Liability Protection

Catistrophic loss can exceed the liability coverage leaving you open to judgement.

Example, had a fatality and major injury combined but the total liability was shared between the motor carrier's insurance, the marine terminal and their security contractor.

The carrier ended up at 800K out of 1 million in liability coverage for their third of the payout.

Had the carrier been running on only $750K in liability they would be responsible for $50K out of pocket.

Had the terminal not changed the traffic lanes to a more crowded scenario AND if the security kept all the waiting drivers in their cabs; we could have been responsible for the entire 2.4 million less our million in liability coverage.

Your question is too open ended.

 

LLC is not that much protection...especially if they continue the 'missclassification' witch hunt.

45 years in trucking and over 25 years doing safety including 6 fatalities and I can say most incidents are not going to exceed your insurnace.

Remember that you are required to have a set amount of liability to maintain Motor Carrier Authority and they will be defending you in any lawsuits.

Their focus is to settle at the least cost to the insurance company and settlement includes limiting any future action, when they are finished it is over.

In my last post, the favorable outcome was due to the lawfirm who discovered the terminal's changes that increased the danger to any driver out of his vehicle and the terminal's security footage showed that the security was not keeping the drivers in their cabs like they were supposed to do.

This led to the three way split of the 2.4 million settlement days before the trial date [closest I ever saw that!] and they took the security video to Trenton to fight the state's attempt to suspend the license of the truck operator.

I don't know what they cost our isurance, but the sure earend it.

 

2 truck company here. I drive 1, my son drives the other one. I bought a million dollar umbrella policy from my insurance company on top of my million dollar liability policy.

 

Million dollar policy plus umbrella plus homestead (? Can’t remember what the agent called it) which basically covers your primary house and primary vehicle that you can keep if you get sued

If you own and drive the truck an llc does next to nothing other then require additional tax filing, BUT should absolutely be the first thing you do BEFORE hiring a driver and making sure everything is as far apart as possible

any high dollar toys or vacation/rental properties you willl also want to create a completely different llc for

 

Why do people think that liability is limited to insurance limits only?

There is no law or court precedent that dictates the limits.

We have in this region lawyers (Call Sam, Mike Wins, etc. ...) who have won multi-million dollar settlements both in and out of court that go way beyond the limits of their insurance coverage.

They love truck accidents, even if the person driving the car was at fault, they have been known to go after the truck as if it is at fault for just existing.