The 2019 Louisiana legislative session was an active one but did not produce as many reforms as the Louisiana Motor Transport Association hoped it would.
“H.B. 372 would have been the most impactful piece of legislation and would have really helped to stabilize the commercial auto insurance market,” Chance McNeely, executive director of the Louisiana Motor Transport Association, told Louisiana Record. “A lot of the opponents of the bill criticized the effort saying that it would do nothing to bring down insurance rates; we certainly believe that over time it would bring down rates on the personal side.”
Insurance rates have increased substantially recently, McNeely said, in fact doubled over the past few years.
“We’re seeing in some cases a slow or a fast death of the Louisiana trucking company because it is very difficult to be domiciled here from a competitive perspective when your neighboring states have significantly lower auto insurance rates than we do,” McNeely said. "We were very supportive of H.B. 372, and Kirk Talbot is a champion for our industry, particularly on this issue and we were very appreciative of what he did.”