Lisa Arseneau – Vice President - Lisa began her career in the transportation industry in 1986, joining Central Ontario Appraisers Inc. Her responsibilities included the day to day operation from scheduling appraisals to handling total loss negotiations. She was involved with many industry professionals including adjusters, claims examiners, insurers and insureds. Lisa had 5 years behind her when she made the transition to the Insurance Company side of the industry. Markel Insurance Company of Canada (Northbridge Insurance) is one of Canada’s largest transportation insurers. While there, Lisa developed an extensive network of industry related contacts that are still a very important part of her business life today. Her duties included underwriting, claims and information technology which allowed her to obtain knowledge of just about every aspect of the transportation industry. In 1997 Lisa decided it was time to attack the industry from yet another angle and became an insurance broker. Lisa was hired by a large Ontario brokerage and was put in charge of creating a new Transportation Department. During the next two years, she was able to connect more directly with the transportation companies and continued to develop and maintain her industry contacts. Since then she has worked as an insurance broker solely in the trucking and transportation segment. Currently in her nineteenth year as a Broker, with H L Staebler Insurance Brokers, she is as passionate today as she was the first day she started. Lisa belongs to several trucking industry associations and is active in all of them, staying current on industry trends, etc. She specializes in safety & compliance areas such as mock audits, company structuring and analysis and is very instrumental in bringing the industry to her clients.

I am so stoked right now! It has been a real exciting past few weeks. As many of you readers may know, I am a passionate advocate for the trucking industry. I work with these great people every day and I am very fortunate to cover a wide spectrum of issues in doing so. Recently, Mandatory Entry Level Training has finally made it into the mainstream news and social media arenas. The Toronto Star did a three part expose on Truck Training Schools:
(http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/10/14/bigtruck_licensing_mills_put_public_at_risk.html
With everyone always lamenting the driver shortage, but not actually doing anything constructive about it, I applaud the journalists who took on this issue and investigated as thoroughly as they did. They sought out subject material experts and got to the right people to tell the true story. They generated awareness and even got the attention of the Minister of Transport, Del Duca. He has been quoted as saying “We are going to go forward. We’re going to move as quickly as we can but we want to make sure that we get it right”. This is fantastic news for our industry. Not only will we get stricter training regulations, but we will build safer drivers and start to tackle the shortage our industry has faced for far too long. It will be imperative for the Minister to involve the reputable schools who already have curriculums that are stellar and have been created and adhered to in order to turn out safe, compliant drivers.

Lisa-Arseneau
Lisa-Arseneau

It will be of equal importance to get the insurance companies on board as well. Not all insurers recognize training as experience in order to obtain insurance. I feel that if we do this right and we involve the proper stakeholders, we can revolutionize the way our industry works and the way we put qualified drivers in our seats. I believe if we make this bold step a priority and we do it right, insurers will be more comfortable in recognizing that higher standards make for better, safer drivers.
It’s an exciting time in our industry and I welcome the challenges we face and look forward to working within our industry to better it. I hope to see many of you in the upcoming weeks at the OTA Convention, the TTC annual dinner or other industry functions. It’s during these events that some of the best thinking is done and sharing of ideas happens. Make sure you get out and make your mark in an industry that is worth it.

About the Author

Lisa Arseneau is transportation insurance broker with over 25 years of experience in the trucking industry. She is the Vice President of T.R.I.P Division of the Pearson Dunn Insurance. She is a member of the Ontario Trucking Association, The Toronto and Hamilton Transportation Clubs and is and is passionate advocate for her clients.
Lisa can be reached by email at larseneau@pearsondunn.com

Please follow and like us:

Lisa Arseneau – Vice President - Lisa began her career in the transportation industry in 1986, joining Central Ontario Appraisers Inc. Her responsibilities included the day to day operation from scheduling appraisals to handling total loss negotiations. She was involved with many industry professionals including adjusters, claims examiners, insurers and insureds. Lisa had 5 years behind her when she made the transition to the Insurance Company side of the industry. Markel Insurance Company of Canada (Northbridge Insurance) is one of Canada’s largest transportation insurers. While there, Lisa developed an extensive network of industry related contacts that are still a very important part of her business life today. Her duties included underwriting, claims and information technology which allowed her to obtain knowledge of just about every aspect of the transportation industry. In 1997 Lisa decided it was time to attack the industry from yet another angle and became an insurance broker. Lisa was hired by a large Ontario brokerage and was put in charge of creating a new Transportation Department. During the next two years, she was able to connect more directly with the transportation companies and continued to develop and maintain her industry contacts. Since then she has worked as an insurance broker solely in the trucking and transportation segment. Currently in her nineteenth year as a Broker, with H L Staebler Insurance Brokers, she is as passionate today as she was the first day she started. Lisa belongs to several trucking industry associations and is active in all of them, staying current on industry trends, etc. She specializes in safety & compliance areas such as mock audits, company structuring and analysis and is very instrumental in bringing the industry to her clients.