Transportation Business Resources

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Text: Freight Waves What the Truck? Logos: Dolly's Tennessean Travel Stop, Presented by JJ Keller and Associates, Inc., Registered, Since 1953. News headlines scroll across the bottom edge as Malcolm Harris speaks to Michael Vincent. Various topics fill a border to the left.

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MALCOLM HARRIS: We just talked about powerful women and let's keep that theme going because right now we're joined by Samantha Greene. And again, she's Regional Underwriting Officer at Travelers. Samantha, are we a big Dolly Parton fan? Hello. Welcome to What the Truck.

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Samantha smiles. She appears on a separate feed, broadcasting from a medical examination room.

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SAMANTHA GREENE: Hi. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

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The topic changes from Dolly's Travel Stops to Samantha Greene.

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My first podcast experience and you have to put me up after Dolly. Thanks.

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Michael Vincent.

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MICHAEL VINCENT: Right. Yeah, it's a little difficult to follow.

SAMANTHA GREENE: Just small shoes to fill there.

MALCOLM HARRIS: Yeah. No, we are excited for you and I think you're going to do great. Now, you've got a few things to tell us about the state of women in trucking today. And again, we're thrilled to have you here. And let me just get into it.

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The topic changes to State of Women in Trucking.

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When it comes to -- how do I want to say this? What's the state of women when it comes to trucking right here today?

SAMANTHA GREENE: Yeah. Of course. First off, I want to start by saying that when we're talking about women in trucking, we're not just talking about women truck drivers.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Yeah.

SAMANTHA GREENE: Women make up about 4% of long-haul Class A CDL drivers, but that number hasn't meaningfully moved in about 15 years. So women play all kinds of roles in trucking, from dispatch and safety risk managers to brokers, warehouse operators and executives. In fact, the latest women in trucking index shows that nearly 28% of C-suite roles, 34.5% of supervisory leadership roles and nearly 30% of board seats in trucking organizations are now held by women. So while the female driver representation has plateaued, leadership representation is growing, which is a really great sign.

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She nods.

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MICHAEL VINCENT: So the 4% that you mentioned of drivers, of women that are drivers or drivers that are women actually, right? Yeah, not women that are -- 4% of women are drivers. Did you know? No, 4% of drivers are women. What are the challenges that they're facing? What keeps that at that 4%?

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She nods. Malcolm, Samantha and Michael appear in split screen. The topic changes to Challenges Ahead.

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SAMANTHA GREENE: Yeah. So safety is a big one, especially for over-the-road drivers. There's been meaningful progress there, such as the American Trucking Association's Women in Motion Group has partnered with Trucker Path to create an app that identifies truck stops with specific safety features, like lighted parking and bathrooms, 24/7 access and on-site security. The facilities that meet seven specific safety standards are clearly marked in the app, so it's very easy to find. And it's a good step forward for women in general.

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Michael nods.

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While safety infrastructure improvements matter for women, they improve the conditions for the entire workforce. And beyond that, we really need to consider the broader structural realities of trucking in general. Drivers work up to 70 hours a week, with safe parking remaining limited, and the time away from their families can be significant. So at the end of the day, safety improvements matter, especially for women, but the real opportunity is addressing the core challenges of the profession that impact all drivers, not just women. So it's a bigger issue.

MALCOLM HARRIS: Now, Samantha, you've mentioned the broader definition of women in trucking. What does this actually look like in practice practically?

SAMANTHA GREENE: Yeah. So you know what, it looks like connection and mentorship, both formally and informally. There's organizations, like Women in Trucking, that are -- they're building leadership pathways and networking platforms to create conversation and connection amongst women. I've been at industry conferences and general trucking events in the past and I've been told, it's so great to see another woman here. And I think that connection matters. It reinforces that you all belong in the room.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Very, very good. So what should carriers and industry leaders really be thinking about right now in terms of what women can bring to the industry, the impacts that women can make in the transportation industry?

SAMANTHA GREENE: Yeah, that's a really great question. And honestly, it's part of a much bigger industry issue. The industry is facing a workforce sustainability challenge. One contributing factor is a succession problem. We have aging drivers. The average truck driver is 47% and the average owner operator is 56. And only about 20% of drivers are under 35, compared to 35% of the overall labor force.

So that adds up to a looming replacement problem. As baby boomers and Gen X drivers retire, those seats have to be refilled. But the bigger issue is retention. Turnover rates at large carriers exceed 90%. So while the industry has been able to recruit drivers, keeping them is another story. Then you can layer women into that equation. Women represent an available workforce segment that the industry has not meaningfully expanded into.

Attracting women drivers could help address the broader industry workforce issue, but you also need to consider that women tend to enter the profession later, often around age 40. So improving working conditions while helping all drivers in general could help recruit women in particular, which in turn helps strengthen retention across the board. Long-winded, but to get back to your question, I think there's three things carriers and leaders should focus on.

One, safety infrastructure. As I mentioned earlier, it's critical for all drivers, but particularly critical for attracting more women. Retention strategy. Research shows younger drivers prioritize a healthy work-life balance, stable career paths with strong company culture and better training. So again, this applies to the industry at large, but could help attract women since women enter the profession later, when flexibility and balance matter even more.

Solving the driver retention issue, it's not just about compensation. It's about designing a career people want to stick with long term because who doesn't want a career they love? So finally, the third final thing, mentorship and visibility. As discussed in the beginning, women representation and leadership is improving, and that creates a pipeline effect and we need to be using that. If we want that 4% driver number to improve, the industry has to be intentional in these three areas.

MALCOLM HARRIS: Thank you so much, Samantha. I hope, again, your first podcast experience was everything that you were expecting, and I really appreciate you being on the show.

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All three smile.

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SAMANTHA GREENE: Thank you for being kind. Thanks for having me on.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Fabulous job, Samantha. Thank you. Peace.

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Logo: Travelers.

Copyright 2026. The Travelers Indemnity Company. All rights reserved.

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Text: What the Truck? Headlines. Topical headlines appear in a list to the left of Malcolm Harris, who sits at a desk before a microphone and a MacBook. One topic, UPS, Teamsters Battle, highlights, as current news headlines scroll across the bottom edge.

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MALCOLM HARRIS: I'm going to shift paces right now and bring out -- again, representing Travelers, he is their Director of Inland Marine Claim at Travelers. Craig Leinauer, it is your hour. What's up, brother? How are you?

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Craig Leinauer, Director of Inland Marine Claim, Travelers, joins Malcolm in split screen. Logo: Travelers.

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CRAIG LEINAUER: Hey, I'm doing great. How are you doing?

MALCOLM HARRIS: I'm doing well. How was your weekend? And did Valentine's Day go OK?

CRAIG LEINAUER: Valentine's Day went great. I got to tell you, it was actually very romantic for a change.

MALCOLM HARRIS: Oh, that's awesome. I love to hear it, man. And I appreciate you for, again, being on the show. And I want to talk because you see cargo claims every single day. And when a loss happens, what's the first mistake you see with companies that end up complicating the claim?
 
CRAIG LEINAUER: Yeah, so by far, the most common issue we see is late notice, right. I mean, look, cargo claims are going to happen, and that's not a mistake. But the mistake is waiting too long to report them, you know. In some cases, companies don't report a loss until many weeks later when invoices are received or accounting shortages show up.

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The topic Complicating a Claim highlights.

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And the challenge with late notice, of course, is that it limits the ability to respond effectively, right. Evidence will become unavailable. Documentation, for example, can be incomplete. And then it gets really hard to determine what actually happened. So really from a claims perspective, it's important to report the claim as soon as you can, as soon as possible so that the investigation can get started promptly.

MALCOLM HARRIS: Sounds like some critical advice. And so once a claim is reported -- and we hope it's reported the right way -- what's another mistake that could cause some issues and problems?

CRAIG LEINAUER: Well, another one is, you know, report the loss immediately, even if all the details aren't known. Early notice is going to allow the adjuster to get involved right away to preserve evidence, document, conditions and then guide you on next steps.

So it also is going to help you, by the way, avoid potential issues with contractual or statutory deadlines. So, for example, if you have a shipment that's subject to COGSA or Carmack. There may be a claim filing deadline. It's going to help you keep ahead of that.

But the key is really to have a process in place and then training your people to recognize that when something goes wrong, it really needs to be reported right away. So let me give you a claim example.

So we recently had a $500,000 shipment of stolen baby formula. And in this case, the carrier reported it right away. And our adjuster was able to assign a theft investigator immediately
 
who worked with law enforcement and then recovered the entire shipment. So we actually ended up paying out $0. We saved half a million dollars. And that's not an insignificant amount of money.

MALCOLM HARRIS: No, it's not at all. And I want to ask a follow-up to that because what does good documentation actually look like in practice?

CRAIG LEINAUER: Yeah, so good documentation is going to be proactive and consistent. So you're going to want to photograph cargo, the condition at pickup and delivery, especially if something feels off. You're going to want to keep seal records. You're going to want to document exceptions right away.

And then you want to make sure that paperwork stays with the load, and then it's retained afterward. Good documentation doesn't just help you from a claim perspective. It's going to help protect your company's position overall on many, many levels.

MALCOLM HARRIS: It's phenomenal. Phenomenal advice, Craig. Now, another issue we hear about a lot is the confusion around cargo value. Now, how does this show up specifically when it comes to claims?

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Cargo Value Confusion.

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CRAIG LEINAUER: Yeah, sure. This is a really big one actually, not knowing the value of the load before it moves, right. So there's an important distinction between liability and insurance coverage. Insurance only pays up to your policy limits, but your liability can go way beyond that depending on what's in your contract or how much the cargo is actually worth what the valuation is.

So if you don't verify that shipment value up front and you confirm that they're within policy limits, what can happen is you can accidentally end up exposed to losses that exceed certainly
 
your insurance coverage. So this is a very common mistake that we see. Fortunately, it's easy to prevent if you're proactive.

MALCOLM HARRIS: That makes a lot of sense. Now, can you give us an example of how this value discrepancy, how it occurs, and to make sure that it doesn't? Because I know there's a lot on the line when it comes to this.

CRAIG LEINAUER: Yeah, so let me give you an example. So we recently had an insured who was hired as a motor carrier to pick up an industrial scissor lift. The trailer was hit by a train, and the cargo was destroyed, unfortunately.

The carrier's contract required it to have $100,000 in insurance. And it made them strictly liable for any damage. The problem was they never checked the value before they picked it up. It turns out that the scissor lift was worth $350,000. So they thought their liability was capped at
$100,000. But that was just their insurance coverage and not their actual liability limit.

MALCOLM HARRIS: Oof. So if I'm paying attention, we've heard that late notice of a loss or incomplete documentation and not knowing the value of a load are common mistakes that people often make when filing an insurance claim. But are there any other thoughts specifically when it comes to this?

CRAIG LEINAUER: Yeah, really two other big ones to mention. Failure to mitigate your loss, and then not understanding your contract. So, first, mitigation.

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How to Fix a Claim.

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You can't control when an accident happens. But what you can control often is how big the exposure gets, how big that loss becomes.
 
So what you want to do is you want to salvage what's not damaged. You want to get temperature-controlled storage lined up as fast as possible, if it's needed. And then you want to avoid any premature disposal.

So let's say, for example, you have a seven-pallet shipment of ice cream, and two of the pallets get damaged in an accident, but five of the pallets are still intact. Get the undamaged pallets to a freezer as soon as you can to salvage what you can.

And then, secondarily, contracts. Contracts can shift liability in ways that people just don't expect. A motor carrier can waive defenses contractually that they otherwise have under the law. And a freight broker can assume liability that they wouldn't otherwise typically have. So if contracts aren't reviewed carefully in advance of when the loss happens, coverage and exposure can quickly become misaligned. You really need to know what you're signing.

MALCOLM HARRIS: That is such good insight. Now, walk us through with this wrap-up. I mean, what are the fixes for common claim mistakes?

CRAIG LEINAUER: It's really just being proactive. You want to report your loss promptly. You want to document aggressively. You want to know the value of what you're moving before you pick it up. You want to mitigate whenever possible. And you want to understand your contracts before the loss happens.

Now, of course, these steps won't prevent every loss, Malcolm, but what they will do is they'll make a significant difference in how smoothly the claim is handled and also how much exposure you have.

MALCOLM HARRIS: One of the best in the industry, as always. Excellent stuff, Mr. Craig Leinauer. Craig, thank you so much for being here on the show, man. It's super insightful and always love having you on.

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Craig nods as Malcolm smiles.
 
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CRAIG LEINAUER: Thank you, Malcolm. It is truly my pleasure.