TIA ISSUES STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO PRESIDENT TRUMP’S STATEMENT ON PRICE-GOUGING BY BROKERS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: [email protected]

MAY 8, 2020 – ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA – Transportation Intermediaries Associations (TIA), the largest association representing third-party logistics (3PLs) companies, released today the following statement from President & CEO Robert A. Voltmann, CAE, in response to President Donald J. Trump’s comments regarding perceived price-gouging by transportation brokers:

We were disappointed to see President Trump’s comments this morning in response to a question from Ainsley Earhardt of Fox & Friends regarding perceived price-gouging by transportation brokers during the COVID-19 crisis. This position could not be further from the truth. As the President should know, real estate agents don’t determine the sales price of buildings, the market does. The same is true in trucking.

As the voice of the 3PL industry, TIA welcomes the opportunity to discuss the situation with the Administration, as well as with all parties involved, in a formal setting – not through completely misconstrued and misrepresented statements across social media and other channels.

We too love the truckers. Our members can’t survive without them, and they need our members too. No American business is doing well right now. What independent truckers need right now is access to federal relief funding, and President Trump should direct the SBA to take action to support them rather than pointing fingers at other American small businesses, the vast majority of which also support President Trump.

3PLs and transportation brokers are not price-gouging – there is simply not enough freight to support all of the carriers. In this case, we simply aren’t shipping much of anything and there are too many trucks chasing too little freight. This has been further exacerbated by the Department of Transportation’s relaxing of the hours-of-service regulations, which have created more artificial capacity in the marketplace.