New O/O with insurance question

You need to have physical damage insurance for your tractor to be covered if damaged. There insurance just covers there trailer

 

The Carriers Liability coverage covers the damage you and their trailer do to the public NOT the damage done to YOUR tractor. That's why your loan requires Physical damage coverage.

NTL [bobtail IS misleading} stands for Non Trucking Liability. The companies supplying this coverage are the masters of claim denial. MOST of the time they will deny it saying you were under dispatch and therefore on the carrier's coverage.

We just went through this; last year one of our owner operated box trucks was off and having his truck serviced. Driving back to his house, as he entered a right turn lane, a Mercedes, no longer able to follow this stinky truck, flew out from behind passing him on the right.

He filed with his insurance who drug their heels saying maintaining HIS truck was a benefit for the carrier and denied when the Mercedes owner hooked up with an ambulance chasing lawyer with a Bodily Injury suit from a sideswipe across his bumper and driven away from with our any medical problems at the scene. They are even claiming damages to the tires on the side of the car that wasn't hit!

Now lobbed over net to our insurance carrier who started out disagreeing with the owner's carrier but after researching and reaching a NJ Non Trucking Insurance specialist [who would have thought they picked nits this small] and they agreed with the other insurance company citing NJ precedent of a bobtail unit going out from the owner home on a Saturday for service IS considered 'Under Dispatch"...This state is screwy [usually the first to follow the Cali fruitcakes] but this is really sad.

Chances are you will NEVER file a claim on your NTL, if you take the carriers trailer [even if you 'rent' it] yo are on duty and under dispatch.....I have 75 port owner operators, each with their own paid parking spots and everyone brings a chassis, usually with an empty container, home every night.

 

Physical damage covers your tractor including comprehensive [Fire,Theft,Collision] so the lien holder gets paid off, It is your insurance had nothing to do with the carriers trailer