The Truckload Carriers Assn. won permission from the Justice Department to establish a program to identify industry costs and best practices.

The association plans to conduct surveys to determine what companies pay for certain areas of operation, and then organize discussion groups to learn how the best performers achieved their status. In some instances, the process could lead to TCA publishing Recommended Practices for the truckload industry.
"This is an opportunity for ourselves as an industry to ratchet ourselves up and become better," said Daniel England, CEO of C.R. England & Sons., Salt Lake City, and chairman of the TCA committee spearheading the project.
The voluntary project, more than a year in the making, cleared its biggest hurdle this week when the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department said it would not intervene. "It does not appear likely that the proposed benchmarking project will have anticompetitive effects," wrote Acting Assistant Attorney General John M. Nannes.
TCA had sought this assurance so that participants would not be worried about breaking the antitrust laws.
England explained that the seeds for the project were planted when he heard how truck dealers, working through the American Truck Dealers association, gather regularly to discuss industry issues and ways to improve their performance.
Trucking companies are under tremendous pressure to reduce costs and keep price in check, he said. "Unless we are able to continue to improve our efficiency and keep our costs in line, what we are going to see is further margin erosion."
While the industry in general has been able to drive out costs, there is more to do, he said. "That’s what this effort is focused on."
The process will begin with a survey of truckload companies to determine which business activities will be covered. Possible activities include safety, workers’ compensation, maintenance, tires and environmental management. Competitively sensitive areas such as rates, surcharges, credit items and revenue per mile would not be included, TCA told Justice.
England expects that driver retention and satisfaction will be a major interest. "Hopefully there would be things that come out of this that would allow us to do a better job of improving driver conditions and consequently keeping drivers longer."
Martin Labbe Associates, Ormond Beach, Fla., will conduct the surveys, said TCA President Robert Hirsch.
Once the initial survey is completed, later this year, TCA will pull together focus groups of carriers, shippers and receivers to agree on definitions. At that point, the process calls for periodic surveys on selected activities.
All truckload companies will be able to participate in the surveys, and in the ensuing discussion groups. The results of the surveys probably will be offered for sale, said TCA General Counsel Robert Rothstein.
TCA will host periodic meetings of Best-Practice Discussion Groups, each consisting of perhaps 15 senior company executives. Sales and marketing executives will not be included, to help keep the discussion away from competitive information. The groups will be organized by subject and by the revenue of the companies involved.
If a discussion group believes it has found a technique that would benefit the truckload industry in general, it can petition TCA to consider publishing a Recommended Practice.
England said he was delighted by Justice’s approval of the project. "Our industry is so fragmented that the risk of anticompetitive activity is remote."