Really Big Show

       “Each year our trade show draws upwards of 1,200 members and is unlike any other.
       “More than 80 percent of the attendees are members, not exhibitors,” Robert Voltmann said.
       “The TIA Capital Conference this past April in Palm Desert, California, featured 120 10x10 booths.
       “We have some big display stands, so less than 120 exhibitors, but our floor space is full and busy.”
       “Everybody is selling software and insurance and the railroads are there, LTL truckers, TMS Systems, Freight Matching, Truck Stop, and others.”

Building Membership

       “Although many of our nearly 1,800 members are involved in air and sea freight, the majority are truckers, the mode that moves much of U.S. cargo.
       “Approximately 400 TIA members own trucks,” Robert Voltmann said. “Most are non-asset based. Ninety-plus percent are family-owned businesses and of all the numbers, eighty percent of these companies have five trucks or less.
       “The TIA average member moves about $7 million in gross revenue annually.
       “Almost every shipper has at least one 3PL as a core carrier. Many have up to six.
       “Up to 40 percent of the motor carrier industry rely on 3PL as their only sales force.
       “Our TIA growth strategy is aggressive and aims to put our new members to 2,500, with a real marketplace goal of 3,000 to 3,500 by 2025.”

Freight Forwarders Benefit Offer

       “We are working on moving ahead at increasing our freight forwarder presence amongst the legions of small- to medium-sized forwarders.
       “We are also extending our branding of TIA as ‘The Shippers Choice.”

Highway From Politics

       “My wife, Ginger, and I were both involved in state politics in Texas,” Robert Voltmann revealed.
       “Prior to 1978, the only Republican politician that had ever won statewide was Sen. John Tower, and Tower happened only because it was a special election and he was running against a far left liberal politician named Ralph Yarborough.
       “As Sam Rayburn—our late, great Senator who was a master of the U.S. Senate and today has a building in Washington named in his honor—once said, “elect them young, keep them long,” so Tower continued to get re-elected.

At College For Ronald Reagan

       “In 1978 I worked on a campaign for Bill Clemmons, who became Texas Governor as the first Republican elected statewide in a general election.
       “In 1980 I ran the Ronald Reagan campaign at Baylor University, my college campus.
       “We took 76 percent of the vote, registered 2,500 new voters and then turned ‘em out,” Robert Voltmann declared.

Texas House

       “Later both myself and my then future wife Ginger worked in the Texas House of Representatives.
       “After we married, my boss was Edward Emmett of the Texas House of Representatives who endorsed HW Bush in 1980.
       “After the election, as Judge Emmett prepared to go to Washington, he said to me, ‘come with us,’ so we did and I served as Chief of Staff to Edward Emmett as he served as Commissioner on The Interstate Commerce Commission.
       “After three years we moved to the National Industrial Transportation League and served for the next five years representing shippers.
       “When President Bush lost to Bill Clinton, our move from politics was a natural progression.
       “But prior to the Bush/Clinton November election, in early September the handwriting was on the wall for me when President Bush puked all over the Japanese Prime Minister at a State Dinner.
       “I went into my boss and said: ‘You know he is going to lose because the media will never let that scene go, so what are we going to do?’
       “As the top spot at NIT league was available, I followed my boss from Interstate Commerce to NIT, where I served a further five years.
       “During my service at NIT League I was one of four people in the room during NIT League’s efforts during the ‘undercharge crisis;’ a time when truckers were going bankrupt back billing shippers as the tariff rate and the negotiated rate unfolded.
       “We introduced legislation ending that practice,” Robert Voltmann said.
       “Then NIT League was active in eliminating tariffs and other regulations in the Trucking Industry Reform Act.
       “Finally, we preempted State regulation on the U.S. trucking industry and ended the Interstate Commerce Commission entirely,” Bob Voltmann said.
       “The fact is,” Robert declared, “I have been directly involved in every policy decision during the past 25 years that put us where we are today in the United States trucking and rail system.”
       “From NIT I learned that Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) leadership was open and I landed where I am serving today.”

The Best Laid Plans

       “I had planned to be the leader of TIA for three to five years, prove my chops at running an association, and then move on to some place bigger,” Bob Voltmann said.
       “Instead, what happened was I was able to turn TIA around and make the association grow.
       “When I began at TIA, we had a budget of $750,000 U.S. annually, with five staff, and TIA was $100,000 in debt.
       “Today, TIA fields a $6 million dollar budget, 1,700 members, and $4 million dollars in the bank.”
       “We will be a $10 million dollar organization within the next five years,” Robert Voltmann said.

Succession Assured

       “We have been able to attract and keep an organization of keen, smart, young, energetic, talented people that are training others, and in the long run will ensure not only organic growth for TIA, but possibly generate the next management group from within.”

Welcome Aboard

       “Next TIA Capital Ideas Conference & Exhibition for third-party logistics providers and others is set for Palm Desert, California, April 18-22, 2018, and is open to everyone, reprising a once-a-year opportunity to interact with representatives from throughout North America and abroad.
       “Key decision makers with buying authority attend this conference,” Robert said.
       “Our event is different.
       “Sure, we feature the sessions and breakouts and concentrate on bringing solutions to issues confronting the industry today, but our direction is charted by membership.
       “For example, we replaced the staid ‘keynote speaker’ by having three of our membership conduct a ‘TIA Talk,’ where everybody gets an inside look at how our member companies were built and are moving ahead in the digital age.
       “We recognize that people are busy and have taken time out from the daily business to learn and share, so we think our members’ stories provide a unique common interest that draws us all closer together.
       “TIA never forgets how important it is that most of our attendees are owners and senior managers,” Robert Voltmann said.
       More information, including TIA membership & benefits:  www.tianet.org
Geoffrey