Load and insurance question

Pending reply....

OK a few things.

First thing that bothers me is that you seemed to be not getting how this works.

His dot numbers and all of that means he has an authority and you are leasing on with him.

You have to have a contract which tells you what you are supposed to do, what he is and how everything gets fixed if there are issue. If you do not, then you are not legal - not just in the eyes of the FMCSA but also with your liabilities.

Second is if you are under his insurance, which means just your truck and trailer, then if you get insurance somewhere else, it is not his place to dictate to you what you do. Again a contract is supposed to explain that part of the relationship.

He is legally obligated to cover the cargo, not you. He can not charge you for cargo insurance nor can he force you into a situation where there is a fee for it.

AND the last thing is you need to educate yourself about how all of this works. How authorities work, how leases work (and they are not lease-purchases which people get mixed up all the time) and how the industry operates.

AS I said in your other thread, with insurance I would either get another insurance company or find a[nother] place to lease to.

 

FMCSA requires the carrier to carry primary liability for ALL trucks leased on to them. The broker/shipper/other carriers require the cargo insurance. It is not advisable to get your own liability insurance when leased on to a carrier, might not be legal as the requirement falls on the carrier you are leased on to. If you are running under your own insurance (edit: meant to say Own Authority) then you are required to carry your own insurance and that of any trucks leased on to you. When leased on to a carrier you can be required to carry bob tail or unladen insurance, but that is up to the carrier. The primary insurance carried by the carrier covers you all the time, but if not under load the carrier might require you to carry unladen in case you get into accident they don't collect under the carriers insurance so their rates don't go up.

FMCSA does not states who pays for primary insurance, just that the carrier must be insured at all times. The carrier can charge you back for insurance, but it can not be more than the carrier is paying for your portion of the yearly rate.

Hopefully someone in the insurance field can chime in. This is how I understand it and ran my business with 8 truck leased on to my company.