Dollars & Sense

Partners in profitability

Obtaining trucking insurance can be a frustrating experience at times.  The insurance world has its own language and terminology that can be intimidating and confusing to the average person.  It can be difficult to determine the type of coverage you need while receiving the best price for that coverage.

Transportation Risk Management (TRM) of Toledo, Ohio is different in that it was founded by an insurance specialist withdeep roots in the trucking industry.

Curtis Morton, President of TRM, has been in the transportation business as a truck fleet owner, at one time managing 125 drivers in a leasing company, handling general commodity and refrigerated freight.
 
He has an affinity and understanding of trucking owner-operators and drivers.  "At the end of the day, if you've got it, a truck brought it.  Truckers are overworked and underappreciated.  We provide coverage for about 3,000 trucking clients and we speak their language,” said Morton.

Morton entered the insurance business in 1981 and opened his first agency in 1986.  He specialized in insuring automobile repair facilities and soon moved into providing coverage for truck drivers and their equipment.
 
In addition to working as an insurance counselor and educator for various firms, he founded Transportation Risk Management in 2005.

According to a company brochure, Morton said, "Our primary goal as your total trucking partner is to increase your overall success and profitability by providing you with practical, economic solutions to all the core cost problem areas associated with transportation and logistics."
 
He adds, "We offer the right coverage for the right price because ultimately, the wrong coverage at any price is always the wrong coverage."

"The way I see it, if we do our jobs right, insurance should be just about free. We try to offset the cost of insurance through our discount programs."
 
Insurance Options
With many years of risk management experience, our staff is committed to serving the trucking industry.  As your insurance agency, we make it our responsibility
to ensure that we accomplish two very important things:

*Give the client enough information to make an informed decision.
 
*To increase our clients’ bottom line profitability.
 
“We are your partners in profitability.”
 
Carl H. Miller, TRM General Manager, said that prior to working in the transportation insurance business, he had a fleet of six trucks on the road. "I'm a former CDL holder and I've owned trucks, driven trucks, wrenched on trucks and dispatched them.  You might say that I've got a little background in the field," said Miller.
 
"One of the things that we really strive for is the personal touch and I think that's one of our strong suits.  Because we owned and drove trucks at one time, I think that gives us an edge over our competition."

"The staff that we have here is really tuned to the client's needs, particularly in the way we get insurance certificates out in a timely, expeditious fashion. With our technology, we can respond to our clients' requests within minutes, instead of hours or days."
 
Miller says that one of his goals when meeting the client for the first time is to learn the client's operation so "we can better insure him."

According to Miller, when taking into consideration the client’s operation, TRM offers different options.  The client can self-insure or insure his or her risks, or take some combination in-between that provides a higher deductible. “We’re there to protect his assets and that’s the bottom line,” said Miller.

"We're also looking for that client to become a profit partner.  When we provide insurance to the client, we're exploring ways in which we can help offset that insurance premium,” said Miller.  TRM has established a fleet fuel discount program, leasing options and a tire discount program in order to equalize this premium.
 
The fleet fuel discount program, Miller explains, works at over 6,000 truck stops from the Mississippi to the east cost.  TRM has aligned with the larger truck stops and fuel distributors to give them discounts.
 
TRM receives these discounts because of a commitment they made that they would deliver a fixed number of gallons at different times.  Miller mandates that his most current figures show 1,000,000 gallons being purchased by his customers each week, which quickly received the interest of the fuel companies.

He says, "These discounts come into play when we talk to a client and say, 'Look, your insurance is going to cost you $5,000 per power unit, but we'll come back with something our agency does that your current agency doesn't achieve.  That is to provide you with a fuel discount program that will save you money."

"The math works out like this: If you have a tractor-trailer running over the road, it has to run at least 100,000 miles per year.  At 5 mpg, that truck will burn 20,000 gallons in that year.  If I saved them ten cents per gallon, that's $2,000 per truck, per year which is pretty significant; and we've seen this occurring with as high as thirty cents."
 
"What we're doing is being a Profit Partner - looking for different ways we can save our clients money and improve their bottom line."

Miller says that TRM maintains a small, yet highly-efficient staff that can provide a client with an insurance certificate almost instantaneously, whereas some agencies will take days or even longer.

"We typically like to think our agency's forte is our capability of handling clients with up to 250 units.  We insure single truck operations to people with 60-70 unit level (which is where companies are really going to benefit from our service),” said Miller.

He adds, "We also have on staff a DOT consultant.  Should a client have an issue with DOT compliance, this gentleman possesses a wealth of knowledge and experience in these matters and can assist that client."

Miller says that it is relatively easy to establish a Group Health Plan for the contractors leased to one company, but for individual, independent contractors, it is more difficult to develop a plan with affordable rates.  TRM is currently involved in constructing a Group Health Plan for those people and hopes to roll it out very soon.

Another project that the agency is developing, with the help of a national insurance carrier, is a program that will insure the truckers' private vehicles and their homes at a substantial discount.

Miller states, "We have found that our trucking clients don't want to have to educate their insurance agents about trucking and its needs.  When they call an agent for Bobtail insurance, for example, they expect the agent to know what is needed."
"With our transportation background, we can offer just about any risk management products the owner-operator or driver needs."
  
 Available Coverage for Commercial Trucking:
•Primary Liability
•Cargo
•Physical Damage
 
Owner Operators:
•Bobtail
•Physical Damage
•Occupational Accident

Standard Coverage:
•Property
•General Liability
•Workers Compensation
 
Group Benefits:
•Group Health
•Group Life
•Group Disability
 
The TRM Advantage:
We also offer a number of additional products and services that help offset the cost of your insurance and thereby increase your net retained earnings:

Fuel Discount Program
Discounted pricing at over 6,000 fuel locations throughout North America.  Savings range from .02 - .50 per gallon.

Tire Savings Program
Discounted tire purchase pricing.  We currently have steer and drive tires for $250.00.
 
Complete HR Management Programs
•Payroll Services
•Employee Leasing Services
•Access to Various Factoring Companies for Financial Assistance
•On staff DOT Consultant for Help with Safety and Compliance Issues

Transportation Risk Management
877-724-4876