This year, Truck Writers has chosen Trucking Insurance 101 as its blog series. The goal is to help educate those within the trucking industry on the various required and optional trucking insurance coverages. Our first blog post discusses Auto Liability.
// Auto Liability Coverage
In order to operate, all trucking companies must have Auto Liability coverage. This coverage consists of two main components : Bodily Injury and Property Damage. These coverages will react in the event of an at-fault loss.
Bodily injury will cover medical expenses, hospital bills, rehab/physical therapy, long-term nursing care, lost earnings, funeral expenses, pain and suffering, and other medical related expenses resulting from bodily injury or death of a third party when your equipment was at-fault.
Property damage will cover repair or replacement of damaged property, buildings, signs, etc. up to the policy limit which you are insured. Auto Liability can be written as a combined single limit (CSL) or with split limits. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requires all trucking and transportation companies to carry a minimum limit of liability coverage. The limits vary depending on the class of vehicle hauling freight or passengers. For example, if you are operating trucks over 10,000 GVWR, then you will need to carry a minimum of $750,000 liability limit.
// Liability Filings
For-hire operations are required by law to carry a liability filing. Filings will be issued by your insurance carrier based on the liability limit you have selected. Filings are issued to interstate travel through federal filings, and intrastate filings for hauling within state lines. You should check with your transportation insurance specialists to discuss which filings are right for you.
// Exclusions
Being that Auto Liability will cover third-party bodily injury and property damage, it will not cover your owned equipment in the event of a loss. Auto Liability will not cover damage to your truck, your own bodily injury, or theft of your vehicle.
Syndicate Logistics has insurance solutions for single owner-operators, large fleet operations, and everything in-between.
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