TORONTO, Ont. – Axa Canada has announced that it will be leave the commercial fleet trucking business, focusing its insurance products on owner/operators with nine trucks or less, or private carriers.

“We’re still negotiating with another insurer to sell the line,” Ontario division director Robert Migneron told Truck News. If the sale isn’t successful, the business will simply be dropped.

“But we will definitely respect the policies in force until they expire,” Migneron added.

The reason for dropping the business line comes down to profitability.

“We had not made money (on that business) for most of the last 15 years,” he said. And where it was responsible for a “fair percentage of insured losses in 1999”, it only accounted for two per cent of the business.

In a letter to its brokers, Axa blamed free trade and a low-valued Canadian dollar for the poor showing. n