Owning a trucking business in North Carolina is a lucrative, rewarding, and challenging job. When you first open a trucking company, you may find the expenses can be overwhelming. Not only do we have to hire drivers and buy trucks, but we also need salespeople to let companies know that we are available to deliver their cargo.
Trucking insurance is one of the most important things we will need to buy to start your company. Although it may be tempting to take the minimum amount of insurance required by law, it is best to have enough insurance to keep your company safe if the worst happens.
Our experts at Simplex Group can help with all of your truck insurance needs. We can also help you with compliance, taxes, permits, factoring, and route planning. With over 20 years in the trucking industry, we know how to make a new trucking company successful.
We can bundle your insurance policies to save you money and make sure you are fully covered. There are certain insurance policies that any trucking company should have.
Liability Insurance
If we have trucks that cross state lines and those trucks are over 10,000 pounds, or if we carry a significant amount of hazardous materials across state lines, the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration requires us to have between $750,000 and $5,000,000 of primary liability coverage.
Liability insurance will cover your company if one of your drivers causes an accident. It will pay for the medical expenses of anyone the driver might injure as well as repairs to their vehicles. It also covers clean up of any spilled cargo, damage to the environment, or damage to the road.
The exact amount of insurance we will need depends upon the kind of cargo you are carrying. If you carry non-hazardous cargo in a truck that weighs under 10,000 lbs, you will need $300,000 of insurance.
What if I Only Take Intrastate Hauls?
The Old North State has certain requirements for truckers who operate strictly in North Carolina and never cross state lines. The amount of insurance an intrastate trucker needs will depend upon the commodities transported. The basic requirements are:
- Household Goods $300,000
- Oil Transport $1,000,000
- Hazmat $5,000,000
- General Freight $750,000
Cargo Truck Insurance
Unless you own a moving company, the FMCSA does not require you to carry Cargo Insurance. However, cargo insurance is just as necessary as liability insurance. Your clients will expect you to be insured for at least the wholesale value of their products. In many cases, we will want you to be insured for more than the wholesale value because their customers expect to get their products on time and in one piece.
Our team cannot put together the perfect cargo commercial truck insurance policy for you. We understand how important it is to make your clients feel safe. If it is a new company, they are taking a chance by trusting you in the first place.
Cargo insurance will cover you if products are damaged during an accident or if they are lost or stolen. Although your truck may be a very secure vehicle, theft is not unheard of. There have even been instances of piracy on the highways in recent years.
Physical Damage Insurance
Your truck is a livelihood, and we must be able to replace or repair them if a driver gets into an accident. Liability insurance will cover repairs to other people’s cars if our driver causes an accident, but it will not pay for damage to your vehicle.
If we finance your trucks, the finance company will insist that we add physical damage insurance. If you have a small business loan, the bank will want you to insure the trucks.
When calling our experts at Simplex Group, we can talk to an insurance agent and will find you a physical damage policy that is affordable and comprehensive.
Reefer Insurance
Transporting frozen goods across the country can be quite lucrative. Truck drivers who own reefer trucks make significantly more money than those who don’t. However, more can go wrong with a reefer truck than an ordinary truck. If the refrigeration system fails during the driver’s journey, we can have a huge mess on our hands. The truck will have to be repaired and cleaned. Sometimes, the refrigeration system may fail without you knowing, and food can get spoiled without our knowledge. This can be very dangerous. Reefer insurance offers protection for these vehicles.
General Liability
Every business with a brick-and-mortar facility needs some type of general liability insurance. If you own a trucking company, you will have clients coming in and out of your doors all day long.
You will also have people delivering food and coming to fill the vending machines. You will have other trucking companies delivering goods to put on your trucks driving into your facility as well.
A lot goes on in the average trucking company daily. We will have mechanics working on trucks and drivers inspecting and loading those trucks. They may leave their tools lying about, and some automobile fuel is certain to spill on the ground.
General liability insurance will protect you if somebody injures themselves on your property.
Bobtail Insurance
Owner-operators often detach their trailers and take their trucks home for the night. Unfortunately, the liability insurance that you have for your trucks will not cover you if you have an accident when you are not using a vehicle for business purposes. Bobtail insurance will cover you for injuries and property damage if you have an accident on the way home.
Why Simplex Group Is The Company You Can Trust
There is no other organization quite like Simplex Group in the United States. We help new trucking companies or seasoned veterans with literally everything they will need to open their business, pass their first audit and stay compliant and successful. We consider your success our success, so give us a call today.