Essential Property Coverages to Consider for Your Business Commercial Trucking Insurance

Commercial trucking insurance policies typically offer various property coverages to ensure comprehensive protection for the insured’s truck, trailer and transported cargo. If you’re a commercial trucking business owner, here are some property coverages you should consider including in your insurance policy.

Physical Damage Coverage

Physical damage coverage is designed to protect the insured business’s truck and trailer from specific types of damage. If a business doesn’t own or lease a trailer, this coverage can be adjusted to insure the truck only.

Physical damage coverage may be further divided into comprehensive coverage and collision coverage. Comprehensive coverage typically protects against non-collision incidents such as theft, vandalism, fire, animal damage, and other similar perils. Collision coverage, on the other hand, covers accidents involving two or more moving vehicles.

Interchange Coverage

Interchange coverage is a type of insurance that extends comprehensive and collision protections to trailers that a business doesn’t own or lease. However, this coverage only protects the trailer itself and not any cargo inside it. It’s often referred to as “unidentified trailer coverage.”

Trucking outfits that frequently move trailers they don’t own, or lease may benefit from purchasing interchange coverage. However, if your business only occasionally moves trailers that aren’t owned or leased, there may be other options available, such as short-term rental coverage from a rental company.

If you’re unsure whether interchange coverage or another option is more appropriate for your business’s trailers, it’s best to consult with an insurance agent who specializes in commercial trucking insurance. They can help explain the differences in cost and protection of various insurance options.

Downtime Coverage

Downtime coverage is additional coverage that may be necessary to extend physical damage coverage and other protections to periods when your business’s equipment is not in use. Some coverages included in a commercial truck policy may only apply when the truck is being driven for work, so downtime coverage is important to ensure full protection during non-working hours.

Non-Trucking Coverage

Non-trucking coverage is similar to downtime coverage, but it extends certain protections to times when the truck is being driven for personal use instead of when it’s not in use at all. This coverage can include incidents that occur while driving a truck home after dropping off a trailer at its destination.

Owner-operators who drive their truck to their personal residence or other non-work locations often purchase non-trucking coverage. It provides protection for their truck during personal use, which is not covered by traditional commercial trucking insurance policies.

Motor Truck Cargo Coverage

Motor truck cargo coverage, also known as truck cargo coverage, is primarily designed to insure the cargo being transported by a truck. This coverage can protect the cargo, whether it’s owned by your business or being transported to another company. Commercial truck insurance policies offer various types of protection for different kinds of cargo, including hazmat truck insurance.

It’s crucial to select a motor truck cargo coverage that’s tailored to the type of cargo your business hauls. An experienced insurance agent can help you find the right commercial truck insurance policy with the appropriate cargo coverage for your business. Contact us today.