Transportation Intermediaries Association announces leadership change

Amid a gathering storm of trouble for the Third-Party Logistics (3PL) sector, comes news of the resignation of a prominent industry leader. 

Robert Voltmann, president & CEO of the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) announced today that he will be leaving the association at the end of September, capping off a span of 23 years there.

Doug Clark, a longtime industry executive and TIA Honorary Life Member, will serve as TIA’s interim president & CEO while the board of directors conducts its search for a new chief executive.

Under Voltmann’s leadership, TIA says its membership more than tripled and now represents nearly 80% of the $214 billion market by value, with a 92% annual retention rate. “We are forever grateful to Bob for his leadership, vision, and dogged determination to drive TIA to success,” TIA Board Chairman Brian Evans said in a statement. “When Bob started, TIA’s annual budget was $721,000 and last year it was $7.5 million; we had negative net assets and today we have reserves sufficient to carry us through the current crisis and meet the demands of the future; we had a very limited voice in Washington and now it strong and clear. While it is never a good time to change a winning lineup, we agreed that now was the best opportunity to do so for both TIA and Bob.”

In other initiatives, the TIA Foundation was created to provide educational resources to TIA members and new market entrants; the TIA Leadership Academy provides executive education to rising company stars; and the TIA Services Corp. supports the business needs of its members.

 As noted in this month’s magazine’s feature, today's 3PL marketplace is not for the faint at heart. 

Leading industry analysts maintain that in the current volatile business environment, an increasing number of logistics service providers are being forced to take dramatic action to generate positive impact rapidly—or risk going out of business.

Michael Gravier, Associate Professor of Marketing and Supply Chain Management at Bryant University, told LM that even before this disruption, the world was a volatile place with tariffs and raw material costs fluctuating as quickly in response to Twitter blasts.

“And it was pushing companies to focus more on innovation based on core competences and allowing 3PL’s to take more charge of supply chains,” he added.