DawsonTouch PointsTouch PointsSpring 2012a publication of Dawson Insurance

On A RollIn the 40 years since Dennis Holland launched his over-the-road transportation business, the company has grown from one truck and one trailer to 300 trucks and 400 trailers. Today, even with a soft economy and customers shipping less, Holland Enterprises in Mapleton, N.D., just keeps on truckin’.

Chris and Dennis Holland, owners, Holland Enterprises.

President’sMessagePresident’s

Message

Personal LinesPersonal Lines

The Goats of Insurance Past…and Futureby Tom Dawson                                               

We’ve seen some wild scenarios since 1917 when Charles A. Dawson founded Dawson Insurance, along

with many more run-of-the-mill types of losses. In our 95 years in business, we’ve helped

customers with accidents, collisions, damaged crops, fires, floods, thefts, tornadoes and much more. And from time to time a few goats have been thrown in for good measure. They’ve been figurative, mostly, but once in a while a real Billy has literally chewed his way onto our desks.

This is from the first issue of the “Dawson Record,” published in 1942:

A client of the Dawson Insurance Agency, carrying complete protection on his car, parked in a farmyard and neglected to close the door of his car. Finding the farmer he had come to see, he became engrossed in quite a lengthy conversation.

During his absence, a goat, wandering about the yard, had investigated the open door and discovered the tempting tid-bits the car contained. When the owner returned the goat had made himself at home, lunched on the fibre seat covers and was topping it off with a portion of upholstery for dessert. Dawson paid the check.

It’s a great story for Dawson and our customers, past, present and future. But for the most part, there is no such thing as an everyday loss. There are only very personal situations in which people need help becoming whole again.

And that’s the real point. As we’ve proven again and again, no matter what kind of a loss you suffer – oddball or ordinary, goat or no goat – we’ll do everything we can to help make it right.

Thank you for helping us reach this milestone. We’re looking forward to serving you, your families and your businesses for another 95. D

Make Sure Your Jewelry Coverage ShinesOver the top. To the moon. Through the roof.

The phrases may be a little worn, but when you’re talking about the price of gold over the past few years, they are truer today than ever before. And whether you wear a piece or it waits in your dresser for special occasions,

you’re golden. That is, unless you haven’t made sure your coverage has kept up with its value

and it’s stolen, damaged or lost. “The value of gold is around $1,600 per ounce right now, or more than six

times higher than it was 10 years ago,” said Jay Kleingartner, an agent at Dawson Insurance. “People need to make sure they take steps to ensure their coverage keeps pace with the rapidly increasing value of their gold jewelry so that if anything happens, they can afford to have it replaced or repaired.”

According to the Insurance Information Institute, homeowner’s insurance typically covers jewelry theft up to a set limit, usually around $1,500. But with the value of gold so high, that may not be enough to replace a piece of jewelry. Fortunately, there are things you can do to make sure your coverage is as solid as your wedding ring and the union it represents.

The first step is to have your pieces of gold jewelry appraised to establish today’s value. The second is to check your homeowner’s policy to determine your coverage limit and make sure it will pay for the full replacement cost. If it won’t, then you should:

• Schedule your jewelry on your homeowners policy, which provides coverage for damage or loss and is not subject to your homeowners deductible, or

• Buy a separate jewelry policy. The cost will depend on the value of the piece of jewelry and where it’s located, and the policy will cover repair or replacement. Because we are in a low-crime area, a jewelry policy will cost less here than elsewhere in the country.

If you have questions or would like more information, contact our Personal Lines Department. D

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DawsonAssociDawson

Associates

Personal LinesFinancial ServicesFinancial Services

SALES STAFFDan Armbrust, CIC, CPIA, CPCU, CRISTodd Anderson, CPCU,CICPenny Crowder, CISR, CICTom Dawson, CPCU, CIC Zack DawsonRyan Hoffman, CPCU, AICMark Julik, CIC, CRISJay Kleingartner, CICWayne Lauwers, CICJim NyhofMatt Peterson, CICRoger Peterson, CICNatalie Schultz, AICSteve Winter, CICBen Zietz

ADMINISTRATIONMary Bjerke, CPCUJaclyn HansonSteve Miller, CPAJulie MollAngie Wohl

CUSTOMER SUPPORTBONDSBecky HeckerMelody VinjeCLAIMSJenaah EmmerichKathy RichardCOMMERCIAL LINESJoni Alfson, CIC, CPCUDarthy Brown, CICKevin Bruggeman, CPCUDonna Christlieb, AU, CICHolly Fitch, CISRDeb Johnsen, AUStacy KemerlingLesley KoehlerJen Kopel, CISR, CICMelissa KrystosekKaren LundbergPam RudolfMatthew WeisFINANCIAL SERVICESKonnie ChaffeePERSONAL LINESKendra AhlquistConnie BertramStacey FrolekJoan Hagen, CISRSharon Maasjo, CISRRaeanna McCollumCrystal Rosen

Cash Value Life: A Great Option for You and Your Beneficiaries

With cash-value life insurance, you can take care of yourself at the same time you take care of your loved ones and business partners.

Cash-value policies allow you to save for retirement and withdraw your money later – often providing some significant tax benefits along the way – while also providing a death benefit for your beneficiaries.

In addition to the two main benefits, cash-value policies offer several additional advantages:

• You can use a cash-value policy as your primary life insurance policy or to supplement coverage included with a qualified retirement plan such as one offered by an employer.

• As with many qualified retirement plans and ROTH IRAs, interest earned on your contributions is tax deferred.

• Withdrawals may not be taxable at all if you utilize the tax-favored withdrawal provisions that some policies offer.

• You are able to withdraw funds at whatever age you choose to retire, unlike a traditional retirement plan that forces you to wait until you are 59½ or even 65.

• Cash-value policies are permanent, meaning your policy will remain in effect from the date you purchase it until you die, up to age 120.

You can choose from a wide range of cash-value policies, from a traditional, level-premium policy to one with variable premiums. To learn more, or to find out how cash-value life insurance can fit into your financial plan, contact our Financial Services Department today. D

Dawson Improves Service with

Online ChatDawson Insurance has taken its customer service to a new level by providing

customers a new, easy-to-use online tool for interacting with our team.The new tool, called Workface, allows you to view our associates’ photos,

contact information, bios, experience and specialty areas. Once you’ve selected an associate, you can initiate a live online chat either through our website or Facebook page, or you can elect to send the associate a message and initiate an email conversation.

Jen Kopel, account manager in commercial lines, spearheaded the effort to implement the new service. “We’re constantly looking for ways to improve our service and response times for our customers,” she said. “This allows people to easily interact with Dawson online when they are searching for information, are reluctant to pick up the phone or have been turned off by impersonal online chat experiences in the past.”

To access Workface, go to dawsonins.com and click on the icon at the bottom of the screen that says, “Connect with Us.” In the interactive window that opens, you’ll see the associates who are available to chat immediately and those you can email to initiate an interaction with later. D

3800.220.4514 • DawsonIns.com

Client Spotlight Client Spotlight Client SpotlightClient Spotlight

Holland Enterprises: Dawson Client Since 2009

Holland Enterprises Stays on a Roll with Good People, Strong Relationships and Customer Diversification

Dennis and Chris Holland know all about sunsets from the cab, truck stop lights in the dead of night and a new city with every breaking dawn. But that’s the romanticized stuff of trucker anthems, and with all due respect to Johnny

Cash, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Willie Nelson, they never had to make a transportation and logistics business roll.

For the father-son team that owns Holland Enterprises, it’s about the people, relationships and technologies, not to mention the numbers they can squeeze out of every gallon, tire and truck.

They’ve come a long way since Dennis founded Holland Transportation with one truck and one trailer in Fargo, N.D. four decades ago. Today, Holland Enterprises has about 40 administrative employees, 250 in-house drivers, 300 trucks and 400 trailers. That’s not even counting the owner/operators who haul for the company on a regular basis.

Thanks to Dennis’s business sense and Chris’s innovations, the Mapleton, N.D.-based company is the largest refrigerated hauler in North Dakota. It hauls to and from all 48 contiguous United States, its clients are some of the biggest names in fresh and

4 TouchPoints • Spring 2011

Client Spotlight Client Spotlight Client Spotlight

Holland Enterprises Stays on a Roll with Good People, Strong Relationships and Customer Diversification

processed foods and, despite a soft economy, Holland has continued to grow. “It’s been a long ride, and like any business it takes a lot of good people to make

it go,” Dennis said. “From dispatchers to safety people to service techs to drivers, we have been very fortunate over the years.”

Point of OriginGood people and good fortune had something to do with it, certainly, but

Holland’s success can more likely be attributed to the smarts of its owners.Take Dennis, for example. He and a partner bought that first truck, a

Freightliner tractor, in January 1972 and worked it as a team. After a couple of months, Dennis bought out his partner, paid off the truck and plugged the equity right back into the business. By 1975 he had five trucks, and he kept it growing surely and steadily from there, like a fully loaded rig heading for its destination.

In those early days, Holland hauled all kinds of freight on flatbeds and in dry vans. It was all contracted work, with Holland hiring out its trucks and handling brokered loads. But that all changed when Chris became part owner and president.

New Generation, New PathChris joined the company in 1989 and two years later bought 50 percent of the

company. That same year, he and Dennis changed the name of the business from Holland Transportation to Holland Enterprises.

One of the first things they did was begin handling logistics and brokering in house. At the time, Holland had 60 trucks leased out to other companies. They decided to hold back 10 of them and start finding their own freight. “It progressed to where we were making more with those 10 than we were with the other 50,” Chris said. So Holland dedicated all 60 to hauling for its own customers.

The company also made the move to all refrigerated trailers, for a couple of reasons. First, refrigerated freight generally pays more because of higher risk and the special care that is required. Second, it was a way to boost profits while still being able to handle dry loads. “Dry vans are less expensive, but if you can haul both with the same equipment, that’s gravy,” Chris said. “To me, it just made sense.”

Something else that made sense was actually an old model for doing business. With Holland, every customer works with one dispatcher from start to finish for every load. At other companies, a customer representative books the freight, a dispatcher works with the driver, an operations manager handles the customer and so on. “Both the driver and the customer are dealing with one person who

has a solid handle on what’s going on,” Chris said. “It makes for better communication and service all around.”

Finally, he has made certain Holland stays ahead of new technologies that make the company more efficient and keep it competitive. For example, there’s a satellite tracking and on-board recording system in every truck. A dispatcher can pinpoint its exact location, down to which side of a street it’s on, anywhere in the country. Every trailer is equipped with a satellite control and data collection system that enables precise tracking, records temperature readings and allows a dispatcher to adjust the environmental controls if they’re set too high or too low for the freight.

“It’s been a long ride, and like any business it takes a lot of good people

to make it go. From dispatchers to safety people to service techs to

drivers, we have been very fortunate over the years.” – Dennis Holland

The next innovation will be installed in the 15 new trucks Holland plans to purchase in 2012. The system projects radar forward and shuts the truck down when there is a slower vehicle or obstacle ahead.

On the Road Again…and Again and AgainWhile Holland has changed with the times, a

keen attention to customer relationships has been a constant. Someone from Holland visits with each of the company’s customers face to face as often as possible.

That includes businesses like Anheuser-Busch, Good Humor, Jennie-O, McDonald’s, Schwan’s, Simplot, Sysco Foods and White Wave Foods, just a few of the companies that rely on Holland to get their goods to market. Most of them would give the company more freight, but Chris and Dennis make sure they are diversified; Holland will handle only 10-15 percent of its total volume at any given time for any one customer.

“Sometimes I feel like we leave money on the table because someone wants to do more business with us,” Chris said. “But I’ve seen too many situations where a trucking company has had one good customer, and when they lose that customer they’re in financial trouble. That’s not where we want to be.”

Where they want to be is right where they are, hauling loads from Los Angeles to Seattle, Boston to Phoenix, Fargo to Dallas, building customer relationships along the way and growing the company.

Perhaps one day some rocker will release a hit about the people behind the scenes instead of those behind the wheel. In the meantime, Chris and Dennis will keep on working with their employees to successfully steer Holland Enterprises on down the road. D

800.220.4514 • DawsonIns.com 5

The Extra Mile The ExtraThe Extra Mile

It’s a lesson that Jeff Wilkens, owner of Epic Software LLC, almost had to learn the hard way. Instead, his

Dawson agent spoke, he listened and his company avoided what could have been a disaster.

Epic develops custom software and systems for organizations in several states, and it installs custom software into gaming machines for numerous organizations in Montana. Founded in 2010 in Fargo, N.D., the company also has facilities in Billings, Mont., and Ft. Collins, Colo. Epic buys all the parts for the machines, assembles them, installs its custom software and then transports the machines to its customers. While the company usually only delivers three or four at a time, in late November 2011 it was getting ready to fill a 50-machine order.

Coincidentally, at about the same time, Wilkens was talking to his Dawson agent about Epic’s insurance policies. In the course of his conversation with Steve Winter, Wilkens mentioned the large

order. Winter suggested it would be a good idea to purchase a transportation floater to cover any loss that might occur during transit.

Wilkens was dubious. The premium seemed high, he said, and Epic had never had a problem shipping before. “But Steve went through it and explained why we should have the coverage, and we went forward with it,” he said. “Good thing, too.”

Epic added the floater on December 12. Just 19 days later, the truck hauling the last part of the order hit an ice sheet on its way to Butte, Mont. The 24-foot trailer it was hauling flipped, came unhooked and flew into the ditch. The trailer was totaled, and so were the all the machines inside. All told it was a $148,200 loss, and Epic would have had to eat it if Wilkens hadn’t purchased the $500 per year floater.

“Since it was such a large order, it took all our inventory,” he said. “Fortunately, we were able to purchase replacement parts and have them expedited in so we could

fill the order. If we’d had to do that out of pocket, it would have been devastating to a small company like ours.”

“Steve went through it and explained why we should have the coverage, and we

went forward with it. Good thing, too.”

– Jeff Wilkens

Sometimes going the extra mile is simply pushing a customer to do what he really ought to. That’s what Steve Winter did, and for Epic Software and its customers, it made all the difference. D

Has someone from Dawson or one of our partner companies gone the extra mile for you? Please send us your story at info@dawsonins.com

Extra Coverage Saves Epic Software from Off ChanceGamble for charity? You bet. Do it with your business? Not a chance.

6 TouchPoints • Spring 2012

24-7 Dawson 2Employee Spotlight EmpEmployee Spotlight

Kendra AhlquistPersonal Lines Account Manager

Kendra brings more than seven years of customer service experience to meeting the needs of Dawson customers. As an account manager, she helps our clients with their personal insurance needs. Prior to joining the Dawson team in December 2011, she was a manager in the amusement park industry and worked as an employee trainer in the service sector. A native of Alexandria, Minn., Kendra earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 2010.

Dawson 24/7 Online AccessYour insurance information is always available so you can:

• Obtain Certificates of Insurance.

• Print auto ID cards.

• Notify Dawson of a claim or loss.

• View your policy information.

• Make change requests such as address or adding vehicles/drivers. Keep in mind, coverages are not bound until you receive confirmation from our office.

Our commitment to service includes extended service hours and more service options. With both online and telephone services at your fingertips day or night, Dawson 24/7 is designed so that you choose how to interact with our agency and when it’s convenient for you. Jaclyn Hanson

Administrative Assistant/ReceptionistPrior to joining the Dawson team in October

2011, Jaclyn worked as an administrative assistant and customer service representative for a lighting company and provided care to clients of an independent living organization for several years. At Dawson, she is the first person to greet people who call or visit our office. In addition to her other administrative duties, she is the co-editor of the TouchPoints newsletter. Jaclyn is originally from Brandon, Minn., and she earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 2003. Jaclyn lives in Fargo with her husband and two sons.

Take a quick look. We think you’ll like what you see.

A new, six-minute video on the Dawson Insurance website gives potential and current customers and partners a feel for the company and the people who always – always – put customers first.

“We wanted something quick and easy that would let people really get a sense for who we are, how we do business and what our capabilities are,” President Tom Dawson said. “The video shows our depth and that we’re human, and we hope it does so in such a way that people will take a look and say, ‘Yeah, you know, I think I want to try them,’ or, ‘Yeah, I’d like to do business with them,’ or, ‘Gee, I feel good about being a client of theirs for 10 years.’ ”

In addition to Tom Dawson and Vice President Dan

A Comfortable FeelingNew Video Provides Sense

of Company, People

Armbrust, the video features several Dawson employees. They talk about the company’s philosophy, long-standing commitment to service and Dawson’s ability to serve anyone from a homeowner to a huge business client.

To take your quick look, visit dawsonins.com and click on the video screen at the bottom of the homepage. And please let us know what you think by emailing us at info@dawsonins.com. D

800.220.4514 • DawsonIns.com 7

TouchPoints content is for illustration and informational purposes only. Dawson Insurance relies on the accuracy of information provided to us in developing this newsletter. For premium quotes, specific coverage options and other products and services, please contact us.

Dawson Insurance is proud to be a locally owned, independent agency that provides a full line of prop-erty and casualty coverage, as well as life and health benefits, surety and financial services for individuals and businesses. For more than 95 years, we have been working hard to ensure our customers always come first, both in the services we offer and the protection we provide. Thank you for your business.

Dawson Insurance721 1st Avenue North 701-237-3311PO Box 1958 800-220-4514Fargo, ND 58107 701-232-4442 (fax)

24 hours a day, 7 days a week

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Unique AdvAnswer DeskYour Unique Advantage Answer Desk721 1st Avenue NorthPO Box 1958Fargo, ND 58107

Q: When Should I Update My Coverage?

A: Insurance is really about protecting what’s important against the unexpected. What’s important and how important it is changes with time and circumstances. Whenever there are changes in your life, you should review and update your coverage. Examples:

Personal

• Marital status change • New baby • New driver in your household • Kids going away to college • New job • Income shifts • Paying off a car loan • New home • Moving to a new apartment • Home improvements • Approaching retirement • Purchase of expensive items

Business

• Starting a new business, including a home-based business

• Workforce increase, especially if you exceed the equivalent of 10 full-time employees

• Seasonal inventory increases

• Loss of employees • Expansion plans – equipment, vehicles or physical plant

• Owner retiring

If you have questions or would like to review your coverages, contact your agent.

To have your question answered, send it to info@dawsonins.com.