Question on truck insurance

You can check with allstate,farmers, just about any insurance companies that offer commercial insurance. I belive that if you lease on with a company you can get it for about 250.00 a week

 

You will have to make a down payment of on average 10%-15% depending on the company, the balance owed is the payments you make each month, typically they run for a 9 month period as the down payment is normally equal to the payments for 3 months. The payments include the finance charge for the balance owed. On average it runs about $500-$600 per month depending on the types of coverage you get, how new your truck and trailer (if you have one) is. Ours was averaging $8,000.00 per truck per year (2007) with our HAZ MAT licensing.

Example
We had $1,000,000 policy limits on each type of coverage, Auto liability and Cargo, including an additional General liability policy of an additional $1,000,000. Workman's Comp adds more to it here in Alabama it's 16% of the gross payroll.
Some companies have a policy which does NOT replace Workman's Comp but is a good policy to have for O/O. It's called a Accidental Injury Policy here in Alabama and some not all shippers will accept that in lieu of a Workman's Comp policy which is pricey. The nice thing about that type of policy is that it would cover ANY injury even if it was NOT related to the truck and some illnesses Policy coverages and restrictions vary from Underwriter to Underwriter so READ the policy and the FINE print. Those policies run around $135.00 per month this was on a 40 yr old male smoker.
Here is a brief explanation of the different types of insurance you may need. The ones in red you MUST have the others are optional. The coverages change from state to state and insurance company to insurance company so be sure to ASK you agent any questions you might have.

Note if your truck is financed you will have to have Physical Damage to pay the lien holder off with.
Most of the time the amount that the insurance company will pay in the event that the equipment is totaled will NOT cover the actual loan amount so pay attention to that.
There are policies called Gap coverage that cover those instances but I have never had one so I can't help on that.

• Bobtail insurance covers you when you don't have a trailer. Some cover if you are under dispatch to get a trailer and some don't.
• Physical Damage insurance is coverage for your truck and trailer. Your premium is based on the value of your equipment. Usually a percentage of the value. This coverage is not required by law but if you finance your vehicle the lien-holder will require it. It is important to insure your vehicle for the real value. Not over or under value the vehicle as the insurance company will only pay market value at the time of the loss.
• Primary Auto Liability insurance is required by federal regulations. Every carrier must carry liability insurance on every rig even on leased units. Liability insurance protects you when a third party is injured in an accident. Owner-operators should ask when leasing onto a company who will pay for their insurance - the company or from driver weekly settlements.
• General Liability insurance protects the business for any property damage or bodily injury that might occur which does not involve a truck. Typical examples of this would include the slip and fall exposure at your place of business, advertising related exposures, and/or contractual exposures you may get involved in.
• Non-Trucking Liability insurance pays for an accident when the driver/truck is not under dispatch. The coverage is sometimes referred to as deadhead coverage or bobtail liability.
• Non-Owned Trailer Liability coverage protects the trailer you are pulling for someone else.
• Non-Owned Trailer Physical Damage coverage insures the trailer you are pulling for someone else in the event of loss. $20,000 is somewhat standard for trailers.
• Trailer-Interchange Liability coverage protects a trailer you are pulling when there is a interchange agreement in force. For example with a steamship line.
• Cargo Insurance covers damage/loss to freight in transit. This coverage can have many exclusions such as unattended vehicle, maximum theft limitations on target commodities such as garments, liquor, electronics and a whole host of others. It is very important to read this policy closely in the event you think you may be covered for something and you are not.
• Terminal Coverage protects freight located at specified terminals in the event of loss. Usually there are time limitations related to this coverage. For example: 72 hours maximum per specified load. If the goods are stored longer than the terminal time you would most likely want to purchase Warehouse Legal coverage. Again very important to read your policy. This amount of coverage is dependent on the total amount of goods stored/docked/off-loaded at any one time.
• Warehouse Legal coverage protects goods stored at specified locations in the event of loss. For example as relates to theft, fire, sprinkler damage. This amount of coverage is dependent on the total amount of goods stored at the location at any one time.

 

Thanks for the great info Nightwind! Can you recomend any insurance companies?

 

Carolina, and Canal we used them for years and aways got the best price and coverage.

 

I know i'll probably hear a lot of flack on this we have OOIDA. hit a deer they paid with no problem also consider getting roadside assistance. I know it's an extra $14 a month but when we blew a turbo last month it sure was nice to know we weren"t paying for the tow.believe me the tow sure was more than what the assistance cost a year.

 

rick
nightwind is right on the money. remember if you now have company ins on your family and it's not thru your wife's work to consider this 'cause as we all know ins. is expensive especially if you have kids or your better half is in that age range. but if you do this thru YOUR company you can use it as a tax write off. check with your accountant.

 

Maybe this has been addressed at some point on this site,if so - please tell me where. Current company drv talking with a small fleet to drive for. Everyone seems to want me onboard except the companies insurance requires a certain amount of OTR experience(2 yrs and up). Can someone tell me a little more about this,as in why and is there ANY way around it and be able to get hired? to clarify my question : the small fleet is an O/O owned so the process would be me driving his truck,as the other drivers onboard are all O/O,any help in this subject is greatly appreciated.