The cost of trucking commercial auto insurance is so high, trucking operators always have their insurance premiums in mind whenever making choices as to drivers, vehicles, and/or types of transportation services provided. Some choices aren’t made directly by choice however.
The reason why accidents are called accidents and not “on purpose” is because the driver didn’t intend for something to happen. With various state and federal regulators looking for ways to place trucks and their drivers out of service, even the most safety focused for-hire truckers can receive black eyes on their safety record. For smaller and/or new trucking operators that are honestly trying their best, just a few out-of-service marks can mean huge amounts of desirability by insurance carriers. Get enough out-of-service marks, either for vehicles and/or drivers and the authority can quickly find a reluctance by their insurance carrier in renewing a relatively new policy/operator.
If your trucking insurance has been canceled or non-renewed, we know your entire livelihood (and your drivers) is at stake. If you didn’t already have an insurance agent that understands the for-hire trucking business in relation to insurance coverage because you thought your insurance agent “knew enough,” there’s few other scenarios that will send the message loud and clear you want a commercial insurance focused agent other than receiving a non-renewal notice from your truck insurance carrier.
It doesn’t matter much if your trucking operation is a single dump truck or a fleet of long-haul trucks, the final result of not having trucking insurance is a loss of your operating authority. Now, if you’re a single truck with your own authority, you can likely find another authority that will allow you to lease on to them, albeit with maybe less money in your pocket after giving up a cut of your revenue, typically 15%-25% of gross revenue. After reduction for factoring and dispatching, your final take home pay could be significantly less than what you’ve grown used to.
In other words, if you’re not fully convinced how important your insurance coverage and agent are to your business before facing a loss of your operating authority, all doubt will quickly vanish into mist upon learning you have 60 days or less until you find alternative trucking insurance, or you’re out of business.
The good news is if you’re facing a loss of your operating authority because your commercial auto trucking liability insurance is being canceled or non-renewed, we have options available that your current agent may not know about, or willing to present to you. The reason why is once your trucking company requires non-standard trucking liability, many agents choose to move on to someone else instead of finding coverage.
We’re not like that. Unlike many others, once we start a relationship, we will stay with you even if it means we have to seek a trucking liability policy from the non-standard market, including commercial auto pools operated by the state. Also, unless your insurance agent works with many trucking insurance carriers, he or she may not even know there are carriers that actively seek and market for-hire trucking operators that have been non-renewed.
That’s often were I step in. I have carriers that focus on non-renewed trucking liability and can offer a competitive insurance quote, allowing you to stay in business. Even when I can’t find trucking insurance in the voluntary market, I have state operated insurance pools with rates that are often not so bad as to make it impossible to make a profit.
A typical scenario for a trucking operator that comes to me with a need to find a new insurance carrier goes along the following lines:
1. We discuss why their current carrier is non-renewing (obviously), and if this appears to be resolved or an ongoing issue.
2. I make any recommended changes and what impact each can have on the insurance premium cost. To be clear, it’s not my role to tell you the trucking company what changes (if any) need to be made, it’s my role to recommend, as a consultant, and that doesn’t mean placing pressure or judging the operator, regardless of their choices. This is an important distinction, because some agents may consider how much effort they need to deliver as part of their recommendations, and my role, as I work is to learn what the trucking operator wants, and then find ways to deliver.
3. Trucking operator makes any desired changes.
4. I present what options, including commercial auto assigned risk pools that may be appropriate.
If you want advice from a non-pressure insurance agent with over 25 years of self-employed experience, including logistics on an international level, give me a call or fill out our online form and let’s start a conversation today.