If you own a trucking company in the United States, you know that protecting your cargo and getting it from one place to another is crucial to your business. Truck drivers are not only responsible for making their clients happy. In many cases, they are carrying products that are vital to people’s comfort and survival. The federal government has regulations for drivers carrying cargo insurance. Your clients are also likely to demand a certain level of cargo insurance before they sign a contract with you.
If you click here, you will see the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration requires companies that carry household goods across state lines have at least $5,000 of insurance per truck and $10,000 of insurance per accident.
Although the FMCSA does not have an official requirement for carriers of commercial cargo, you will still need this type of insurance to protect your client’s cargo.
When you make a contract with your clients that contract will have a clause specifying the amount of cargo insurance that you have. Most clients will require that you are covered for the wholesale amount of the cargo being transported at the very minimum.
Why You Need Cargo Insurance
There are many dangers that a truck is subject to as it travels across the country. For example, if your drivers operate a reefer truck, it may lose power and the food it is carrying may spoil. Likewise, if you have a truck that is supposed to keep cargo warm and fails to, the product may become damaged and you will be responsible for compensating your clients for their damaged product.
Cargo insurance will cover damages to products in the event of an accident. Liability insurance will only cover medical bills of anyone that your driver might injure.It will also cover damage to property such as cars that it may have hit, road signs, or buildings. Other liability insurance can be used to clean cargo off the road when it has been spilled, it will not pay to replace the cargo itself. For that, you will need cargo insurance.
With all the security technology that we have nowadays, you would think that cargo theft would be a thing of the past. However, drivers still forget to lock the back of their trucks. For every technology designed to protect your goods, there is new technology coming out to steal those same goods. Highway robbery still takes place. There are truck pirates out there who will steal cargo at gunpoint.
Although you may be tempted to buy only the amount of insurance that your clients demand, remember that those clients have clients of their own. There is someone at the other end of your trucker’s journey waiting to receive those products. They want to sell them in their stores or on the internet. If you are delivering medicine, baby food, or formula, there are people who desperately need those things.
Who Should I Buy Insurance From?
Purchase your insurance from a carrier that knows the trucking industry well. It is not enough to just go to an auto insurance company. A trucking insurer will be familiar with laws pertaining to cargo insurance. Trucking experts will know how to get you the very best deal possible. Protecting cargo is very important but you should not have to go broke doing it.
