Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Amico. Them and their team share their story with us below:
In 1928, Jack Cooper founded a carrier for General Motors in Kansas City, Missouri. In fact, for over 93 years we’ve been a proud supplier to General Motors in that exact location! Today, we serve their plants and dealerships throughout North America. Since 1928, Jack Cooper Investments has grown to include several businesses and a full range of automotive transportation and logistics services spanning the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Today, Jack Cooper Holdings is the second largest trucking carrier of motor vehicles in the United States, and the largest carrier with a unionized workforce. Jack Cooper delivers 3.5 – 4 million cars annually, helping to deliver nearly one out of every four cars in the North American market.
In 2021, under the leadership of Sarah Riggs Amico, Jack Cooper was recognized by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council as a certified Women-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE). This is especially meaningful, as the trucking industry still remains far from reaching gender parity in leadership or workforce representation. We’re proud that over 30% of our management across the company is female, and our focus on diversity, equity and inclusion is a priority for the company — not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it is best for the business. Also, Jack Cooper is committed to leading our industry on the oath to carbon neutrality. In every way, we are driving the future of finished vehicle logistics.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
People recognize that trucking exists to deliver freight from point A to B, but a lot of times issues arise returning from point B to A, what we call backhaul freight. When you haul specialized freight, such as light vehicles, it’s a pretty sophisticated logistics network. Jack Cooper delivers cars to tens of thousands of locations throughout North America — ensuring consumers can purchase the cars they love.
One of the challenges we faced was our desire to eliminate empty miles, or miles that trucks are on the road without carrying freight to or from a destination. We wanted to lower fuel costs and idling, and essentially it’s only when you’re hauling freight that you’re producing revenue. But we couldn’t afford to go and get brand new technology for fuel efficiency to replace our whole fleet — that would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
This was right in the middle of the great recession. And so we thought well, what else can we do? And the answer was: use math.
We came up with an algorithm that would more efficiently route our equipment and our drivers and came up with 42 different permutations of tractor-trailer combinations to use throughout our system. That was a pretty remarkable thing. In trucking, if you go out full and you come back empty, that would be what we call “50% Loaded Miles.” The average in our industry is probably somewhere in the mid 50s. Today, Jack Cooper is heading towards 66% Loaded Miles, and I’m confident eventually we can hit 70.
It’s not because we had more money or better equipment. I would argue we do have better drivers of course — I love our Teamsters! But it’s because we were more creative. So that innovation and imagination is at the core of what we do.
We’ve been impressed with Jack Cooper Investments, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
What sets Jack Cooper apart from others in the transportation and logistics industry is our belief that having a diversity of management and employees at all levels is important because it broadens your horizon. It broadens your point of view. It makes the discussions in the boardroom, or the executive team, or a department, or business unit more thoughtful and more inclusive. And we find that that produces better business results.
Our values have been the key component to Jack Cooper’s resilience. This is a really tough business; I always like to joke, “If you eat oranges in Idaho in the winter, you’re welcome.” Thank the trucker.
We have over 3 million CDL commercial driver’s license holders in this country. Truck drivers have been heroes on the frontlines of this pandemic, the folks making sure that the goods we need, the food we eat, the clothes we wear gets where it needs to go. The folks putting in long hours, particularly now as we experience the supply chain disruption.
Over 70% of the items you interact with in your daily life traveled on a truck for some good distance, and most things travel on a truck for what we call last mile. And so trucking really is part of what keeps this country moving and fed and what keeps our economy humming. At Jack Cooper, we believe a big part of being resilient within that context is making sure that you’re connected to the communities where we live and work. As our industry changes, Jack Cooper is changing intentionally. We want a workplace that reflects the communities where we live and work. We want a management team that looks like the world around us. And we believe that’ll deliver better business results for our customers, our investors, and our team members.
What’s next?
As Jack Cooper approaches our 100th birthday in 2028, my job as the Executive Chairman is to chart the course for what the next century will look like — how can we survive and be competitive, and not just survive, but thrive? In our next hundred years, how can we provide great service, at a great price, in a great working environment for our team?
Part of how we do that is really envisioning what the industry could look like. I call it “doing good and doing well.”
We have always tried to do right by our people. We created “Jack Cooper University,” which is a continuous education program available for free to all of our employees. We support our Teamsters Union, and their health, welfare and pension. We provide our employees with a great job. Many of our drivers make six figures a year, and that represents a good opportunity to provide for your family.
We are unique in the industry in that we pay 100% of the health insurance premiums for all of our Jack Cooper Transport employees and their families. We didn’t do that because it’s the cheapest thing to do or because it’s trendy. We did it as we believe that’s the right way to treat your people. I just don’t believe anyone who works for me should be sick because they’re poor or poor because they’re sick. I don’t believe in that.
So when we think about the next century, it’s “how do we continue that ethos of doing the right thing, trying to do good but also do well?” We’re thinking about how we become a carbon neutral trucking fleet. How do we take our carbon emissions not just down, but to zero? How do we expand that diversity, equity and inclusion? How do we become a better company with better ideas? How do we take care of our employees better?.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jackcooper.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drivejackcooper
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drivejackcooper
- Twitter: @drivejackcooper
