Carrier411 is proud to be a TIA member and identify other TIA members, including companies that are TIA Performance Certified.

Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) members include property brokers, domestic freight forwarders, ocean and air forwarders, NVOCCs, intermodal marketing companies, motor carriers, perishable commodity brokers and logistics management companies. For more information, please visit www.tianet.org.

Carrier411 Identifies TIA & TIA Performance Certified Members
We are pleased to announce that Carrier411 is the first carrier monitoring service to display the TIA and TIA Performance Certified logos to identify participating members.

What the TIA Logo Means When you see the TIA logo displayed in Carrier411, it means the company is a Transportation Intermediaries Association member. TIA is the association of the ethical third-party logistics industry, and members are bound by the TIA Code of Ethics.

TIA Performance Certified $10,000 When you see the TIA Performance Certified $10,000 logo, it means the company has a $10,000 TIA Surety and has agreed to the professional standards and best practices presented by TIA.

TIA Performance Certified $25,000 When you see the TIA Performance Certified $25,000 logo, it means the company has a $25,000 TIA Surety and has agreed to the professional standards and best practices presented by TIA.

TIA Performance Certified $50,000 When you see the TIA Performance Certified $50,000 logo, it means the company has a $50,000 TIA Surety and has agreed to the professional standards and best practices presented by TIA.

TIA Performance Certified $100,000 When you see the TIA Performance Certified $100,000 logo, it means the company has a $100,000 TIA Surety and has agreed to the professional standards and best practices presented by TIA.

TIA members that are Performance Certified are dedicated to the highest level of ethics and adopt strict best practices by adhering to the Performance Certified Program rules. Avalon Risk Management, Inc. supports that commitment by partnering with TIA to offer the increased surety levels.

The Performance Certified program offers a competitive advantage to transportation brokers by providing a guarantee of freight payment to carriers, shippers and other third-party logistics providers in excess of the $10,000 bond required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to conduct business. This bond is not intended to pay cargo claims.

Consider the following claim situation where a licensed property broker defaulted on payments to multiple carriers resulting in claims from both the shipping and trucking community:

A property broker is forced to close its business because of mismanaged funds. Within several months, almost 300 claims were filed against the property broker's $10,000 FMCSA bond. The claims totaled $1.3 million and were paid on a pro-rata distribution basis. Claimants waited almost nine months before receiving a payment of only pennies on the dollar.

Property brokers that maintain a larger bond amount demonstrate stronger financial backing and a commitment to the shipping and carrier community.

The increased Performance Certified levels provide total excess bond coverage of $100,000, $50,000 or $25,000 to federally licensed property brokers with the FMCSA. The amount of the excess bond is underwritten through Lincoln General Insurance Company, Lincoln and Avalon are both subsidiaries of Kingsway Financial Services, publicly traded on the New York and Toronto Stock Exchanges, under ticker symbol "KFS" with a combined equity exceeding $1.2 billion.

Professional Associations
Carrier411 is also a member of the The National Industrial Transportation League, International Factoring Association and a SmartWay Affiliate.