Robert Voltmann announces departure as CEO of TIA

After more than 20 years as CEO of the Transportation Intermediaries Association, which represents freight brokers, Robert Voltmann has announced that he will leaving TIA later this year.

On Wednesday, June 2, TIA issued a news release announcing the departure of TIA President and CEO Robert Voltmann. According to TIA, Voltmann will be leaving the association at the end of September. The decision comes at a time when the broker industry is in the center of a movement within the trucking industry demanding greater transparency with broker transactions with motor carriers.

TIA membership grew more than threefold during Voltmann’s tenure. Today, TIA represents nearly 80% of the market by value, with a 92% annual retention rate or better.

Voltmann began his career as TIA CEO in June 1997.

“While this was a difficult decision for me, I have accomplished everything I was hired to accomplish,” Voltmann said. “Together, we took TIA from a fledgling organization with weak finances and turned it into an association worthy of the dynamic third-party logistics industry. TIA is now clearly recognized as the voice of third-party logistics and has the financial strength to continue to grow and change with the industry. It is time for me to continue to change and grow myself by taking on a new challenge and for TIA to transition to a new leader.”

Doug Clark, TIA chairman from 2007 to 2009, will act as TIA’s interim president and CEO as the board of directors searches for a permanent replacement. According to Clark’s LinkedIn page, he began his career in transportation in 1980 at Golman-Hayden, a produce brokerage firm in Dallas, where he remained until 2010. Under his leadership, Golman-Hayden grew from seven employees with revenues below $500,000 to more than 170 employees and revenues of more than $140 million.

In 2012, Clark became the vice president of business development at Allen Lund Co. He was responsible for the company’s mergers, growth and acquisitions during his tenure. Clark left Allen Lund in December 2016. Since then, he has been running his own consulting company based out of the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Voltmann’s departure follows weeks of heated exchange between the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and TIA over broker transparency.

OOIDA initially called for more transparency in early May. After calls to action, protests and an acknowledgment from President Donald Trump via Twitter, TIA lashed out to its members in a leaked letter. In the letter, Voltmann told its members how to respond to inquiries from owner-operators, including how to exploit loopholes within federal transparency regulations. TIA eventually sent a letter to Congress members informing them of their position on the matter. OOIDA immediately refuted the claims within that letter.