Lightning like Steve McQueen I'm in the fast lane when the light turns green and I built tough I ain't nothing but grit Cause I made rugged blood sweat and spit yeah like a horse I fly for a bumpy ride I like to play hard but I work harder and I weather the storm Because I'm built stronger.
What is up, ladies and gentlemen? We are back. We are live. It is a freight coach podcast, the top podcast in transportation coming to you guys every single weekday, 8:30am Pacific, 10:30 Central to break down some industry headlines. But most importantly, you guys provide some actual insight into what you can do with all of this information. If this is your first time tuning in, welcome. This is the real side of freight, ladies and gentlemen. And I say that before every single show. And what I mean by that is I only speak with transportation professionals, you guys, because at the end of the day, I want to talk to the right individuals who have done what you're looking to do or who are currently doing what you're trying to achieve.
So you can take that information, apply it, utilize it and see a meaningful difference in your business and your life. Sunny Sharma says good morning on this cold ass morning Freight freaks app. Man, it is, it's like 50 degrees here in Phoenix this morning. It sucks. I am soft now. I need that hot weather out here. But speaking of hot weather, this guy is not from an area of warm weather at all right now. But he has a lot of hot takes out there on the insurance world and kind of what's going on out there. He is the resident insurance expert that comes on the show and breaks all this down. So I got my man Cam with Valley Truckee Valley Trucking Insurance back on the show. Cam, it has been far too long, my friend. What is up, brother?
Hey, what up, brother? How you doing?
Oh, man, just, you know, trying to, manage my expectations about what's going on right now because there's all this talk out there about how what's going to happen in the market is 20, 25 going to change things. And I am of the camp that it is nowhere near going to be an improvement. Like, yeah, you're going to start seeing some pockets here and there, but like this recovery and everything that everybody's looking for or like kind of that silver bullet, it's not there. And maybe I just train my mind that way because like I've built both of my businesses up from nothing so like I don't ever look for anything other than myself to perform and know that's where the results are really going to come from. But that's kind of where my head's at, man. And what's your sentiment on that?
How, how do you process those things?
Well, I walked outside and it was like 20 something degrees this morning, so I'm cold because I brought my daughter to school. You're talking about 50, dude, I'd be golfing if it was 50 degrees, bro. So I don't even want to hear that. No, likewise man. I built up from scratch as well. And I started in 0708 which if you recall was like last depressions as well, doing truckers and construction and contractor insurance and so kind of the similar, if not same vein and you can only control what you can control. I do think there'll be a slight increase just based on perception, right. People are happy. There's a lot of things that are going to be passed and pushed initiative wise, we hope and we feel like is going to happen. Which I think will loosen up the maybe fear saving, right?
People actually start moving money again, spending money again, which I think obviously can't do anything but be a positive. But as far as when that occurs, I don't know. And on insurance you're going to see like a residual effect of the last few years still wash over. So it's going to be some time till you see a correction on the insurance. I know that's been a topic in some of the transportation news recently of just really high costing insurance, right? Just on averages and stuff like that. And there's a lot of reasons for it.
But yeah, I, I would love to hear a couple of those reasons, man, because I just had to renew my commercial policy here and obviously you know, as a business owner I have a work truck and then my business insurance that you know, for all the equipment and everything in here. And why do premiums increase every year? Like why don't insurance providers. And I know this isn't you the agent. No, I know, but why don't insurance providers like reward their people by not increasing their. Because I feel like every time somebody does that just opens up the door for me to go look in another direction.
Yeah, I think it does. I think man, this goes back to When I was 16, you first bought insurance for yourself. I think when you hit 23 there was like a year where maybe it went down and then every year since it kind of went back up. Like I don't know if that's a wives tale where it's like, you know, your insurance will continue to Go down. Now, I kind of joke about that. I do have clients that actually do see reductions in this environment and market and I do see some considered. If you get less than a 10% increase off your insurance in the current environment, that's good. Sit tight, like there's like literally no issues.
You start seeing the 2030, we've got folks that saw and got impacted with 60, 70% increases off what they're paying now obviously from a freight brokerage, from a business owner that has just like a brick and mortar bot policy to a actual asset company where they've got, you know, trucks on the road and that kind of stuff. You know, there's different levels within each of those and there's different ways that you can improve or be aggressive or hedge. And as a business owner, if you think like a business owner, especially on the insurance piece, it is a little bit of a variable kind of year to year, but you can set it as like a percentage. Because a lot of those type of policies, especially freight brokers, what you do is going to be based on revenue, right?
Yeah.
You'd be charged per revenue times X. Right. So you just figure out what percentage that looks like. You allocate that on the P and L. Truckers, trucking companies, a little bit different. Right. Because what they do impacts it drastically from safety, out of service claims, tickets violations, who they hire, how they hire, how their company set up. Do they embrace technologies with, you know, forward rear facing cameras, 360 cameras. There's a bunch of things. And it's not like they do all this and they get a discount. It's. They do all this and it's a culture thing and it's a training thing and it's all these things that will impact total profitability and insurability in the long run that will impact those premiums. Whether good or bad.
It'll keep it stable, bring it down or you're going to see those things go up and up and then they unfortunately sometimes will go out of business because they can't afford the insurance. Right? Yeah, but it's a product of everything. They just attack insurance because it's a big piece of their P L and it's something that nobody particularly enjoys buying. And it's one of the things you buy that you just pray you never use. But those that do get it and it saves them from, you know, potentially bankrupting themselves or losing their business, they value it. Right. There's a reason that they, you should have it. You've talked about This a ton of times.
No, absolutely. And I'm not here to say that people need to get rid of their insurance at all. On the contrary to that. But I think, like, this is just another piece of, like, I. I don't think insurance is a fixed cost at all. I think it's a variable cost, if I'm being honest with you, on the P L, you know, and because it's like I'm looking at it and you know, I had, you know, I just did the math. And again, I always like to preface things like with I went to public school here, you guys, so. But it was about a 20 increase year over year. Here is what my policy got hit with. And you know, that's like an extra two grand to my P L that I have to account for now over the next 12 months.
And again, I know that some people might hear that and be like, oh, I wish, but like, I'm a small business, as you know. And then you take that out there to the driver community as well. There's so many drivers out there that they have the clean records, they have the. They have everything dialed in. And then they're like, why does my keep increasing? I'm not. I don't have claims, I don't have a speeding ticket. I didn't even sneeze at a scale this year. Why is my stuff going up? And because it's like that, I think that, you know, again, all this talk that is the market going to get better? That doesn't change your premiums right now? Because I look at things in the present, you know, the present value, what is that going to do?
And then how does that change how I approach the next 12 months?
Yeah, I think you take the lens out a touch because, like, it will improve if the market gets better, the investment rates get better. You'll see. And then traditionally in the past, you'll see a lot more aggressive rates because of profitability for the insurance companies on how they diversify their investments and funds that they handle at a top level. But I don't know, there's so many things from like reinsurance. So insurance companies buy insurance when you get world disasters, natural disasters, wars, things that occur with elections, politics, all these different things do affect it because reinsurance is basically big boys betting and covering the bets. Right. They're using their money to insure the actual insurance companies. So when California is on fire every year, Oregon, Washington.
Are we talking about actual wired wildfires?
Wildfires, yeah, yeah. We're going with like, not dumpster Fires, but true fires, those things, whether you like it or not, do impact. And they might not directly impact, like hey, per se, like hey, there's a fire. All of a sudden your rate went up. But it impacts on a global economic scale and insurance operates globally. These are all just businesses, right. They're connected in reinsurance at a top level. Some are small. You'll end up with smaller regional companies which tend to be pretty good until they experience issues. Then all of a sudden their rates go significantly up, they quit writing people or in like the driver market or asset side, they pull out completely where they have this great price and all of a sudden the insurance company is gone or they can't cover the claims.
Like where all of a sudden it's like, what's more expensive, having expensive insurance or having no coverage in the event of a claim. Yeah, there becomes a fine line there. So.
Dude, absolutely right. But I think that, you know, this is one of those things where as much as I want to minimize my expenses on my P and L and increase profitability because, you know, that's why I'm in business is, you know, to make money. What is their, like, what's a strategy some of these drivers can do to work on maybe minimizing the increase or is there any behaviors or something that they can start doing today? Because, because you know, I'm using this as the time of year where, you know, January is probably, you know, could be renewal season. And for a lot of providers or you know, any month is really, you know, depends on when they go in.
But like what are some steps or what are some strategies that fleets, small carriers, owner ops can be looking at doing right now to maybe help minimize in a potential increase here for 2025.
Yeah. So the owner operators really focused on maintenance, vehicle maintenance, proactive approach, like minimizing any out of service, you know, negative inspections. Those things carry so much weight. Like I know people think, hey, it's a brake line or this might not be an issue. But like what's a cause of accidents? Right. Failure of brakes or preventable crashes. Those things are huge. So like proactive, you know, aggressive safety driving, I guess. Right? Like where you're not speeding too fast. I know people have deadlines, people have things going on. Distractions are at an all time high with like phones and dings and rings and pings and all these, all the different things that a driver could face on the road.
So like the owner ops, it's like imperative that they just treat it like a business, are proactive about all the maintenance, it's their investment, it's their livelihood. Make sure they're, you know, pre trip, post trip, like doing everything. Their paperwork is in order. Right. With fmcsa, make sure this stuff's all out there. It's like public, right. You can go on FMCSA and see what best practices are. And I'm not going to say they're a joke, but they're really relaxed. Like to better than what the recommended is really easy. And like when you do that, all of a sudden you become more defendable in court. Also the insurance company actually can defend you. Don't turn in small tic tac claims.
You know, if it's something that's a couple thousand bucks for like let's say a windshield or something like that, just take care of it and do that. Leave insurance for the big stuff or for the experts to come in and actually defend you. Once you get into mid size fleet and fleets, it's a little bit different because it starts from the moment you like build the company.
Right.
Do you have a handbook? What's your culture is a culture of safety is a culture of like being mindful and aware to like protect the public and the general public right as you're going. So the moment you hire someone, what is the minimum standards of who you hire? Do you drive test them? Do you background check them? I mean obviously they got to get drug testing and all that kind of stuff. Now how do they handle their operating procedures for conveyance, personal conveyance or oper? You know, just all the different things that come with running. That is going to start there, then moving into technology, safety, just like everything as a whole. And then obviously the fleet, the vehicle maintenance is the biggest thing you can have older equipment, that's fine, it's great.
There's some beautiful old trucks out there, but you got to take care of them. They can't be just having problem after problem because what happens is that compound snowballs into a green light going to the scales to where you're probably not going to get picked on to a yellow light which is, hey, an optional inspect, like we're going to maybe do this, but more than likely you're going to. Then once you have a problem or a compounding problem to a mandatory. So every time you hit a scale you're going in and then all of a sudden it kind of cascades out of control because they start nitpicking and next thing you know your safety scores just go through the roof and you see this as a broker, right? You can look at cab, you can look at these reports.
It does impact who you want to work with. Because if I got company A and company B and company A is great. They have minimal out of services they're operating, their safety scores are phenomenal versus company B. It's like a question if that load is going to get there on time or at all, are they going to get placed out of service because their equipment is shit. So you as a broker, you're going to probably preference that anyway, right? And I know when you're getting contracts and things, big players, you know, they look at all that kind of stuff. So it all starts there. There's specific strategies that we deep dive. The renewal starts 120 days before. Where you're looking at FMCSA, you're looking at your biannual updates, you're looking at does the story match, can I sell you to the insurance company?
And what you got going? Are we on the same page? Is it open communication? There's so many things that are just like, I can't really unpack in like a bite sized clip. But there's a lot you can do though. There really is. Captive insurance is huge. I know you and I have chatted about that. So me conditioning these fleets to get to a captive to where you now no longer are renting an insurance policy, you own an insurance policy, you actually have sales and what the dollars do, you actually have stability. So when you do talk about, hey, is it A fixed cost on the P and L, it's pretty fixed. Once you get to some of those levels, it does move slightly based on what you actually do, but it's predictable so you have control over it.
So that's usually though you're probably talking, you know, 20 to 25 units and up is going to open up that world for you. So if you're, you know, 10 trucks with ambitions to kind of get there, setting that foundation now, coming up with the game plans, doing everything correct now and just fundamentally doing it right, we'll set you up for success like a little bit later on. And that's the stuff that we try to help with.
So yeah, dude, I think that is, you know, that's possible. I hope it's not overlooked. But that might be an overlooked piece of advice that sets people up for more future success. Right. Like I treat my business today as a billion dollar organization. I truly do. People can laugh at that when they hear that. But I treat this, my business partner treats this as we are in charge of $1 billion P&L right now. And we attack it that way because, like, we are putting and building our foundation now. So when we're there, we have it and we're ready to go with it.
And we're, you know, and this is, again, this is just the track record that has worked out inside of our business for these last couple of years here, where, you know, we attack it this way and we approach it this way because ultimately we want to be here when it happens. We want to be prepared for it when people, you know, because, like, again, you guys, in the real world, where I operate, when I go and work with my bank on stuff, guess what, you guys, guess what they're asking for? They're asking for a lot of shit, right? And it's a lot easier to set the tone and set that culture when it's just. You are just two people or three people.
Then it's going to be when you have 25 trucks, 50 trucks, and then all of a sudden you want to start implementing a lot of these things that come along with it. It's a lot harder to change the trajectory at that time as opposed to setting the tone right away and holding yourself to those standards. Because ultimately that's what you need to do. Because this. This fallacy out there that's on social media right now is because you started a business, all of a sudden you just got all this shit figured out and you're just a fucking millionaire. You have to create your own processes.
You have to create your own systems, and then you have to operate inside of those systems, and then you have to make changes when those systems ultimately don't work out, because very rarely are you going to choose the right way right away. It's all from trial and error and everything that comes along with it. So what Cam is saying is say you're. You're an owner op right now, or maybe you got two trucks or three trucks. You need to. And you want to grow. You have those aspirations where you're like, I want to. I want to have 50 trucks or 500 trucks one day, whatever that looks like. What Cam is saying is EASier to start planning for that today, to set that foundation for when it happens, as opposed to when you get there.
Then you got to blow everything up and rebuild it up from the ground up.
Yep. And I think that's seeking mentorship. I think it's seeking guidance. I think it's like trusting your professional corner is what I'll call it with legal advice. Right? I don't love attorneys. Nobody loves attorneys. But having a good one on your side is a must. Insurance, too, I know that it's kind of been commoditized to where people really think, hey, I can go online, I can click a few buttons. If I unclick this, my price goes down three grand. I click it goes up, fuck it, unclick it, let's buy it. And then all of a sudden, they got the claim and they're like, man, I'm so glad that I saved money on insurance. And then they're like, am I covered? Or they're all sudden worried if they're actually covered and they don't maybe have, let's say, somebody in their corner that is.
And I use, I don't want to say expert, but like is knowledgeable. Like, has a basic understanding of what truckers do on the day to day, or freight brokers or whoever the client is, and what the actual policies may or may not cover in those possible exposures based on what they actually do. So I think a lot of times, like, we get this a bunch when we're going through kind of initial discovery and trying to understand, you know, what your needs are. Whoever's needs would be is like, we ask like, hey, what are your goals? Like, what are you wanting to do? Where are you wanting to go? How are you doing that? How are you set up? How are you managing the. The growth?
If you do want to go from one truck to five trucks, that's exponentially more hats that you got to wear. If you're not set up to do it properly, and if, let's say you do it with owner operators or independent contractors, you. You've got to have a good vetting process because they're out using your dot, your business, your reputations on the line, all that driver has to do, they can just pile something up or mess it all up, walk away, go get another job. They don't care. Dude, you're the one with the name on the door. You care. So, like, there's all these things that you got to be aware of as you go through it.
So, like, when we're discovering that, figuring out what they're going to do, we just try to best align a path and like, show them, you know, hey, we've got resources, we've got connections if you need help. Or here's some things that we know could be potential pitfalls or that we know are important at these stages because we've worked with owner ops to large Fleets and everything in between and have taken owner ops to fleets or, you know, whatever their journey looks like. So we know how to navigate from our side. We do stay in our lane. Like, I'm not going to pretend I know tax law or all this other kind of stuff, but I'll send them where they need to go and be like, hey, talk to X. Do this. Or like, you know, I would think about this.
Like, I'm not an attorney and as your attorney, I advise you to go talk to someone. If I was an attorney, but I'm not. So I'm not legal guidance. But I just tell them what we know and our perspective. Like, we truly try to be a partner, you know, that way come claim time. We're an advocate for the client. Like, we work with all the insurance companies. We have great relationships with the top and the best insurance companies for the transportation market, but we don't work for them. Like, the client is still our client at the end of the day. At the end of the day, my best interest is you. You staying in business, you having a good game plan, you not having to close your doors because of a claim or at least being educated to what it is you're buying.
So if you choose, hey, I don't want coverage for that. That's cool. I'm going to remind you when you have a claim that we talked about this and then at that time, you can then decide, okay, I should probably buy that coverage because that sucked. You know, paying 50k out of pocket really sucks. So let's figure that out. But, but I'm gonna just be there as an advocate and a partner and just. And really try to kind of champion the client to do what they're trying to achieve. I'm an entrepreneur as well. We're all in the same boat. Like, I've, you know, I've been invested and diversified into plenty of businesses and have, you know, almost two decades of insurance now experience. Now to where, you know, I've seen a lot, right? Not everything.
I'm never going to claim that I learned something new every day, but we've been around, so we have a decent understanding what's happening. So.
Dude, I love it, man. And I want to. So one thing that came and I sent you the link to this article. So. President Trump elect. President Elect Trump. Excuse me. He finally chose somebody to head the dot, right? And I think that this is a positive step in the Right because, like, ultimately we need to, you know, with an administration change, there's a lot of stuff that could go into affecting the day to day business insurance rates. Right? Like no. And there's a lot of stuff that, you know, over the last four years people can say, hey, these rates are up in, you know, in this direction, in that direction. And now once, you know, President elect Trump gets into office, sets his cabot, you know, they all get nominated.
So you know, one thing I do want to put out there, you guys, just because you see somebody's name does not mean like they have, they still have to go in, they still have to secure Senate approval and everything else. So there's still some hurdles to overcome here with this. But I think that it's a positive step in the right direction here. So he chose this came from ttnews.com you guys. If you guys want to check this out, it's Trump chooses former Congressman Sean Duffy for DOT Chief I'm a massive fan of Sean Duffy. He's from Wisconsin. So you know, naturally there's that Wisconsin connection. But he was a Wisconsin congressman for like 10 years. He's got a very solid track record out there.
But you know, goes, he goes on to say Sean will use his experience in relationships he has built over many years in Congress to maintain and rebuild our infrastructure and re usher in the golden age of travel. Chris Spear from the ata, he said that he is in support of Duffy as well, saying that he's got pro trucking policies to strengthen our supply chain and then roads and bridges are our shop floor. Spears says we know Congressman Duffy understands that and the opportunity now before to improve our transportation network by reducing congestion, induce investing in truck parking, enhancing and highway safety and supporting the development of innovative technologies. And I think that, you know, from my perspective, this is something that, you know, talking about our nation's infrastructure.
For example, there was that trillion dollar IJA infrastructure investment bill that was out there that admittedly I don't think anybody has seen any bump to our industry in regards to freight volume and everything else that's out there. So I just want from my perspective, and I know you know, there's a lot of people who can make the argument that Sean definitely never drove, he's never been a part of the industry and everything else. But I think anybody like you got to understand a lot of these top picks for these roles inside of any administrations are like personal favors, like let's call them what it is, right? Very rarely are you going to get somebody in there that has 30 years trucking experience or 30 years experience working at the ports to come in and run any of that at that level.
But again, from your perspective, man, what is something that a new transportation focused department, you know, DOT boss, What can that do to the insurance agent? There's like the insurance world.
I. I mean, I think, first of all, I think it's a positive, you know, and I'm an acquaintance with Chris Spears. So if you want to talk about a bulldog and a champion of the trucking industry, that dude is like the top, the kingpin of that. Like that dude is. I agree. So if his word, if he endorses it and he talks about how it's going to be a positive, I take a ton of respect out of that and I'm going to follow that and say, hey, this is a good thing, ultimately, like 100%. And I think if they can get back to the actual investment infrastructure as like the article alludes to or mentions, I think it just shows the mindset of the current administration, which I feel like everyone knows anyway, what the intent is to where it's not going to be.
You have to be aware of the EV focus and the infrastructure and all that. Like it's a thing. Like it's. Regardless of what people feel about it, I think it'll be that. But I think it's going to then take and jump into the bridges, which is comical at this point. For like, the last time updates have actually occurred, you know, federal motorways, you know, you start widening some of those things, you then attack, let's say the parking issues, all the things that are going to just benefit everybody for safer conditions, road conditions and stuff like that, ultimately that will help reduce and drive some of that cost. Because a product of what we got the last couple years is pre Covid. You know, everyone was pretty stable on the trends for speed of driving and usage of the roadways and that kind of stuff.
But now that people work from home and they went through Covid and the roads were empty, the average speeds ticked way up. More people came back out after Covid kind of subsided a touch. And like people were back on the roads again, moving again. Well, now everybody working at home. I drove to Costco the other day. Parking lots full. Dude, it's. It's literally the middle of the day. I'm like, does anybody work? Are they all working from home right now? Is that. I don't know what's happening, but like, there's so many more people, so many more four wheelers on the road and they're driving fast or they forgot how to drive. I swear, like, you guys don't have Snow. But, man, get in a place that has snow, you're like, have these people ever driven ever?
Dude, I see that all the time, man. I see that. Like, we have that down here. Anytime that the weather is not sunny, it's an absolute nightmare out there. But, you know, I think it's what's going to be interesting to see with. With an appointment like this to kind of come in, having a track record of actually being in Congress for a long time. And, you know, 10 years is a long time out there. But, like, I think that it's going to be interesting to see. And again, I would have to do a ton more research into him as a individual and everything else. I know that, you know, just based on the fact that he's from northern Wisconsin, I'm from northern Wisconsin, he's automatically cool in my book. But, you know, I look at it as, you know, results matter, right?
Like, I am so over the talk, the typical political BS that comes out of D.C. And everything else. We need actual results, right? And this is why you need to hold your people accountable, right? You need to hold your elected officials accountable. If people like you cannot sit back and just let them sit there and build the system anymore, if there are no results, you got to get them the fuck out. It's plain and simple. Call your local congressman. I tell people this not all the time because, you know, this show's about freight, but ultimately, call your local congressman. It's very easy to find out who that. Just Google who is my representative and the state that you live in. And you can, and you can see that really quick. And then let them know about this stuff you guys like, you need. It's.
It's gotten back to the point where we need to, I think, remind these politicians that they work for us and it's not the other way around. I don't work for them. And if we don't like certain things and certain results, we need to do something about it. We need to say something about it, and let's call it what it is. Our. Our infrastructure inside of our country is pathetic. All right? It is pathetic when it boils down to just go to an airport, all right? Go to any airport out there and tell me that it's a good experience. The nicest airport I've been to in the last 12 months, Kansas City, plain and simple, because it was just built, all right? But the rest of them are atrocious. All right? We gotta. We gotta get a facelift in there, you guys.
And we got to get people who are America first in there to help us rebuild a lot of this stuff. But it's going to be interesting to see here with a lot of these appointments on, who's going to get approved and everything else and what's going to happen. But frankly, we got to get to work here. We got to make this stuff happen and we got to get our country back in line with this stuff. But speaking of getting to work, that's it for the show for today, man. That's, that's 30 minutes. Yeah, we're, we're back, ladies and gentlemen. And, but Cam, how does everybody reach out to you though, man? How, like if they got any questions, anybody who's listening to this show, if they're like, dude, I gotta, I just have a question about my policy. You might not be my agent.
You know, how do they reach out to you to find out more?
I think they usually call you and then you forward them to me via cell phone is about how that works typically. But honestly, linked good. Email will be fine. So Cameron, C A M E R O N at Valley Trucking Insurance.com is a great way. I, you know what I'm going to end up doing too? I'm going to actually just put a freaking the Freight coach link on my website so that people could go there. I'll put some experience stuff on there and what they're interested in finding out about. So that way we can just have a link that directly will correlate from your show onto us. So I'll work on that too.
Perfect. I love it, man. And that's going to be it for today, ladies and gentlemen. We're going to be talking tariffs tomorrow because tariffs are all over the news right now and I'm going to have somebody come on who is going to talk about that at a way more in depth level than I'm able to. But that will be it for today you guys. As always, if you guys got value in what you heard, subscribe to the show. You guys share it out there. Dear network. Because if you see value, your network's going to see value as well. I appreciate you guys. I love you guys and we'll be talking to you soon. Let's go, let's go. And.