Workers' comp for truck drivers in Houston: optional, with exceptions

When you hold a TxDMV number and haul for hire between cities, or when you haul to a public construction project. The first rule is in the motor carrier law, the second in the workers' comp law.

TxDMV-registered for-hire carriers

Texas Transportation Code 643.106 requires every motor carrier that must register with TxDMV, and whose primary business is transportation for compensation or hire between two or more municipalities, to protect its employees with workers' comp or with accident insurance approved by TxDMV. TxDMV's rule, 43 TAC 218.16(c), applies the same duty to all its employees.

TxDMV registration applies when you run trucks in Texas over 26,000 pounds, vehicles designed to carry more than 15 passengers, placarded hazmat, or household goods for hire. Carriers operating exclusively in interstate commerce under UCR are exempt. Our guide to starting a trucking company in Texas covers who needs a TxDMV number.

If you choose accident insurance instead of workers' comp, the law sets these minimums:

• $300,000 for medical expenses, for at least 104 weeks
• $100,000 for accidental death and dismemberment
• 70% of the employee's pre-injury income, for at least 104 weeks, for lost income
• A maximum weekly benefit of at least $500

Check them against the policy's benefit schedule, not the quote summary. A policy below any one of them doesn't satisfy the rule, whatever it is called.

Hauling to public construction projects

Labor Code 406.096 requires a government entity's building or construction contractor to certify workers' comp coverage, and subcontractors must certify too. TDI's rule, 28 TAC 110.110, defines who counts: it names motor carriers and owner-operators, and "services" includes "hauling, or delivering equipment or materials" for the project.

So a Houston dump truck or flatbed delivering to a city, county, or school district job must give the contractor a certificate of coverage before starting, and a new one if coverage expires during the project. The rule excludes deliveries unrelated to the project and, in an older carve-out, motor carriers registered with the state that carry the accident coverage the motor carrier law allows. If you rely on that carve-out, get the contractor's agreement in writing. For the rest of a dump operation's coverage, see our guide to commercial dump truck insurance.

Both choices come with notices, and missing one is an administrative violation either way.

Posters go in the personnel office and wherever each employee will see them regularly, in English, Spanish, and any other language common among your employees. For a Houston terminal, plan on at least English and Spanish in the driver lounge and the shop.

Changing your status has its own clock. Tell every employee within 15 days after a policy starts, ends, or is canceled. To drop coverage, file a notice with DWC within 10 days of telling your insurer; coverage runs until the later of the policy's cancellation date or 30 days after that filing.

Shippers and general contractors can check your status too: TDI's coverage verification page links to insurer records and to the list of registered non-subscribers.

There is no flat price. Per TDI's rate guide, each employee's payroll is assigned to a Texas classification, and the payroll in each class is multiplied by the insurer's rate per $100 of payroll. The sum is your basic premium.

The rate is two numbers multiplied. NCCI files an advisory loss cost for each classification, and each insurer files a loss cost multiplier for its other expenses, commissions, and profit. In TDI's own example, for roofing, a 1.946 loss cost times a 1.50 multiplier is a rate of 2.919 per $100 of payroll. Trucking classes have their own loss costs, and the same class can carry different rates at different insurers.

Then the insurer adjusts for your business:

• An experience rating modifier based on your past losses
• Schedule rating debits or credits for traits the rate doesn't capture, within the range each insurer files
• Optional plans, such as deductibles or retrospective rating, for eligible employers

Two of those inputs are in your hands: putting each person's payroll in the right class, and keeping injuries down. Insurers that write workers' comp in Texas must also provide accident prevention services to policyholders at no added cost, so ask for them.

For the rest of a Houston program, from auto liability to cargo, see what drives commercial truck insurance costs, or ask our Houston commercial trucking insurance team to quote it together.