Insurance issues are coming.

I've always kept in the back of mind what would happen if the truck gets totaled. I mean if you put most of your eggs in one basket ( Truck & Trailer ) instead of saving a good chunk or making a house payment, ( house paid, then saving even more ), simply because one moron, or a steer tire at the wrong time, and your done. Even the very best insurance isn't going to pay you what the truck was actually worth, and if it was older, but in very good condition, that's even worse.

 

6 years otr accident free 4 as a company driver and 2 as an owner but under a company only 1 ticket at California failure to obay traffic sign wait here until scale clear 3 points on the license

 

Dunno man. My cousin got a quote as well, they told him $12K. I had one guy tell me $16.5K.

 

I dont mind pay that much at the 1st year if it will goes down after 1 year with no claims but to be new it's sucks because you face alot like i have been confused between 2 trailers both 7 car one is hart 2000 for 31k and the other is wally mo 2008 it was 8 cars converted to 7 cars for 48k its sucks and i need as much help as i get

 

Holy crap man. I never have paid more than 14k per year and I was a brand new company, equipment and new cdl holder. Call some more agents for sure

 

There was a carrier last year that wanted me to sign their brokerage agreement, promised a bunch of work though had just recently rewritten their insurance requirements. So for me, would have had to have policies covering specific mfg's(each with different requirements) just in case they dispatched a load of their cars to me. Been lied to a lot in this business & no way was I even going to ask the insurance co any of that. Would have been great to get work as I surely need it. But not at that cost.

 

Entry level insurance has gotten out of hand. We are lucky, our company has had a decent record for over 14 years so our entire fleet costs less than $30,000 including driveaway, storage, and garage keepers for our shop. However, my brother, who had 12 years experience in car haul before taking 6 years off just started up his company again last year and paid $14,000 for one truck and 6 car trailer with just the minimums for used/lease return work ($1m public $250k cargo). He doesn't even have physical damage on his truck or trailer (owns the truck outright and making payments to us for the trailer so I am covering the risk for him on that).

As for the carriers not writing diminished value policies, the big carriers will self insure through this, no big deal to them, but the smaller carriers who broker under the 3pls for the work, they will have a tough time covering the difference in what a traditional cargo policy will pay and the manufacturer/shipper will want for a total loss. Right now I am glad I do not move brand new, well not directly anyhow, we do get brand new Fords but only after they have been sent off to auction because they were declined or unsold, so the same policies on diminished value doesn't apply to my contract.

If the insurers do stick to not writing diminished value, I see the big carriers and 3pls self insuring this and taking it out of the rate they pay the independent carriers, similar to what the general freight industry does with the lease operators. Legally, the original shipper is ultimately responsible for the value of the cargo, so the 3pl and large carriers will have to cover the difference, like it or not. As said before, this may help weed out the sub-par carriers, making experience and quality equipment mean something again. Especially if they are subsidizing the insurance coverage in-house, they will have a vested interest in the quality of their partner carriers.

 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank FCA for once again screwing us. In their new policy they snuck in a loss of sale clause that we ve been fighting against for years. Basically after the ridiculously low threshold for damage is met ( $1000 on non bolt on parts) you now have to give the recipient dealer %10 of the msrp for a loss of sale.
To me this means that if a dealer is having a bad month a quick few claims can give them a %10 instant revenue stream. But we know dealers are honest so this shouldn't ever happen

 

10%?! Do they even make that much off of a sale?