Leased on/ Authority Driver

Insurance will cancel if they find there are two liability policy.
Registration has only one safety carrier assigned to it.

 

Yes, it happens often.

I have several companies under the main one; a few that operate its own authority, with other trucks that are leased to outside carriers and I have a few drivers who drive between all of them.

I have referenced the driver's jacket in my records to keep that legal for each authority, the logs are kept separate and their payroll is figured out by the job they do.

 

Drivers are one thing, the trucks are something else.
Registration has a carrier responsible for safety. "Lease" that truck to a different carrier and you have insurance overlap.
Both insurances can be responsible on the liability. No insurance company likes that.

 

You have to have that leased truck under a different company name. Set up a separate company and you can do it.

Just call your insurance company and ask if you can have just non-trucking liability on one truck and they’ll explain why you can’t. Something to do with the MCS-90

I wanted to do the same thing a couple years back but got denied.

 

Problem is in the safety carrier. Can only have one.
Have your own plate and authority, you're listed as the safety carrier. To be legit, it has to be under whatever authority is hauling the load.
Doesn't mean that it isn't done every day, the problem comes if there's an accident, can go after both insurances or if the insurance company discovers it.
Just like the carriers that require you to have your own liability coverage while leased to them. Think Chicago.

 

I think the original question is -

If you are talking about using the truck across authorities, then yes it can be done if the lease allows it.

The problem with insurance goes away with the registered owner paying for the Non-Trucking liability insurance which works across autorities.

 

The driver can drive for as many carriers as they want, provided each carrier properly qualifies them, keeps accurate time records and understands there are multiple employers. The FMCSRs even allow for one carrier to be the primary employer and share their driver qualification file, and drug testing program in some cases, with the other employers.

As for the equipment, that is where it can get tricky. The carrier that owns the base plate, aka the carrier responsible for safety, would have to agree to allow the equipment to be trip leased to the other carrier(s), there would need to be a trip lease executed 9or other qualifying document) to show who is clearly responsible for the safety of the vehicle at any given moment in time, and the vehicle owner's insurance company would have to allow the non-trucking liability to be shared across multiple operating carriers. Using the truck across different motor carriers is very similar to using a rental truck in your fleet, the truck owner maintains primary responsibility for the safe operation of the truck, however some of that liability is transferred via a lease or rental agreement.

Ultimately, this all depends on the owner of the truck and their appetite for complex risk, their insurance company and any carrier that you may wish to operate the truck under and their insurance company's permission to allow for short term or trip leases.

And, of course, roadside enforcement will want to see a paper trail to prove who is legally responsible for the safety and operation of the truck and driver, maybe even need to put temporary name/DOT number on the truck unless you structure it as a rental agreement and not a lease operation. It can get very complex very quickly.

 

Any truck operating under any sort of lease is supposed to carry a copy of the lease agreement.

Virginia scales used to make bank on the number of units without a copy.

Waaay back in 1977, when authority was a valuable commodity, trip leasing was common and enforcement in the carbon paper days was close to non-existent.

My first desk job we had one authority NJ to a point in PA and our trucks carried multiple door signs on magnetic material [stuck behind the seat to the metal interior of those old Brockways] to match the authority we were 'trip' leasing for that load.

They had blank bills for four carriers in addition to our own and NJ did not have any PUC intrastate regulations that we billed those loads too.

One of my 'jobs' was to make out the trip leases, after the fact and including carbon copies of 7 previous days logs with substituted 'off duty' logs to make the HOS look legal.

I probably could have cashed the driver's paychecks after making all those off duty carbons look good.

Times have changed and the rules allow the carrier to sub-lease drivers and nobody walks around with a box of multipage trip-lease forms and paper door signs.

The insurance has seen this kind of thing; there must be a method to allow sub-leasing the equipment too.

I've seen numerous leased power coming on lease with another carrier listed on their registration knowing they will change soon on the upcoming renewal and have had some where the individual had his own DOT listed without having any inspection reports listing this as a violation.

Your mileage may vary.