What Does Commercial Truck Insurance Cover?
Like many auto insurance policies, commercial truck insurance comes with several types of coverage, each of which is specifically designed to protect your business and your personal assets from catastrophic loss. The coverage you need may include:
Commercial truck liability insurance: Covers your liability risks in the event that you or one of your employed drivers causes an accident. Your commercial truck liability will include bodily injury liability to cover the costs of injuries and medical expenses for the injured party, and property damage liability to cover the costs of property damage in an accident. Your commercial truck liability insurance will typically also cover the costs of legal defense, whether or not your company is found to be at fault in an accident.
Physical damage coverage: Covers the costs of damage to your vehicle from an accident or other incident. This coverage includes both collision coverage to pay for damage from a crash as well as comprehensive coverage to pay for damage from theft, vandalism and “other than collision” causes.
Like many auto insurance policies, commercial truck insurance comes with several types of coverage, each of which is specifically designed to protect your business and your personal assets from catastrophic loss. The coverage you need may include:
Commercial truck liability insurance: Covers your liability risks in the event that you or one of your employed drivers causes an accident. Your commercial truck liability will include bodily injury liability to cover the costs of injuries and medical expenses for the injured party, and property damage liability to cover the costs of property damage in an accident. Your commercial truck liability insurance will typically also cover the costs of legal defense, whether or not your company is found to be at fault in an accident.
Physical damage coverage: Covers the costs of damage to your vehicle from an accident or other incident. This coverage includes both collision coverage to pay for damage from a crash as well as comprehensive coverage to pay for damage from theft, vandalism and “other than collision” causes.
Broad Form Cargo
A type of cargo policy that extends coverage for all commodities.
All commodities are included except for those which are specifically excluded in the policy coverage form.
Broad Form Collision
Waives your deductible in the event of a physical damage collision claim.
Your deductible will be waived if the other party is 51% or more at fault.
Choice Coverage
Only available through Great West Casualty Company.
Provides: Diminishing Deductible, Electronic Equipment Coverage, Personal Property Coverage, Miscellaneous Equipment Coverage, Mechanical Breakdown and Towing Coverage.
Commercial Liability
A broad commercial policy covering bodily injury & property damage.
Deals with liability claims arising from product liability, completed operations and premises and operations.
Contingent Cargo
Contingent cargo is a secondary insurance that applies if the carrier had cargo insurance.
Covers some/all of the cost of handling, storing, disposing of, or replacing cargo that is damaged as a result of a covered peril.
Deductible Reimbursement Buyback
This endorsement will reimburse the owner-operator for selective costs.
The owner-operator is reimbursed for the amount of the motor carrier's deductible that the owner-operator is required to pay during the settlement of an accident claim.
Deluxe Coverage Endorsement
Only available through Northland Insurance Company.
Provides: Diminishing Deductible, Aggregate Deductible, Downtime/Rental Reimbursement Coverage and Personal Effects.
Diminishing Deductible
Endorsement reducing the cargo and/or physical damage deductible by a set amount.
The set amount is reduced for each year the insured is loss-free.
Downtime Coverage
A physical damage policy endorsement providing benefits to offset the cost of replacements.
These benefits are meant to offset the cost associated with the short-term rental of temporary replacement equipment for use while primary equipment is out of service due to a covered collision, comprehensive or specified perils claim.
Emergency Family Travel
Endorsement providing up to $2,500 to allow family travel out of state for extenuating circumstances.
Family is covered to travel to the driver’s location in the event that he or she is injured or killed due to a covered loss. This coverage is only available through Northland Insurance Company.
Excess Liability
Provides additional liability limits in excess of your primary policy to deal with loss.
These liability limits are only to respond in the event of a catastrophic loss.
Pollution & Leaks
When transporting dangerous goods, you slide off the road due to ice and spill/leak the load.
This results in environmental pollution and a huge cleanup bill. Your pollution truck insurance policy rider comes to the rescue.
3rd Party Damages
You back into & damage the loading dock. Liability coverage on your policy takes care of the bill.
In general, should you damage any 3rd party property (e.g. fence, building, garden, etc) while operating the truck, the liability protection covers it.
Theft & Stolen Goods
Your truck is stolen from the hotel parking lot during a stop on an overnight haul.
Comprehensive coverage will cover you and this coverage protects you against a number of other items.
Medical & Final Costs
Your employee is in an accident with one of the company trucks.
They need extensive surgery plus recovery times. Accident benefits take care of that.
Uninsured Motorist
Your truck is hit by an uninsured motorist and he flees the scene.
Uninsured motorist protection (similarly to personal car insurance) covers this risk.
Cargo Damages/Loss
Your cargo is lost en-route due to an accident, vandals, theft or equipment failure.
Given the high costs of cargo that a truck can be transporting, this protection is a must for most trucks.
Hail, Rain, Flooding, Tornado, etc
Severe hail, heavy rain, or even strong winds cause heavy damage to your truck.
Comprehensive insurance, mentioned under Risk #3, covers this risk.
Spoiled Cargo from Reefer Failure
A cargo loss (e.g. frozen meat, fish and vegetables) due to a temperature control system failure.
A truck reefer insurance policy rider should be considered to protect cargo against these types of cases.
Truck Issues at Home:
Your driver took the truck home for the weekend. It was stolen from his driveway.
Insurance can cover this risk. This coverage can be optional for you/your company depending on your enterprise policies.
Physical Damage
Your truck was damaged in a collision with another vehicle and the whole front end was crushed.
Collision insurance pays for the damage and gets you back on the road.
That type of insurance is similar to the collision damage protection of personal car insurance policies.