Beth Thaler

I've been in the freight industry for 12 years, working for a third-party logistics broker in the safety and compliance department. My main focus is protecting the company from fraud, bad actor carriers, and contract breaches. I work to make sure we're all aligned and that the company as a whole understands where our boundaries are and how we can play in the gray area a little, because in freight, you have to sometimes. I build the trainings, help train the people, and answer any questions that come up. When we have anything from hazardous materials to questions about whether we can move certain freight, I work with our insurance company and the carrier's insurance company to make sure the freight is covered and help guide us on what we can and cannot do. My background is actually in elementary education - I have a degree in that field and taught first grade at an inner-city school in Nashville for 2 years. Then I decided it wasn't for me, and a recruiter found me and thought what I did could transfer into training for a freight company. I tried it, did some sales for a bit, then moved into a training role, and eventually into compliance, and never looked back. I'm also a member of the Transportation Intermediaries Association and part of their fraud task force, where I meet monthly with them to talk about what we're seeing, what we know, what we're hearing, and try to mitigate issues or at least raise awareness. They go in front of Congress once a year to help make the Department of Transportation and the FMCSA aware of what we're seeing on the ground, and they've helped pass legislation. I haven't been privileged enough to go to Washington yet because I have three younger kids to stay for, but we have really good advocates.