Commercial Truck Insurance: A Brief Guide

Have you ever thought about protecting your goods inside your truck during delivery? Whether you own multiple trucks or not, it’s important to protect them for the sake of your long-term company goals. Speaking of protection, perhaps it’s the right time you consider applying for commercial truck insurance.

How Is Commercial Truck Insurance Different From Personal Auto Insurance?

As the name suggests, personal auto insurance protects personal and privately owned vehicles. On the other hand, commercial truck insurance protects the trucks owned by a company and the potential damages these vehicles may cause. Additionally, the primary concern of insurance for commercial trucks is to ensure the continuity of business operations even if there are unforeseen events, such as accidents.

Furthermore, the law will still require you to get commercial insurance because of its size and weight, making it risky and difficult for everyone to operate, unlike small vehicles.

What Can A Commercial Truck Insurance Cover?

These are the following situations your general insurance may cover:

Body Injuries: This isn’t for drivers, but for those who have been injured by the truck. In this case, the insurance will pay for all the victim’s medical bills and potential lawsuits that may follow. Furthermore, this insurance also covers those who might have been victims of slip and fall within your property.
Damaged Goods And Property: If your trucks cause damages to someone’s property, you may be liable to pay for the damages incurred with your insurance. This will help the victim restore or replace the damaged property. Additionally, it’ll cover all the damages and costs brought by delivery errors, such as misplaced items or transporting goods to the wrong address.
Accidents At Delivery Address: If your driver causes damages to other properties, your insurance will cover all the damages, including repairs and replacements.
Libelous And False Advertising Claims: If you’re promoting your brand using your truck on the road, your insurance may help you if there are possible slander and false advertising events, which could turn into lawsuits.

What Are Things Not Included In Your Insurance Coverage?

You may want to learn some factors your general commercial truck insurance won’t cover, such as:

Non-Truck Vehicles: As the name implies, this insurance is only for a specific number of your trucks, and other non-truck vehicles will not be covered by it. However, other trucks, such as cement trucks, ice cream trucks, and buses, aren’t included in the coverage.
Driver Injuries: The insurance is made to protect other people injured by your truck, not the people around you, especially your driver. If you want to protect your drivers, you may apply for or add a worker’s compensation to your current coverage.
Truck Damages: Again, the insurance covers the damages to others but not yours. If you want to protect your trucks in case of accidents, you can apply for or add physical damage coverage. It may not be required by law, but there’s nothing wrong with taking extra measures.
Damages Due To Refrigeration Malfunction: If this situation happens in the future, you would want to apply for insurance that would cover the replacements and product losses.
Loss Of Income: The insurance won’t cover the loss of potential income due to accidents. So, you may want to apply for specific insurance called business interruption coverage as additional.

What Are The Different Types Of Commercial Truck Insurance?

Everything mentioned above, including insurance coverage, is under general liability insurance. It’s the most common insurance for commercial trucks as required by law. Additionally, there are other types you would want to know and apply for additional protection, such as:

Physical Damage Insurance: This will cover all the damages done to your truck due to accidents or natural disasters. So, if you need to protect your truck, you may apply for this as well.
Motor Truck Cargo Insurance: This insurance will cover all damages done to your products due to heavy traffic, accidents, or natural disasters.
Bobtail Insurance: This insurance will cover accidents that involve only the truck (without trailers) or when it’s used in other not work-related events.
Uninsured Motor Coverage: This insurance will cover expenses when the other party doesn’t have any insurance coverage.
Reefer Breakdown Insurance: This insurance will protect and cover product losses due to refrigeration malfunction. However, some products are excluded from the coverage, such as seafood and tobacco.

What Is The Cost Of Commercial Truck Insurance?

The cost of your chosen insurance will depend on your needs, but it’s a good thing to know that a truck policy isn’t cheap. If you’re looking for general liability insurance, you may need to prepare USD$5,000 to USD$7,000 per year. However, insurance costs may increase or decrease depending on the following factors:

Age of your drivers and their driving records
Professionality of your drivers
State requirements
Truck’s age and condition
Type of cargo

What Are The Ways To Save Your Insurance?

As a general rule, it’s important to keep in mind that commercial policies aren’t cheap. Therefore, you need to do everything you can to save money as much as possible, such as:

Raise all deductibles
Hire professional truck drivers with outstanding records
Get discounts
Secure your payment

Final Words

The role of insurance is to protect everyone from sudden expenses, which may include medical costs due to accidents, cargo losses, property damages, and damages due to natural disasters.

As you may have read above, the primary use of commercial truck insurance is to provide assistance for other those injured by your truck. In this case, you may want to apply for other types of insurance to protect your properties and cargo, including your driver.

Furthermore, be wise in choosing insurance policies and making sure that it suits your need and long-term business goals. Also, don’t forget to follow the tips to save your insurance as much as possible.