Traditionally, a garden variety trucking operation had few options when it came to placing their insurance coverage. For years standard markets carriers would not even consider entering into this market segment. That left trucking companies to search for coverage in the Excess and Surplus lines market. As any business owner who has had the pleasure to work with an E&S lines insurance carrier knows; premiums are high and services are at a minimum. As a result, trucking companies became jaded and frustrated with the whole insurance process. The problem was that insurance carriers were not classifying truckers for hire correctly. For example, Insurance carriers were treating a long haul operation the same as a local to intermediate operation. And more importantly, insurance agents were not pressing their insurance carriers to treat the local to intermediate operations differently.
The more we met with local to intermediate trucking operations the more we realized their operations were no different than a run of the mill distributor’s exposure. We began to approach our insurance markets that had an appetite for that type of industry and asked them to consider taking a look at local trucking operations. Through attrition our standard market carriers agreed to entertain these truckers and realized this sector could be profitable if the right controls were in place.
Once our standard markets began to offer quotes, we quickly realized their product was all around superior to the competition. First, our insurance carriers were writing the truckers on a standard auto form and not the trucker’s form, which means they were offering a $1,000,000 combined single limit for Liability, uninsured and underinsured motorists. Second, our premium was roughly $3,500 -$3,800 a unit compared to the E&S markets $4,500- $5,500 a unit. Lastly, if a trucking operation wanted loss control services with their current carrier they would have to pay for it, in contrast our insurance carriers are included those services with no additional charge. Not to mention the claims advocacy and ease of doing business that comes with being covered by a standard market carrier.
In summary, if your trucking company falls into the segment of being a local to intermediate operator be aware there are better options out there. Do not settle for the status quo. Either challenge your current agent for a better alternative or seek an agent that has experience working with other companies like yours.