until COVID hit, we were finally recognized as essential. From an image perspective, we need to be absolutely sure that we are, No. 1, communicating that amongst ourselves. No. 2, making sure that the community knows how vital our workforce is to us and this nation to keep American goods moving. The onus is on us as an association and our membership to ensure we continue to fly that flag and not let it drift backward.
FO: As someone who has been on the member side and leadership side of TCA, how can members get the most out of an association?
Ward: As a member on the other side, the nice thing about associations is you have one carrier member, you have one voice. If you're not taking advantage of that by participating and providing that voice from your company to the association to help them frame their guidance and direction for their committees, shame on you.
FO: How are you working with the government to improve trucking?
Ward: We have a government affairs arm. We stay in our lane. It’s truckload concerns and issues. Certainly, we’re not ATA (American Trucking Associations) by any means, and we know that. But we have to have some dry powder in case there are situations specific to our truckload members that we can go over to Capitol Hill and talk intelligently about it and represent them well.
We just sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, Labor Secretary Walsh, and FMCSA Administrator Hutcheson on our voluntary shipper-carrier-driver relationship guidelines, which we’ve had in place here at TCA since the early 2000s. So we put together some best practices.
FO: What is TCA doing to make truck driving a better job?
Ward: Coming out of COVID is an opportunity for us to profess processes and things that we can continue to work to make a better driving job. Workforce development is a challenge for everybody. But it’s been a significant challenge in our industry for many years.
Being able to manage a professional driver’s time effectively is critical. It’s critical to motor carriers because you have assets—whether it’s human resources or physical assets—that you need to move. Building velocity into the system certainly helps the supply chain challenges we’re up against right now. Also, it’s about the simple things in life, which tie back to what we call the Golden Rule of treating drivers like the professionals they are. Make sure that drivers have access to facilities at shippers’ locations.
We’ve seen some states propose legislation mandating the use of restroom facilities. We’re saying, wait a minute. We don’t know that we need legislation to do this. We think it’s just good common sense practice. So let’s work together to ensure we’re taking care of our professional driving employees.
We want to reduce some of the complexity in the supply chain system by working together. There’s no better time to do that than now.
FO: Do you feel the industry is making a shift toward sustainability?
Ward: I was initially challenged by the thought process of electric vehicles and their practicality and integration into the industry. But as I sit with you today, it’s going to be here a whole lot quicker than I ever anticipated I was going to see it. I think our members would tell you that as well.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions around it. Especially when you talk about the power grid and how you’re going to supply the necessary charging capacity that’s going to be needed. Also, there are questions about the residual value of the equipment based on what you’ll pay on the front end.
But we as an industry—and our members— are good stewards of our environment. We understand the importance of that. So when you look at how technology has advanced in our industry from 10 years ago to today and the emissions coming out of a piece of equipment versus what it used to be, it’s pretty amazing. There’s no doubt about it that there are a lot of alternative sources out there right now that are being looked at for our industry and integrated into the business model.
FO: The U.S. is facing the highest inflation rate in decades, in part because of record fuel prices. How is this going to affect trucking?
Ward: There are certainly headwinds for the industry, including Inflation and fuel costs. But goods will continue to be moved in this country—80% of them will be moved on a truck. The fact of the matter is that demand is going to continue to grow. So we are essential and we’re going to remain essential. It’s a great time to be in trucking.
It’s also a great time to be sitting at the table with carriers and shippers, talking about complexities to continuously improve how we work together to deliver goods in this nation.
FO: What’s the future of trucking?
Ward: When I retired from D.M. Bowman on April 1, I told my executive team that I wished I was 20 years younger. Because I think the best days are ahead for people in this business, especially for companies that focus on taking care of their associates inside their walls, the professional driving employees, and their technicians. Technicians are just as challenging to hire as professional drivers.
I think as fleets continue to make quality, sound investments into their companies, work closely with the shipping community to take complexities out of the system, stay focused on their networks, and deliver high-level services—while managing costs to the best of their ability—we’re going to do really well.
