Uninsured driver topped a bridge HELP!

The insurance company's are required to insure equipment not people.
Here's an example that I and a few others on here have been up against.
I bought a new trailer and took my old one off the road and parked it.
I was required by my insurance company to maintain liability insurance on the old trailer even though it wasn't licensed.
Why one would ask?
Because when your insurance company does your federal insurance filings with fmcsa they are required to sign a document stating that they will cover all company owned equipment.
The idea is you could take a piece of unlicensed equipment down the road and do damage or hurt someone.
This is why fmcsa requires them to cover all equipment owned by the company.
The only way around this if you want to keep the equipment is to sell it to someone you trust for a dollar with the agreement they will sell it back to you for the same when needed.
You must forward the sale documentation to the insurance company and only then will they remove the liability coverage from that piece of equipment.
Do insurance companys check drivers 50 ways from hell to help mitigate risk?
Will they drop your insurance for having an unauthorized driver driving the company truck?
Will they make it almost impossible for you to ever get mc insurance again?
Absolutely.
But in the end they will pay the claim because it is the equipment that they are insureing not the individual drivers.

 

Regardless of what the policy says.
insurance companys file and certify your insurance with fmcsa and then they sign a document stating they will cover all company equipment.
This is exactly why the federal government has this system in place so they know the insurance company is covering any piece of equipment at any time that the company owns.
This is one reason mc insurance is so high.
There is a lot of unknown risk that insurance companys assume.

 

Comp and collision will cover the tractor.

 

That has got to be a state deal. I know for a fact that in South Carolina, if you pull the plates you can drop the ins. Now if you keep it licensed you must keep ins on it.

 

No state deal Federal Motor Carrier.
They want all the company equipment covered for liability all the time.
That's why your mc insurance co has to file and certify with them.
Back in the early eightys when I started trucking you just went to an insurance co and got an insurance card and went trucking.
No federal filings of certified insurance at all.
You can drop your personal vehicle coverage on a non licensed vehicle and no worrys though.

 

You can do it on a cmv if you pull the plates! I had a yard full of equipment. You have to pull the plates. If you try to keep it as a spare you have to maintain plates and ins. Unless you still owe one the trailer. A trailer is covered on the trucks liability. You do not buy liability ins for a trailer.

 

Wrong question. Whether or not the friend was an authorized passenger is irrelevant. The friend was driving. Was the OP aware that his employee was training the friend and allowing the friend to DRIVE the truck? If so, did the OP have a driver qualification file on the friend, complete with an application, MVR, and pre-employment drug screen? If there is no driver file, the FMCSA will not be happy...whether the insurance company pays the claim or not.

 

I agree with Bulldog. I think the insurance company will cover the accident with the proper coverage in force. The op will come out OK with the damage to bridge and his truck.
The insurance company may sue the hired driver and friend for the total cost of accident.
The most expensive part is yet to play out when the FMCSA does their investigation and piles on the fines.
Don't know his safety record or CSA, expect threatened to be shut down with plenty of additional costs and hoops to jump thru.

Where is your truck and your hired driver.
Good luck.

 

You must of missed were I stated before that I had taken my old commercial trailer off the road (pulled the plates) but was required to keep liability insurance on it as long as the company owned it.
All of my personal trailers do not have separate liability coverage as they are covered by my tow vehicle.
But all my commercial trailers have individual liability insurance on them and they all have separate insurance cards for each one.

 

I have similar situation. I bought a replacement trailer in November, my old trailer sits in the driveway. Insurance will not drop coverage until I sell it. They said it did not matter if the license plate was removed or voided. AS long as my name was on the owner line, I had to keep the insurance in force.