TCA’s names Jim Mullen new president

The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) has announced the appointment of its new president, Jim Mullen. Mullen replaces Jim Ward, who announced his retirement plans in October. He will attend the TCA Annual Convention, taking place in Orlando, Florida, from February 28 to March 3, before taking the reigns effective April 6.

“I am honored to join TCA and grateful to the association’s leadership for their confidence in me,” Mullen stated. “I look forward to working closely with TCA’s officers, staff, and members to advance the association’s mission and support a strong, safe, and competitive truckload industry.”

TCA’s new president comes with decades of experience across major carriers, startups, and D.C.

For 10 years, Mullen was an executive at Werner Enterprises, currently No. 11 on the FleetOwner 500: For-Hire, providing legal support to the company.

He also served as chief counsel to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) from 2018 to late 2019, and was briefly FMCSA’s acting administrator, taking over the agency’s daily operations from 2019 to mid-2020.

Mullen also has a streak of autonomous tech work under his belt. From 2020 to 2022, he served as chief legal and risk officer for the former public autonomous truck company TuSimple.

With TuSimple, Mullen oversaw the company’s legal affairs and risk management strategy. Mullen left the company in October 2022, around the same time TuSimple’s reputation turned sour.

He also served as the National Motor Freight Traffic Association’s (NMFTA) chief strategy officer from December 2023 until just after his TCA appointment.

Mullen’s latest role is as executive director of the Clean Freight Coalition, a faction of trade associations that spoke out against tightening emissions regulations. Established in 2023, the coalition’s purpose is now fuzzy with emissions deregulation already a priority of the new Trump administration.