Moving Words – Insured: Part 4

“Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing.” – Warren Buffet

As I’ve discussed in the past three posts, there are types of trucking insurance coverage for just about any eventuality. This last discussion will include coverage when you don’t own the equipment you are using, or if you are performing repairs or maintenance on equipment owned by others. It’s good information to know, no matter which side of the fence you are on—the owner of the equipment, the repair facility or pulling someone else’s trailer.

• Trailer Interchange: This coverage provides basic physical damage protection to non-owned trailers pulled by your tractors. Trailer Interchange is specific to non-owned trailers only. An example of Trailer Interchange is your driver in your tractor pulling a container trailer owned by someone other than your company.
• Bailee Coverage: This is much broader than Trailer Interchange Coverage. This coverage provides basic physical damage protection to non-owned tractors or trailers. Example: your driver driving a third party-owned tractor piggybacked with other tractors for a truck manufacturer to deliver to a dealer, or a drive-away operation where your drivers are driving trucks and/or pulling trailers owned by a third party. This policy is your Physical Damage coverage for non-owned vehicles placed in your care, custody and control for transport. It pays for damage caused by collision, fire, theft or vandalism.
• Garage Keepers Policy: If you run a shop where you provide services to your lease operators or service and repair other trucking companies’ or persons’ vehicles, you may be held legally liable for a loss to a non-owned vehicle. This policy provides physical damage coverage for trucks, tractors, trailers or other non-owned vehicles that are in your possession for towing, servicing, repair or storage. The coverage may compensate the vehicle owner in some cases even if you are not responsible for the loss (such as a loss caused by a tornado). This preserves goodwill, a valuable asset in your relationships with lease drivers, customers, partners, and friends.

Additional Coverage: Property-of-Others Coverage should also be purchased. This would cover you, for example, when you are working on someone else’s loaded trailer and damage is caused to the cargo.

That’s a lot of “What ifs” which can be covered by insurance. As this has been a brief overview of the different insurance coverages for your trucking operation, don’t decide what you’ll need until you’ve sat down with a Trucking Insurance Specialist. Most likely, the agent who writes your personal auto policy is not the person to write your Trucking Business Insurance, unless of course he specializes in it. A good insurance agent is worth more than his or her weight in gold; even more so, someone who is an expert in trucking insurance. To underwrite the most effective combination of policies at the most economic rate requires a working knowledge of the industry along with the expertise of trucking insurance. The financial life of your company depends on your relationship with the person who writes your insurance. It requires a constant review of your operation and its risks to be confident you’re correctly covered. Be sure you’re working with a Trucking Insurance Specialist.

“Even a correct decision is wrong when it was taken too late.” – Lee Iacocca

Timothy Brady © 2018

To contact Brady, go to www.timothybrady.com