Moving Words – Insured

Written by Timothy Brady.

“People need to be insured so when you have an accident out there, or when something catastrophic happens to you, that you’re covered and there’s not someone else has to pay for you. That is as simple as that.” –  Arnold Schwarzenegger

It’s amazing what thoughts wander through your mind when you have a moment to reflect during the day. Thinking about your insurance coverage usually isn’t one of those idle moments thought processes. The thought of discussing insurance, much less thinking about it, would put most of us to sleep. Not a good thing to do when managing multiple 40-ton behemoths within a fraction of a second of catastrophe any time they’re rolling down the highway. I’m sure you’ve played the “What if” game; you know, you come across a situation or incident on your local or national news or in your social media news feed, and the thought that gathers in your mind is “What if that were to happen to one of our company’s trucks? What would I do and does our insurance cover it?” Suddenly insurance is no longer an insomniac’s cure.

Insurance is a unique relationship between you and your insurance company. You’re betting that something is going to happen which will require financial reimbursement, an insurance company is betting that the incident won’t occur. This is one bet you don’t want to win.

With all this said, as agency and moving company owners, van operators and safety directors, as boring a topic as trucking insurance is, we need to understand where it protects us and where it doesn’t.

Keep in mind that staying current with your insurance policy has three very distinct reasons behind the activity. One is to ensure you are not over-insured, two is to make sure you aren’t under-insured, and three is the assurance that you aren’t investing any more of that hard-earned revenue than is absolutely necessary.

So, as important a topic as this is in the survival and success of your business, we’re going to take the next several blog posts and explain the different coverage categories available.

Disclaimer:  Timothy Brady is a licensed Fire and Casualty Insurance Agent in Tennessee, having been licensed in Tennessee and/or California since 1977.

• Auto Liability Insurance: This covers against loss from risks your company encounters with the operation of your company vehicles and drivers. This insures you for bodily injury or property damage to another party, also called BI/PD insurance.

Auto Liability insurance covers motor vehicles owned by your trucking company and the drivers who operate them. It is also where your lease drivers are insured while under dispatch or operating under your directions. Example: you tell them to go get your trailers washed.

Note: Lease operators will need additional Non-Trucking Use, also called Bobtail Insurance, for time they are not under dispatch. As a trucking company owner, whether you own one truck or twenty trucks, you don’t need Bobtail or Non-Trucking Use coverage because your Auto Liability Policy covers you and your employee drivers at all times, but you need to require all of your lease operators to have the Non-Trucking Use Liability coverage. We’ll discuss lease operators’ insurance descriptions in next month’s column.

Auto Liability coverage is the foundation of any trucking operation’s insurance package and is required by Federal regulations before you can begin accepting loads to haul. Regulations require you carry a minimum of $750,000 for non-hazmat operations, $1 million for most hazmat operations and $5 million for specific high danger hazmats like poisons, LP gas, etc.

If any of your company drivers or van operators are at fault in an accident, your liability insurance pays for the bodily injury and property damage expenses caused to others in the accident, including your legal bills. Bodily injury coverage pays for medical bills and lost wages. Property damage coverage pays for the repair or replacement of things you or your drivers wrecked other than your own vehicle. The other party may also decide to sue you to collect “pain and suffering” damages. Your Auto Liability Policy pays for your damages up to policy limits. Defense costs are generally in addition to your policy limits, but the insurance carrier’s obligation to defend ends once a claim payment has reached the policy limit.

“There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?”  – Woody Allen

Timothy Brady ©2018
To contact, Brady go to www.timothybrady.com.