TCA has just finished its Fall Business Meeting and Call on Washington held in Washington D.C., September 12 and 13, respectively. Both events were a tremendous success as we conducted meaningful committee meetings that included some great membership insight and feedback on the first day, followed with TCA member visits on Capitol Hill.
TCA members and staff met with 39 Congressional offices, FMCSA’s Robin Hutcheson and the Canadian Embassy transport team, and told the truckload story of truck parking and safety, the driver shortage, young driver apprenticeship program, AB5 and more. It was an engaging and productive two days in the nation’s capital, and as I reflect on this and the fact that I am at the halfway point of my TCA Chairmanship, I feel we are on a bit of a roll.
My chairmanship started earlier this spring and coincided with the hiring of TCA’s new president Jim Ward, former President of D.M. Bowman and Chairman of TCA.
Jim was a great hire as he brought a unique perspective to TCA with his immediate focus on enhancing and promoting the value of TCA membership. He and his staff have been busy tweaking our events, reviewing our sponsored programs, assessing the educational offerings and our industry awards programs.
The results thus far have been quite favorable. In the past six months, we have continued to experience record TCA membership growth and retention. The quality of educational content and attendance at both the June Safety & Security Meeting and July Refrigerated Meeting was exciting to be a part of. We are growing and making enhancements to TCA’s Profitability Program (TPP), tailoring our educational offerings to focus on successful member case studies, improving our safety and risk management program, delivering on our government affairs outreach and much more.
Every program and initiative at TCA is being reviewed under Jim and the TCA officers' leadership, with a continued emphasis on creating membership value. TCA’s meetings and events are now guided by a designated taskforce, which provides oversight and feedback through their members consisting of both carrier and associate members. The event taskforce sets the agendas, establishes educational content and identifies subject matter experts.
Sticking to the simple mantra “educational content for truckload professionals created by truckload professionals” has created some fantastic results. The two most recent events, Safety & Security Meeting and Refrigerated Division Meeting, both experienced 10-year attendance highs and the feedback from attendees has been fantastic. We captured some great photos and videos of these events and I encourage you to check them out.
Our March 2023 convention scheduled for Orlando also has its own taskforce who have been hard at work these past several months. There will be more to report on the convention soon. In addition to our March 2023 Annual Convention upgrades, we are also currently reviewing our Driver of the Year program and Highway Angel program, and I’m excited to make additional comments and announcements on these shortly.
We continue to improve the TCA member experience and these revamped events and programs will reflect that. I am confident that our membership engagement will get even stronger.
It’s an exciting time to serve as chairman of this organization. As you can see, things are happening at TCA under Jim Ward’s leadership and the support of the TCA team. It has been an honor to serve as TCA’s Chairman for the past six months and I am excited and look forward to seeing each of you at a TCA event soon. If you are currently a member and not engaged, there has never been a better time to get involved and join us on this great ride. Feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] or TCA’s Zander Gambill at [email protected] or 571 444 0301. And if you are not a TCA member and would like to learn more, we want to hear from you us well.
