The Value of Showing Up: A 24-Year Perspective on TIA Membership

I still remember the first time the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) was brought up in our office. We were a young company growing fast (faster than we were really prepared for) and like most young businesses, we were careful about where we spent our time and money. Someone on staff had heard about a TIA event, and the question was simple: Is this conference worth it?

We weren’t looking for recognition. We weren’t chasing titles. We were just trying to run a better business and figure out how to navigate an industry that doesn’t come with an instruction manual.

In the end, we decided to attend for one basic reason: we believed there had to be value in being in the room with other people who understood the same problems we were facing.

What we didn’t know at the time was that this small decision to simply show up would shape the next 24 years of our company and our place in this industry.

Looking back, the most important thing we found through TIA wasn’t a strategy, a tactic, or a shortcut. It was relationships.

Those relationships became the people I could call when something went wrong and there wasn’t an obvious answer. They helped us with contracts, insurance, legal issues, technology changes, and operational challenges. Sometimes they gave direct advice. Sometimes they shared what they had learned the hard way. And sometimes their greatest value was simply knowing we weren’t alone in this.

I think of the time we needed a specialized law firm, and I picked up the phone to call Chip Smith. Chip was one of the experienced leaders I had come to respect through TIA. Someone I trusted, and someone who always took my call. He told me exactly who to contact, and because of that relationship and that single conversation, we saw remarkable results. Just one of many times TIA membership has helped my company.

That’s when I began to understand something simple, but vital: relationships are the greatest asset in business.

Information changes. Markets shift. Technology evolves. It’s trusted relationships built over time that carry you through the hardest times.

I also came to see the bigger role TIA plays for our industry. Trade associations do the work none of us could do alone. They help create shared standards, provide a unified voice for the industry, and create a place where companies of every size can learn from one another and move forward together.

For instance, take the model transportation agreement developed and endorsed by the TIA and the National Industrial Transportation League (NITL). This agreement serves as an industry-standard framework for contracts between brokers and shippers, bringing clarity, consistency, and trust to relationships that might otherwise be negotiated from scratch every time.

It’s the kind of behind-the-scenes work that doesn’t always get attention, but it quietly strengthens the entire industry.

Simply put, trade associations protect and strengthen the industry we all depend on.

My involvement in TIA grew slowly, mainly because I wanted to give back to something that had given value to us. I learned a lesson that matters far beyond transportation: leadership is service. It isn’t measured by position. It’s measured by what we give back and the problems we solve together.

Every season in this industry brings new challenges; some operational, some economic, and some test the very trust that freight depends on. The only way to meet challenges like these is together, through shared knowledge, shared responsibility, and a willingness to help one another succeed.

It reminds me of a guy who joined a gym.

I believe strongly in supporting gyms from a respectable distance, but this guy was serious. He signed up, paid the dues, and for about three days told everyone how life was about to change.

Then work got busy. Travel picked up. Schedules filled. Before long, he realized he was still paying for the gym, but wasn’t going.

Nothing changed.

He didn’t get stronger.

He didn’t get healthier.

He just had a membership card in his wallet.

Eventually he decided that if he was going to keep paying for it, he might as well use it. So, he went back and started showing up consistently. Nothing dramatic — just regular effort, week after week. And over time, it happened: he got stronger, he felt better, and the benefit finally matched the investment.

It’s the same story for us and TIA. Twenty-four years ago, we attended our first TIA event hoping to learn something that might help our business. What we found was a community, a network of trusted relationships, and a reminder that none of us are meant to navigate this industry alone.

If there’s one message that’s driven my time with TIA, it’s this: show up, get involved, and invest in the people around you. Because the future of transportation won’t be built by companies working alone. It will be built by an industry willing to show up for each other.

So show up.

Build relationships.

Share what you’ve learned.

Take something with you.

And more importantly, make sure you leave something behind.