Most recently, Congress and the Biden Administration, through their bipartisan support of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, have recognized the need for more balanced coordination to better facilitate relations between shippers, receivers, motor carriers, and professional truck drivers.

The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) and The National Industrial Transportation League (NITL) are pleased to contribute to this effort with a recently revised version of its Voluntary Guide to Good Business Relations for Shippers, Receivers, Carriers, and Drivers.

This informative guide, written in September of 2000 and revised in 2013 to better reflect a more complex operating environment, emphasizes reasonable and common-sense treatment of the four primary parties involved in truck transportation, and outlines mutually desirable business practices that TCA and NITL believe responsible shippers, receivers, carriers, and drivers should adopt. As supply chains face increased disruptions, we believe this guide is more relevant now than ever.

The guide has been endorsed by the Food Shippers of America (FSA) and the American Trucking Associations (ATA), highlighting the industry confidence in these best practices.

To develop this guide, TCA and NITL relied on the expertise and experience within its membership to ensure the recommendations were impactful, feasible, and based on real challenges across all operational levels.

“This guide can serve as an effective blueprint for those within trucking and in government to collectively improve the driver experience to strengthen efforts to recruit and retain professional truck drivers more effectively,” said TCA President Jim Ward. Ward, formerly the president of D.M. Bowman, Inc., based in Williamsport, Maryland, served as the co-chairman of TCA’s Carrier/Shipper Relations Committee in 2000 when the guide was written.

“With so many disruptions in the supply chain, whether it be rail, ocean or highway, The League is very pleased to continue to work alongside the TCA to update this best practices guide,” said NITL Executive Director Nancy O’Liddy. “League members have long embraced these recommended practices, which enhance working relationships between shippers, brokers and carriers as they work to meet their mutual goals.”

Although the guide was initially developed by TCA and NITL for their respective members, both organizations believe it is applicable to many, if not all, segments of the truck transportation industry and their customers. The organizations are encouraging other entities, such as food shippers, warehousing organizations, the retail industry, etc., to adopt these voluntary guidelines.