It’s amazing what thoughts wander through your mind as you drive for hours across America’s highways. Thinking about your insurance coverage usually isn’t one of those mile-gobbling thought processes you go through. The thought of discussing insurance, much less thinking about it, would put most of us to sleep. Not a good thing to do when maneuvering 40 tons down the road. But you probably have played the “What if” game; you know, you come across a situation or incident on your cross-country traverse, and the thought that gathers in your mind is, “What if that were to happen to me? What would I do and does my 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 Owner/Operators, trucking company owners and safety directors; even as boring a topic as trucking insurance is, we need to understand where it protects us and where it doesn’t.

Over the next several posts I’ll cover the insurance a small trucking company or single-pony Owner/Operator with his own Authority needs to know about:

• 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, including telling a truck driver to go get your trailer washed.

(Note: Lease operators will need additional Non-Trucking Use, also called Bob-Tail 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 Bob-Tail or Non-Trucking Use coverage because your Auto Liability Policy covers you and your employee drivers at all times. However, you need to require all of your lease operators to have the Non-Trucking Use Liability coverage.

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 mandate you carry a minimum of $750,000 for non-hazmat operations, $1 million for most hazmat operations and $5 million for specific high danger hazmat like poisons, LP gas, etc.

If any of your company or lease drivers 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.

In the next post, I’ll discuss: Physical Damage Insurance, Downtime Insurance, General Liability and the Umbrella Policy.

Until next time, good loads and safe roads, everyone.