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Truck Insurance

Cavallino Risk Management is the premier truck insurance agency assisting owner operators and truck fleets to purchase The Right Truck Insurance at the Right Price™.

We are one of the most trusted names in truck insurance agencies in the US. Our truck insurance professionals have one mission and one mission only, to provide owner operators and fleet managers The Right Truck Insurance at the Right Price™ in order to ensure that their assets are properly protected while complying with the FMCSA rules and regulations. We understand that there’s a lot riding on your trucking business and that you need a trusted ally to provide long-term security for you, your livelihood and your family.

We at Cavallino Risk have a thorough understanding as well as targeted expertise in the trucking insurance industry. We leverage our concept and commitment of The Right Truck Insurance at the Right Price which is a different approach to meeting your insurance needs. Our experts evaluate the client’s risk profile and identify targeted solutions that result in tailored recommendations for improving the total cost of covered risk.

What We Cover

Truck Liability Insurance Coverage

This trucking liability insurance coverage provides protection against your legal liability for injury and/or property damage caused by your negligence, your employees or contract drivers in the use of your insured vehicles. Owner Operators and Motor Carriers that operate under their own authority are usually required by law to carry primary liability coverage on all owned power units and leased vehicles.

Bodily Injury Liability Coverage (BI): If you, your employees or contract drivers are responsible for causing an accident, Bodily Injury Liability coverage pays for injuries/death to people involved in the accident. BI Coverage also pays for legal defense if you are sued.

 

Personal Injury Protection (PIP) Coverage: This is the basic coverage that is implemented in no-fault insurance states. PIP is the coverage in which the insurance company pays, within specified limits, the medical, hospital and funeral expenses of the injured person, people in the insured vehicle and pedestrians struck by the insured vehicle. Depending on the state, PIP might also cover additional expenses like lost wages.

Property Damage Liability Coverage: If the insured person is legally liable for an accident, this coverage pays for damage to other people’s property resulting from the accident. If the Insured is sued, Property Damage Liability coverage also pays for legal defense costs.

Auto Physical Damage Truck Insurance

Physical Damage coverage for your truck gives you comprehensive and collision coverage for physical damage to your truck. For instance, your truck could be damaged from fire, hail, from an accident, or even from vandalizing.

Because these risks could potentially put your truck out of commission, it is important to consider Physical Damage coverage and the options that go along with it, options that can be customized to fit your individual trucking insurance needs.

General Liability

Covers business organizations liability for bodily injury and property damage arising from accidents on the premises, business operations in process, products manufactured or sold and complete operations. This insurance does not provide bodily injury and property damage protection to insured or insurer’s employees.

A truckman general liability policy does not usually have much risk that goes along with it. It used to be said that your only exposure was if a non employee visitor to your premises slipped and fell on your property.

 

A litigious environment and countless court cases has set a precedent which has changed this somewhat. The trucking industry has experienced claims where the shipper has brought them in on a law suit due to verbiage planted in the contract that transfers the burden of liability onto the trucker for concerns beyond their care, custody and control such as loading and unloading. 

This problem has become so commonplace that some 29 plus states have now adopted anti indemnification legislation safe guarding against these types of actions.

Moto Truck Cargo

Motor Truck Cargo (MTC) insurance provides coverage for the trucking company for liability that it might incur against a customer’s cargo while it is in their care, custody, and control. The trucking company sets the value of the cargo that they are hauling on a per load basis, and for catastrophic events on a per occurrence basis should there be multiple loads at a terminal over night. This is why often times the limits will be displayed as such $100,000 / veh $200,000 occ/ $200,000 cat.

Most of the policies that are written by seasoned underwriters are extremely comprehensive, and cover most anything, with the exception of what is excluded. Common exclusions are: Govt. Action, Nuclear hazard, War and Military.

There is also certain property that is not covered. Common items not covered: Accounts, bills, deeds, money, currency, diamonds, precious stones, and animals.

 

The main thing to remind yourself of is that MTC insurance is a third party liability coverage that protects the trucking company against damage and or loss to a customer’s products, but only to the extent of the truckers negligence in the occurrence. Not everything is covered, and there are always things that are not covered.

Once the program is in place it is important for the trucking company owner to communicate with not only his insurance agent, but his customer to determine what the exposure is and make sure that there are no gaps in everyday coverage.

Non-Trucking Liability (Bob Tail)

Non-Trucking Liability, or NTL, is insurance coverage for when you use your truck for non-business purposes. NTL offers you liability coverage for property damage or bodily injury to a third party. Any personal use between your return and next dispatch points will be covered under NTL.

NTL is in most cases, required by the motor carrier with whom the owner/operator has signed a lease agreement. This insurance fills a potential gap for non-business use of the equipment, and helps to protect the motor carriers’ primary liability policy.

Non-Trucking is not the same as bobtail insurance, so please verify with your motor carrier which coverage they require; in almost all cases, NTL will be the requirement.

It is often hard to determine when Non-Trucking Liability coverage is in play. Most insurance carriers say it revolves around dispatch, but dispatch can sometimes be hard to define. Usually the law will prevail that if an owner operator drops a load in Atlanta and deadheads back to Ohio, where he lives, that he is still under dispatch because the trucking company owes him a ride home, however slight variables and circumstances can change this:

  • Did the owner operator defer to a route that took him way out of the normal route home?
  • Did he make any non business stops along the way?
  • Did he visit anyone and how long did it take him to return back to his home base? (was it hours, days, or weeks)
  • Was the owner operator pulling his own trailer or one that belonged to the Motor Carrier?
  • All of the above could have a bearing as to whether the Non-Trucking Liability coverage would apply or not.

One thing to keep in mind is that the window of exposure for Non-Trucking is usually very small in comparison to the Primary Auto Liability policy that is in effect while the driver is leased to a motor carrier and under dispatch for. 

This is the reason why the Non Trucking Liability insurance is comparatively inexpensive, when compared to the primary auto liability coverage that the Motor Carrier provides.

Trailer Interchange

Trailer Interchange insurance provides coverage for loss or damage to trailers not owned by the insured while in the insured’s possession under a written “trailer” or “equipment” interchange agreement in which insured assumes liability for loss to the trailer while in their possession.

Keep in mind that this coverage is most commonly connected to the intermodal container industry. Intermodal equipment consists mainly of a chassis, a box, and sometimes a refrigerator unit (all removable and interchangeable with one another). In the past these container units have almost exclusively been owned by either the railroads and or steamship lines. However, that trend is changing and there are companies that own and lease these containers out, (referred to as Equipment Providers).

 

 

Most trucking companies that operate as intermodal carriers often have no trailers, and often use only independent contractors as opposed to company equipment and company drivers. The trucking company is responsible for damage, however, to these containers while in their care, custody, and control. These trailers are constantly changing, there is no way one could schedule them on a policy and identify them by a V.I.N. Therefore, premium is calculated by the number of days that the trucking company would have a foreign trailer in its possession and how many foreign trailers would be in their possession at any one time.

The contract usually sets a limit of (i.e. $45,000) which would be the limit on all three pieces, but allowing for $15,000 for each component.

This coverage should not be confused with non-owned trailer physical damage coverage, as Trailer Interchange Insurance only applies if an official Trailer Interchange agreements is in place and only to the equipment provider that has the agreement in place.

Non owned physical damage coverage provides similar coverage as Trailer interchange coverage, however, an official trailer interchange agreement does not have to be in place. This coverage is usually purchased by the trucking company to cover short term rental units and or units being used as temporary substitute vehicles while owned equipment is in for repair or maintenance. Non owned physical damage coverage is more commonly purchased by the for hire trucking company that is involved in a different segment of the trucking industry than Intermodal.

Public Auto

Whether you are insuring a bus, van or limousine Cavallino Risk will provide you full coverage for all your insurance and service needs without having to shop for multiple policies.

Standard Coverages:

  • Automobile Liability
  • Physical Damage
  • General Liability
  • Workers’ Compensation
  • Garage Liability
  • Garagekeeper’s Legal Liability Excess / Umbrella Liability
  • Property Coverage

Trucking Liability

To stay legal on the road you will need Primary Trucking Liability Insurance as a minimum. This is usually the costliest portion of any trucking company’s insurance package. Primary liability will pay for injuries to other drivers on the road and any damage to public property that may be caused from an accident. This coverage is mandated by state and federal agencies at a minimum of $750,000 combined single limit.

However, we recommend that you consider purchasing higher limits as truck accidents can easily cause damages in the millions. Most freight brokers and shippers will require you to carry at least $1,000,000 in coverage. Hazardous material haulers such as gasoline and chemical haulers a re required to carry $5,000,000 in liability coverage.

  • Motor Truck Cargo
  • General Liability
  • Physical Damage
  • Non-Owned (Bobtail)
  • Liability for bodily injury to others
  • Personal injury to you, your employed drivers and passengers, including medical; expenses and lost wages
  • Collision coverage for accident-related costs regardless of who’s at fault
  • Comprehensive non-collision related damage coverage
  • Uninsured and under-insured motorist coverage Non-owned auto coverage if you or your employees drive a rented or loaner semi
  • Towing and labor costs

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