Reliance Insurance Broker To Add 100 Jobs As Part Of $1.3M Expansion

One of the nation's fastest growing insurance brokers in the transportation and logistics industry said Monday it will add another 100 jobs and invest another $1.3 million at its Chattanooga headquarters.

Reliance Partners, LLC, a Chattanooga-based commercial insurance agency that expects to book more than $200 million of revenues this year, serves primarily the trucking and logistics industry and currently has nearly 175 employees at locations in Chattanooga, Chicago, Milwaukee, Tampa, Birmingham, Alabama, Sacramento, California, and Austin, Texas.

"We've nearly doubled our premium income every year and long-term our goal is to become a billion-dollar company," said Andrew Ladebauche, who founded the company in 2009 and remains its CEO. "We're growing our business nationwide, but Chattanooga remains our headquarters where we see the most employment growth and where we see real opportunity to serve the logistics industry."

As home to nearly 20 freight brokerage firms, two of the nation's biggest trucking companies and the biggest privately-owned warehouse logistics company along with Reliance Partners and other related companies, Chattanooga is billing itself as "freight alley" and a rival to Chicago as one of the nation's logistics centers.

Reliance Partners was started as an outgrowth of the Chattanooga-based freight brokerage firm Access America Transport whose founders have maintained an ownership in Reliance as the insurance agency has grown rapidly, especially after Access America was sold to Coyote Logistics in 2014 and then to UPS the following year. Chad Eichelberger, the former president of Access America, serves as president of Reliance Partners.

Reliance expanded to offer warehousing and other commercial lines of insurance in 2010 and acquired a Nashville insurance broker last month in the first of what company president Eichelberger said could be several such acquisitions.

The company is headquartered in the eight floor of the Liberty Tower in downtown Chattanooga where Ladebauche said he expects to continue to grow the company.

Reliance premium sales are projected to top $200 million in 2020, up from $142 million in 2019 and $96 million in 2018

"Our growth has continued to build and we are excited to continue our aggressive growth plans for our Chattanooga branch," Ladebauche said in an announcement of the expansion Monday.

Reliance Partners, LLC provides insurance brokerage and advisory services, including truck, warehousing and freight broker insurance and other types of insurance and liability coverage.

"I'm pleased that Reliance Partners has chosen to expand its headquarters in Chattanooga," Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Monday in an announcement of the expansion by Reliance Partners. "Their ongoing investment in the community will positively impact the entire region."

Contact Dave Flessner at [email protected] or at 423-757-6340.

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