Tag: general liability truck insurance

Owner Operator Truck Insurance 101

Bob Holtzman

So you’ve made the decision to become an owner and operator rather than work for another company. Congratulations are most certainly in order, but you’ll want to proceed with caution to maximize the opportunity before you. One of the first tasks to take care of is to secure owner operator truck insurance. Just like insuring your car or your health is intended to bring you peace of mind, the same applies to getting insurance for your truck as well as your new business.

Don’t Rely on Your Broker or Insurance Agent 100 Percent

While insurance brokers and agents can most certainly help you find the perfect plan for your truck insurance requirements, you shouldn’t leave everything up to them. Instead, it’s better that you familiarize yourself with the different types of truck coverage, how they work and whether you truly need them. Agents and brokers are undeniably helpful, but they can also prove to be great teachers. You don’t have to become an insurance expert, but you should make yourself as knowledgeable as possible.

Learn the Basics of Owner Operator Truck Insurance

Part of getting the most out of your truck insurance is knowing all the options available to you for coverage. Some of the essentials common to policyholders everywhere include:

  • Under/Uninsured Motorist Coverage – In the event you get into an accident with a motorist who doesn’t have coverage and is at fault for the incident, you’ll need under/uninsured motorist insurance to make sure you aren’t paying for someone else’s oversight out of your own pocket.
  • General Liability Coverage – Say you’re on someone else’s property and accidentally cause damage to that property. Such instances that take place on truck stops, loading docks and the like fall under liability coverage. Additionally, this type of insurance takes care of mistakes made while making a delivery.
  • Physical Damage Coverage – Should someone damage or steal your truck, you’ll be glad to have physical damage included in your policy, which handles the repair and replacement of your equipment.
  • Primary Liability Coverage – No matter how great and careful of a driver you are, no one is immune from making mistakes. Should you physically harm someone else during the course of business, your primary liability coverage is intended to take care of the resulting medical bills.
  • Motor Truck Cargo Coverage – With this, you’ll be covered in the event you have a refrigeration mishap, have your cargo stolen or experience a wet load. Here, you want to make sure your insurance agent provides you with a broad form policy rather than a specified peril policy.

What You Can Expect to Pay

Rather than focusing on the overall price of insuring your truck, you should instead pay close attention to what’s included in the quote and the policy. You don’t want to save money upfront only to have to spend much more later on out of pocket because of gaps in your coverage. Because deductibles are often a major part of getting the claims process started and saving money on your policy, make sure you know just what kind of deductible your plan has. For instance, will you have three separate deductibles for your cargo, trailer and truck, or just a single deductible cost for all three? While one policy might be more expensive, you could end up shelling out a lot more for another “less expensive” policy that has three different $1,500 deductibles.

Understand the Conditions of Your Coverage

While you’re checking off each type of basic coverage, dig deeper into what’s included with the coverage provided by each insurer. For instance, going back to the specified and broad form policies described above, if the incident that caused you to file a claim in the first place doesn’t fall within specific conditions listed on your policy, paying for damages will likely be entirely left up to you. Because it’s impossible to know when you’ll need to file a claim and why you’ll need to file a claim, both you and your finances are likely much better off with generous coverage.

Your Agent Should Be Familiar With Your Industry

Just like you want to familiarize yourself with the insurance industry, your agent should know a few things about the trucking industry. This is because your agent will have a better idea of the types of incidents, accidents and worries truckers have, which allows them to offer them better coverage and better service. Taking your insurance needs to an agent who doesn’t know about your industry is like taking your truck to a cardiologist for repairs.

Do your due diligence when it comes to insuring your new owner-operator venture. Your efforts are sure to serve you and your truck well on the road ahead.

General Liability – What is General Liability, Who Needs It, What does it Cover?

Bob Holtzman

A form of Insurance designed to protect Owners and Operators’ businesses from a wide variety of liability exposures.  These exposures could include liability arising out of accidents resulting from the premises or the operations of an insured, products sold by the insured, operations completed by the insured, and contractual liability.

General Liability insurance is the first major layer of protection for claims of bodily injury or property damage against your business.  General Liability covers you, but it also covers many others involved in your business, such as:

  • If you have a joint venture or partnership, all of your partners, members and their spouses are protected if they are sued for something they do in an official capacity related to your business
  • If your business is a corporation, your policy covers all of your business executive officers, stockholders and directors while they are acting in their official capacities
  • If you have subsidiaries, your policy liability coverage extends to any subsidiary where you own at least 50 percent of the stock
  • Your employees are also protected from claims that result from actions they take in their capacity as employees.
  • If you have a written agreement to indemnify a person or organization, such as a vendor, that person or organization would be protected against liability claims for property damage or bodily injury as a result of selling or distributing your products
  • Anyone legally associated with your business, including volunteers working under your direction, are covered for liabilities that result from the work they do for you, and for the use or maintenance of your property that is in their care

What GL Insurance Provides

  • Bodily Injury
    – Covers Medical Costs
    – Loss Of Services
    – Court Awarded Compensation for deaths that result form Injury.
  • Property Damage
    – Physical damage to the property or
    – Loss of use of the property

Coverages

General Aggregate – limit that will be paid during any one policy period.
Occurrence – limit for the sum of damages and medical expenses because of all bodily injury and property damages arising out of any one occurrence.
Products & Completed Operations Aggregate –  limit for damages because of bodily injury and property damage.
Personal & Advertising Injury – limit for the sum of all damages because of all  personal and advertising injury sustained by any one person or organization.
Damage to Rented Premises – limit for damages because of property damage to any one premises while rented to you, or in the case of fire, while rented to you or occupied by you with permission of the owner.
Medical Expenses – limit for all medical expenses because of bodily injury sustained by any one person.

Rating

There are four main ways to rate General Liability:

  • Trucker’s Payroll
  • Gross Receipts
  • Number of Units
  • Area (square feet)

Excess Liability

  • Insurance that is excess over any other insurance, whether it is primary, excess, contingent or on any other basis.
  • Fire, Extended Coverage, Builder’s Risk, Installation Risk or similar coverage for your work
  • Fire insurance for premises rented to you or temporarily occupied by you with permission of the owner
  • Insurance purchased by you to cover your liability as a tenant for property damage to premises rented to you or temporarily occupied by you with   permission of the owner

When this insurance is excess, there will be no duty to defend the insured against any suit if any provider of other insurance has a duty to defend the insured against that suit. If no provider of other insurance defends, we will undertake to do so, but we will be entitled to the insured’s rights against all those providers of other insurance.

  • When this insurance is excess over other insurance, we will pay only our share of the amount of the loss, if any, that exceeds the sum of:
  • The total amount that all such other insurance would pay for the loss in the absence of this insurance
  • The total of all deductible and self-insured amounts under all such other insurance.
  • We will share the remaining loss, if any, with any other insurance that is not described in this Excess Insurance provision.