Insurance and the Commercial Driver

If i understand your question . Your asking if the vehicle insurance an O/O has covers the cost or part of the cost to refresh your ability to drive a truck. I really doubt it. As far as bundling policies. Not a good idea. lose one you lose them all.

 

Short answer. Yes for some companies. No for most. Im not 100 percent certain but most companies that I have heard of dont bundle personal policies with professional policies.

You might want to keep your truck finaces and policies seperate from your personal ones for tax and legal liability reasons. Run your truck under an LLC and pay yourself a wage.

File two tax returns. One for yourself and one for your business that way you can write off the money you pay for insurance on the truck through your business tax return.

 

I don't recommend incorporating. It is easier and cheaper to put everything you own in trust. Being incorporated does not protect you if your in an accident and sued. If every thing you own is in a trust it cannot be taken away from you as you no longer own it, but you retain right of usage. Being a driver and involved in an accident you can get sued as driver of vehicle. Lose the law suit but keep your home and every thing in the trust. Each state has their own rules. I live in KS. Our home and all vehicles and investments , personal items are in a trust. I have a very good accountant with a masters in tax law and teaches it and is also an IRS fraud investigator. Some think incorporating is the way to go but it can be complicated and to me hardly worth the money or effort for one truck and trailer. I run my business as a sole proprietorship.

 

Several good points. I guess since I live in Cali (the lawsuit capitol) I am always on the defense when it comes to these sorts of things. In California as a LLC your assets are seperate from the company. The insurance covers the driver and even if the business is sued, it will only be for the businesses money and assets. None of your own.

Also, a lawsuit from another state would require the lawyer to come to your state for the hearing. It would all be under your states laws so the home state of the person doesnt matter, but can be fought and transferd to the state of the offence.

If you are a sole prop only, you can be sued for everything unless of course your assets are in a trust, yes, but this was more about insurance and tax more that legal liability.

My tax preparer has advised that I incorporate. My tax circumstances and obligations may be differnt from the gents above. So really you have two forms of advice that can serve as legitimate concerns once you choose to have that convo.

Or you could just say screw all this legal mumbo jumbo and go all in. Get your truck with seperate insurance, because your personal vehicles policy doesnt change your eligibility for insurance on a truck.

You will go for bobtail insurance only and then sign on to a good company that provides the rest. Run your truck, pay your taxes and dont damage anything or kill anybody and you should be fine. Start off small.

Im going incorporated because within 2 years I want to get more trucks and more drivers. Thats me.

Good luck, also Gordons comments on trust accounts is a great idea. ####, Im going to look into one for myself.

 

Unless you are the driver. Or your actions as a company officer are suspect (knowing -or should have known- driver was fudging hours, etc)

 

Just A heads up. If you live in CA and own and drive a truck and have a driver working for you on a second truck YOU CANNOT use Workmans comp but have to pay for it. Your driver can , you cant. It was costing my friends $400 a week to cover them selves and a driver.

 

I've heard commercials where certain "professionals" could receive a discount on their car insurance because of their job...usually cops, firefighters, teachers, etc.

I asked if truck drivers could get that discount too and was told "no". Seems odd, though, since we drive more in a week than most do in a month, and NOT in the vehicle being insured by that company. Usually, the vehicle to which that discount applies stays parked for weeks at a time, or just driven to town on the weekend. Seems odd there wouldn't be a "rarely driven" discount for those of us with other vehicles that we spend 99% of our time in...

 

My Tundra's insurance costs $33/month with State Farm's "Drive Safe & Save" program: https://www.statefarm.com/insurance/auto/discounts/drive-safe-save You plug in a device into your OBDII port and every month or so it sends in an odometer reading that they use to calculate your discount.