Roanoke Trade’s Patrice Lafayette Appointed to FTA Board of Directors

The liability landscape for the trade and transportation industry is changing. Carrier accidents on the road resulting in bodily injury and property damage (BIPD) claims pose a real financial threat to brokers, forwarders, and other transportation intermediaries. Recently, the number of large trucks involved in fatal crashes and the resulting jury awards have skyrocketed. Inconsistent application of the law has put the burden of these “nuclear verdicts” on not just the carriers but also the broker-forwarders responsible for hiring the carriers. This volatile litigation landscape and the rise in “nuclear verdicts” has specifically led to two related issues for transportation […]

Roanoke has appointed two key leaders to new roles, effective November 1, 2023. Please join us in congratulating Patrice Lafayette for accepting the position of Regional Vice President, Western Region, and Grant Goldsmith, who has accepted a position as Head of Sales. Patrice has been a steadfast leader of Roanoke’s Western Region for more than 17 years. She started her career as a Bond Account Manager and has held several roles during her tenure, including Bond Manager and Director of Sales for the Long Beach Sales team, and most recently, has been responsible for managing relationships with many of our […]

The National Safety Council(NSC) recognizes April as Distracted Driving Awareness Month. They estimate that 4,000 deaths and 276,000 injuries occur yearly because of distracted driving crashes. Additionally, distracted driving is the cause of 10% of all fatal crashes. Many of these accidents and fatalities are attributed to drivers engaging in risky behavior such as cell phone use, eating/drinking, reaching for an object, talking to a passenger or reading GPS. Not wearing seatbelts, speeding and use of alcohol makes these accidents much worse. Additionally, the stressors of the pandemic, returning to work, and other social factors have increased the cognitive distraction […]