Involved In Accident

Heads up. PACLEASE does temp rentals as well. I was quoted $750 a week and $0.10 per mile. You have to establish an account first.

 

I hate "no fault" states. It is one of the stupidest insurance laws. It doesn't sound like no fault if the insurance company is even talking at all.

I used to be an insurance agent in Wisconsin but this type of thing was always handled by the claims department. However, I would not talk directly with the other drivers insurance company, have either your own insurance company or attorney do that.

 

I've rented PacLease tractors several times for 1-3 days at a time. I had three Ryder rental tractors and 2 reefers once for about 4-5 months. Did a Hertz tractor for a week one time. I found if you know the people at the local KW or Pete store it's much easier to get a truck. I went to school with the guy at KW. I told him what I needed, and 30 munites later I was on my way.

 

What he said.

 

You have a duty to mitigate your damages which means you cannot simply sit and expect to be compensated for lost profit while your truck is down. You likely need to rent a truck on your own to keep going and then seek to recover the rental cost and the net profit you lost for the reasonable time it took you to rent a truck after the accident.

It is highly unlikely that the other side will pay for your truck rental upfront but rather may include it in a final settlement. As others have suggested, get an attorney quickly but the attorney won't be able to work out the rental issue right away either.

So, get a rental truck to keep making a living and get yours repaired ASAP.

 

Another thought is that truck will be totaled and you'l have to replace it. So if you can go ahead and make that move.

You said you wanted it moved where you can get it fixed? You better check with your insurance company because any frame straightening makes it a salvage vehicle. I doubt they would want to continue insuring that truck in commerce. There's too many liability issues. Plus it's real value would drop way down there. Go buy you another one and when you settle you might be able to keep the totaled one to do what you want later on.

Like other's said an attorney and getting your insurance adjuster to total that truck ought to be your first steps. You might get you a rental for a couple weeks in the meantime. But if you get on the ball you can have another truck soon.

 

they total cars and pick ups for bent frames, not big trucks. thousands are going down the road fully insured with previously bent frames. now that being said, it's a pretty expensive repair so it may be considered total loss, just depends on market value or the equipment in question.

 

people here are saying what commercial insurance covers and what it doesn't.

IRRELEVANT ! This should be covered by the 4-wheelers insurance, not yours ! If you are confident your driver was not negligent, you must rent a truck and follow through with lawsuit to recover damages. Too often, commercial carriers let others off the hood and our insurance companies pass the expense on to us. Make phone calls every day, make sure they know your driver did nothing wrong and any additional expense should be paid by the 4-wheeler and their insurance, not you !

 

Actually it is very relevant. If it's bad enough (this case sounds like it is), your insurance can and will pay out immediately to get you rolling. That is, provided you have adequate coverage. Then they subrogate against the at fault party on their own time.

Been there done that. At the end of the day, you are the only one that time matters to. You will either bear some expense up front to keep in business, or you will sit around and wait while everyone else works it out. It's not about being righteous, it's about doing what you gotta do.

In the OP's case, I agree with some others. That much damage will have that truck out of service for several weeks in the best of circumstances, more likely a total loss. Regardless of who pays the bill, you will still have to look out for number one. Nobody else will. The most productive solution would be to rent a truck or just buy another one.

Any collection for lost profit and the like will take months to settle. In my experience, I didn't pursue it since the amount to possibly gain outweighed the time and effort it would have taken to collect. I did, on the other hand, lean on my insurance to subrogate and get my claim offset. The offset was more important to me than the refund of my deductible - it means my loss runs stay clean and won't cause higher rates. That only took a few persistent and just short of abusive phone calls to my insurance company. They finally got it done six months later.

 

Depending on the state, she could be responsible for anything her insurance company does not cover. Find out if the frame is in fact bent, if so go to your dealer and get another truck and put it to work.