Cargo freight insurance - Monthly Cost -> What is typical Cost?

I am reading that you are leasing your equipment to a carrier. Not all carriers charge contractors for cargo insurance. Simply ask the carrier for a copy of the lease before leasing on, all charge back items must be listed.
Lease and Interchange of Vehicles

 

You are a lease holder leasing to a carrier. Technically your equipment is being leased to the carrier, the driver is part of the package.

The link is about the lease you have, not leasing equipment.

That said, why are you paying for Cargo insurance, that's the carrier's responsibility. They are the responsible party for that load to the customer, not you.

 

Typical cargo with 100K limit is $1000 - $1500 per year.,

Perhaps you are confusing cargo insurance with premium insurance package that carriers need to carry to be able to do business which consists of:
1. Auto liability - required by law;

the rest is optional per law;

2. Cargo Insurance: practically you won't get loads without it unless you haul your own freight

3. Physical Damage - covers accidents and thefts, practically needed by most carriers. Depends on equipment value.

4. General Liability - very optional - covers you when your driver beats up a receiver for taking too long to unload.

Auto - Liability is the highest expense from 5K to as high as 20K per year or even more as reported here
The whole package could be from $6k to 25K per year.
After two years, I paid $1600 down and the rest is in $650 per month installments (10 installments total).

 

What talljoe said, but overall the carrier is the liable party with cargo insurance. They are the entity who is responsible for the load, not the owner.

However there is a correction to talljoes comment, it is called public liability, not auto liability.

 

Oh owner operator assumes you have an authority to operate.

 

For one truck and trailer and a few years old MC# and no claim history, it seems a good approximation. However, that could be much higher if you start with fresh authority, depending on individual MVR record, CDL history, credit history, equipment value, type of cargo hauled, and of course very important - location. For example, in my first year I paid for all the coverages combined (liability+cargo+physical damage) close to 14K and after 4K down it was about 1 thousand per month (10 installments). I also had different coverages from different providers at the time - it helped me with the cost. For example, Liability (which my agent also called auto liability (?)) from Wesco and cargo from Great American, Physical Damage from Progressive. Quite a c o c k t a i l.
Anyway, this premium monthly payment could be very, very different for everyone.