How to Arrange Semi Trailer Insurance

Insuring your tractor trailer unit is not going to be cheap, and more than that, the time to find out whether or not you have quality insurance coverage is not when you need to make a claim on it. The time to deal with these issues is when you are arranging semi truck insurance coverage and not afterwards - if you suffer from an uninsured event you could lose your entire business and livelihood so pay attention!

Know What You Need – Coverage Levels and Type of Cover

The first step is to assess what kind of truck insurance coverage you need and how much. You should assess this before you contact an insurance agent (because they will give you a sales pitch rather than objective advice).

Ask yourself whether you need:

• Do you need cover for just you or other drivers too?
• Do you need workmen's compensation?
• Do you need fire, collision, theft, CDC cover?
• Full or partial liability?
• Bobtail liability?
• Cargo cover?
• Do you need fuel bonds?

In each case, you will also need to work out the level of coverage you actually need. Too little will result in underinsurance and you foot that bill.

Ask for Multiple Quotations from Insurance Companies

The next step is to start finding out how much all of this is going to cost. To do this you need to get quotes from different trucking insurance companies. Make sure you ask for quotes on the same type and same level of insurance coverage – this will let you compare pricing for the same cover.

Going online is probably the best and fastest way to obtain trucking insurance quotes - we have a facility to obtain multiple truck insurance quotes online

Compare Quotes

Insurance companies and their policies differ widely. You should look at exactly what is being covered by each insurance company – their definitions will be different too. You should compare the policy samples closely because what is covered by one company will not necessarily be covered by another. This is where you will discover that the cheapest quote is not necessarily the best coverage for you to buy.

Check the Insurer Out

The insurance policy is only as good as the insurance company backing it. If there is an issue with the financial standing of the company, then you should not be doing business with them. On the other hand, how good are they are paying out claims (ask for a payout ratio) and what about their customer and claim service? How much experience do they have in insuring trucks and equipment? How about providing additional trucker benefits as part of the service?