Need Affordable Insurance Options, Need Some Advice!

I hear you. One of the bad things of the truck driving job, 90% of the time you have to go thru the big carriers to get screwed with. And they can hire new guys because they are self insured,us the small guys can't because like the person that started this tread,we get charged crazy money for insurance and we have to hire guys w perfect record and over two yrs experience,because the insurance ppl. said so. That is why the mega carriers can do whatever they want with the new guys.

Nice JD tractor BTW

 

I thought about being self insured...for about 15 minutes. If you think insurance rates are expensive, think about it this way: Would you put your entire life savings....no check that, the life savings of 2-3 generations in the hands of a strange driver you barely know? The thought of that may put a $20,000 tax deductible expense (or in your case an extra $7,500) into perspective.

 

You are absolutely right ,but when we talk about self-insured,we are talking way larger than your family's savings.
From what i understand is that carrier apply for self insured,than the FMCSA investigates the carrier financials,decides whether carrier maintains enough cash flow,that in case 25% of their trucks got into accidents at the same time they can pay for it.After DOT gives permission they monitor the carrier's financial . Also they look at how much is the company worth (Swift = 1.8 billion) in case they have to go after them if carrier dont pay claims.No trust accounts needed . So mega carriers make money by being self insured (swift has about 13000 trucks from what I know so they save $130Mill. by not having to pay insurance premiums and put 50% of that for claims,we are still left with very high #s). I could be wrong too, but there is really no specific information about the process,this is all based on my research.

 

Don't confuse me with someone who knows what they are talking about because I don't, but I thought you could just put some money up and buy a bond or something similar. Say for 1,000,000 liability, put up 3,000,000 or whatever. Regardless of how it's done, I'm sure you'll agree that insurance premiums are cheap when viewed in the context of losing generations of personal savings....even if your savings are 130 million. Even Warren Buffet would insure through Geico.

I would venture to say that the reason companies are self insured is because the payouts come from shareholder money....not from the owner's pocket. They aint risking their own money.

 

I have no OOS no tickets I'm with great west and pay $12,500 a year one truck two trailers $86,k comp $100,k cargo with a million policy and I shopped everywhere

 

they have to understand that besides your safety rating , their license also takes a hit. I agree with rank, fixin a tire close to you will cost you half of what it will on the road plus the ding your safety rating gets.
Keep in mind if it gets to bad, brokers and customers will not want to work with you. This is a very serious issue but you can turn it around and learn from it.
take a real close look at your rates and your lanes. if it don't make dollars it don't make sense.

check ur inbox

 

You may have him beat in the loss run catagory