NICHE KNOW-HOW

Rough Notes, May 2004 by Boone, Elisabeth

Perry began his insurance career in 1979 with the Factory Mutual System, and in 1985 he moved to the agency side, where he had responsibilities in the sales and marketing areas. he joined ISA in October 2001 as marketing manager. Perry helps oversee the agency's commercial accounts and prepares submissions for both renewal and new business. A key responsibility for Perry is developing trucking business for the agency. Since coming on board he's helped build the agency's trucking niche into premium volume of some $3 million.

"In April 2001,1 decided to obtain my Class A CDL (commercial driver's license), and I became an over-the-road truck driver for a company that's now one of our clients," Perry explains. "I spent about six months driving from this area, hauling furniture to the West Coast and bringing produce back. That gave me knowledge of the trucking industry from the inside-everything from daily operations to dispatch to administration-in addition to seeing what actually happens on the road. I gained a solid understanding of how a trucking business operates and the problems associated with it," he says. "In October 2001, when I joined the agency here, I wanted to use my knowledge to develop trucking business. I started as a safety consultant with my former employer; later I reviewed the insurance program and placed the coverage. From that point, all of our trucking business has come from referrals," Perry says.

Within its trucking portfolio, Insurance Service of Asheville currently handles almost exclusively long-haul trucking operations. "We're open to any size risk from one truck to 100-plus trucks, and we have accounts all along that range," Perry says. "Most of our clients haul furniture, operating from this area to the Pacific Northwest and back. Our clients have very sophisticated operations and do extensive longrange planning," he continues. "The trucking industry is changing rapidly with respect to market segments and market conditions. The new restrictions on the number of hours a driver can be on the road are putting a lot of strain on owners, and they're also affected by the extended waiting times at warehouses before a truck is loaded. all of this will have a major impact on the trucking industry over the next 12 to 24 months," Perry observes. "Trucking is a cash-in, cashout business; time is money in all aspects of a trucking operation."

In the popular press, horror stories abound of truckers staying behind the wheel for 24 hours or more, taking amphetamines to remain awake and endangering themselves and others on the road. Also common are accounts of drivers who hold licenses in numerous states, so losing a license in one state is no barrier to unsafe drivers' remaining on the road. "From my observations, trucking company owners are cracking down and doing everything they can to have safe and legal operations, because unsafe driving has a significant impact on owners' insurance premiums and on their ability to secure coverage so they can run their trucks," Perry comments.