New policy insurance thread

So after hours, days, even weeks of research on getting into this business as a new owner operator, I have found a few articles and discussions on insurance rates vary greatly, depending upon what state you’re set up in. Florida and California two of the heist, while Mississippi has one of the lowest annual premiums for DOT registered insurance policies.

Has anyone taken the moves necessary to list their “Business” in another state, simply for the Insurance savings? Tax savings? etc.

See the following link to numbers by Progressive on their annual insurance costs state by state. Which States have the Best Rates for Truck Insurance - Trucking Blogs

 

Georgia is right up there with some of the highest premiums. No wonder I felt raped. You may be onto something for basing a business elsewhere.

 

Is the amount of money worth the headache? Is that margin of money really going to make or break you?

 

How much headache is there to switch states? I can put up with a lot of headache at the rate of differences between some states. If you give me say 80% of the difference between MS rate and the GA rate I would gladly take it.

 

Tough to say. Yes, insurance companies all have their own metrics as to the profiles they want to insure and that can change at any given moment. They also use any public information available to rate a company including history of a DOT number along with previous addresses. At a minimum, there would be quite a few reporting hoops to jump through to change your base of ops, so I would only consider it after consulting with my professional services (CPA, attorney, insurance) people to really understand ALL the implications to weigh.

 

Definitely talk to a lawyer before moving. Your agent will not know the answer and will either SWAG it or kick it up to the underwriter. The move will also change who the writing office is and if you have to go through a new agent. I had a customer who moved from Memphis TN to Olive Branch MS only to find out the company he was insured with didn't write coverage in MS. At renewal we had to find a new insurer.
Several years ago at bill was passed requiring a company to have a physical structure in the state they were registering in. OK was really cheap so a lot of companies registered there, thereby their home state was not getting the revenue from the licensing fees. This effected the insurance premiums due to where the vehicle was listed as being domiciled.
Being a new venture if you have quotes now and go back with a new address in a different state it will raise questions with the underwriters. They will want to see your CDL from that state & your MCS150 reflecting that location at the very least.
New Venture rates are high regardless of the state you're in. After two years they drop noticeably.

 

This is something I'm interested in learning about also - I'm aiming to be a company driver in March but will aim to obtain my OTR experience (at least 100K miles) & hopefully be able to be O/O (Hot Shot to start) within 2-3 years. I'm in FL. From what I hear & read, FL/GA are the highest insurance premium states due to Tractor/Trailer theft + natural disasters (floods, hurricanes, etc)...The cheapest Insurance is supposedly out of WY, ID, OH, IA, maybe another midwestern state - Now I know how to setup a PO box at a USPS & do all that but would you also have to register your operation in that state to reap the lower insurance premier benefits (so you have to own or rent something there?)? Not sure how that aspect of this loophole works - a new Cdl graduate from FL (he was curious to find out the expenses) was quoted $34-$36K recently for O/O ($1M Liability, the basic coverage needed to operate/work w/brokers)...Do you need to own property on that state & just make sure you're getting loads & possibly use that state as a reset location (if you can coordinate your loads around or near that place)? I'm not 100% on how that's done. If you can get insurance from a state you're not registered & operating out of, well that's a no brainier but I feel there's a few steps here I'm missing...Looking to learn this because if you're able to have a let's say under $11k/annual insurance O/O premium insurance hit vs a $36k/annual insurance hit - it may make sense to invest in some real estate, lot w/that USPS PO box setup to take advantage of these major savings - deductions or not, its still money+overhead out your #### pocket...There are some YouTube videos floating around but they don't describe the registration of your biz aspect of this setup...I'm all ears to learn!