How long has it been since you reviewed your trucking insurance policy? Has your policy grown with your business?
If you haven’t looked at your coverage recently, you might be headed for some tough times as Tom, Don, and Luke found out.
Here are their stories.
Tom Doesn’t Know What He Doesn’t Know
Tom is a second generation short-haul trucking company owner. His father started the business after retiring from the Navy over 30 years ago. It had been his father’s dream to own this company and one day pass it on to Tom.
Getting up in years, Tom’s father recently decided to step back from daily operations. As Tom took on primary operations, he felt confident in the company his father had built. He was proud to continue his legacy.
But within less than 6 months of taking over, he got a call that really shook his sense of safety to the core. One of his drivers had been in a major accident. The truck was a mangled pile. Cargo had spilled all over the interstate. Two passenger cars were involved with injuries and his driver was in the ICU.
After seeing to his driver and the family, Tom made a frantic call to the company’s trucking insurance agent. He didn’t know if he had cargo insurance to cover the product he’d lost. He didn’t know if his medical coverage limits were high enough to cover these kinds of medical bills. He didn’t know what he would do being down a truck. He didn’t know what he didn’t know.
It had been a long time since anyone had reviewed the trucking insurance policy.
Don Just Wanted to Obey the Law
Don owned a smaller 5-truck tow company. When he requested a quote for tow truck insurance, he was only concerned about having the minimum amount required by law. That meant that in the case of an accident, only other drivers and property were covered, not his own trucks, drivers or cargo.
He trusted his drivers like family. Don just couldn’t imagine that his friends could ever cause an accident.
Don found out too late that even the safest drivers can sometimes make bad choices and be listed as the at-fault party in a collision. Two of his drivers got into accidents on the same night, both at fault. One ran a red light. The other was getting directions on his cell phone.
Fortunately, his drivers were okay. But Don was now completely down 2 trucks, nearly cutting revenues in half while, at the same time, he needed to replace the trucks. The next 3 years were really a struggle. He went from profitable business to just scraping by.
Luke Doesn’t Believe in Luck
Luke realizes that life is what you make of it. And as a business owner, he’s always felt that it’s smart to protect his investment in his business for his family and all the people who rely on him for jobs. He runs a mid-sized moving company in a competitive market.
When the housing market slumped, he found himself having to tighten the budget. He considered cutting his policy back to auto liability. But he worked the numbers and found other ways to save through the slow times.
He was so glad he did when one of his trucks unexpectedly caught fire along with all of a client’s belongings in the back. He doesn’t know how he would have made it through the slow times if he hadn’t had physical damage coverage for the truck and cargo insurance for the client’s belongings.
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