Laredo-based fleet uses technology to push back on insurance spike

Barry Conlon's Regional Express Carriers is a 24 truck Laredo-based dry-van fleet.CCJ Innovators profiles carriers and fleets that have found innovative ways to overcome trucking’s challenges. If you know a carrier that has displayed innovation, contact CCJ Editor Jason Cannon at jasoncannon@randallreilly.com or 800-633-5953.

Barry Conlon found himself in a place many carriers can relate to pre-pandemic: staring down the barrel of a 60% liability insurance rate hike. 

Despite zero at-fault accidents the year before, Regional Express Carriers (REC) – Conlon's 24 truck Laredo-based fleet – "was being lumped into the same bucket as everybody else," he said, "because there's been an increase in the number incidents, the number of verdicts ... The almost daily struggles to afford these premiums is just crippling."

Conlon founded Overhaul, an intelligence-driven, real-time supply chain visibility and risk-management technology provider, six years ago as a side-hustle for his trucking company and as a direct path to better integrate technology-enabled efficiencies into his fleet. The timing couldn't have been better. Driven by waves of nuclear judgements, commercial trucking insurers were leaving the market in droves, and many underwriters that remained increased premiums hundreds of percents due to the added risks. 

Conlon knew the kind data that could show underwriters a carrier's accident risk existed, but packaging it all together was problematic. 

Having a snapshot of a driver's behavior allows REC to re-train those who need it before they cause an accident.“There is a lot of owner fear in the trucking industry: fear of an accident, fear of rising premiums and fear of a nuclear verdict. Building a technology that controls and reduces that fear, while helping ensure your employees travel home safely was the motivating factor," he said of the development of TruckShield. TruckShield is a risk-management technology solution, and uses existing motor-carrier fleet hardware to identify dangerous or illegal driving practices in real time, allowing fleets to implement corrective actions to avoid costly situations that can develop due to motor accidents.