Commercial · industry practice
Trucking insurance.
Long-haul, regional, dedicated, expedited, intermodal. We work with trucking specialty markets and admitted carriers based on the radius, commodity, and loss history.
What it is.
Trucking is its own world — DOT regulation, FMCSA filings, radius and commodity questions, hard-market cycles that swing pricing 30-40% year over year. Coverage isn't just commercial auto with bigger limits; it's auto + cargo + non-trucking liability + on-hook for tow + refrigeration breakdown for reefer. Different carriers want different fleets right now, and the answer changes every quarter.
The lines in your policy.
Each one is its own knob. The carrier's default rarely fits a real life.
What a claim looks like.
Three anonymized files. Numbers are illustrative.
Owner-operator hauling produce hits a deer at 2 AM. Truck damage + refrigeration unit + load spoilage. Auto physical damage paid the truck. Cargo coverage paid the load. Refrigeration breakdown endorsement paid the reefer unit. Without each piece, that's $40K+ out of pocket.
FMCSA audit triggered after 3 incidents in 12 months. We coordinate the insurance side — MCS-90 filings, BMC-91 verifications, certificates of liability for each broker. Regulatory exposure managed without a loss-of-authority outcome.
Driver damages interchange trailer at customer dock. Trailer interchange coverage pays $34K. Without it, the motor carrier's interchange contract makes the operator personally liable — and contract enforcement is brutal.
How to read a trucking policy.
The four things worth looking for on the dec page, in the order we read them.
The first page tells you who's actually covered, on what address, and under whose legal entity. A surprising number of policies have the wrong name, the wrong address, or a missing additional insured, and you don't find out until you file a claim. Cross-check it against your driver's license, your title or lease, and any contract that requires you to be insured.
Policy limits are abstract until you stack them against the assets they protect. A $300k liability limit feels generous in isolation; against a $1.2M home and a college fund, it isn't. Walk down each numbered line on your dec page and ask: if this were the cap on the worst day, would I be okay?
Page one shows you the base form. Pages four through twelve show you what the endorsements added, and, more importantly, what they took away. Water-damage exclusions, roof-payment schedules, named-storm deductibles, scheduled-valuables caps. These small numbered forms decide more claims than the headline limits do.
Carriers re-rate, re-form, and re-endorse policies at every renewal. If you keep last year's dec page, a side-by-side read takes ten minutes and tells you which limits drifted, which sublimits got cut, and which endorsements quietly disappeared. It's the single most useful habit in personal insurance.
Frequently asked questions.
Why does my premium swing 30-40% year-over-year?
Trucking is a hard-market cycle. Carriers enter and exit the class based on loss ratios, market conditions, and reinsurance pricing. We re-shop every renewal — sometimes every 90 days for fleets in transition — to find the carrier that wants your operation today.
What's the MCS-90?
FMCSA endorsement that guarantees the public will be paid for a covered loss even if the underlying policy denies. Required for interstate motor carriers. We file when applicable — never an issue if your auto liability is properly placed.
Do I need cargo insurance if I'm leased to a motor carrier?
Depends on the lease. Most carrier leases require the operator to carry cargo coverage, but specifics vary. Read the lease before assuming you're covered under the carrier's blanket cargo policy.
What's the difference between trucking and commercial auto?
Trucking auto is a specialty form with DOT-aware underwriting, MCS-90 capability, and built-in cargo coordination. Standard commercial auto can cover light-duty trucks but is structurally inadequate for FMCSA-regulated operations.
Want a second read on your trucking policy?
Send us your declarations page. You'll get it back marked up, in plain language, with the gaps and the over-coverage flagged, yours to keep, no obligation to switch.
or phone (913) 408-7280
We're an independent broker. We represent you, not the carrier , paid by the carrier we ultimately place with, but accountable only to the person whose name is on the policy. Read more about how we work.