
Here are three of the most important reasons to get commercial truck insurance in 2023 if you own a trucking company or drive trucks for a living.
Large Cargo Vehicles Engage in Frequent Accidents
Despite significantly contributing to the economy, trucking is a primary source of traffic fatalities. Without enough insurance to cover costs from road deaths, damaged goods, and theft, your company might go bankrupt quickly.
Large trucks account for 11% of all motor vehicle accident fatalities in the United States, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
Other frequent dangers for vehicles in commerce include:
- Overworked truck drivers
- Flow of Traffic
- Damage, vandalism, and theft of cargo
- Windstorms, rain, hail, and other natural disasters.
The trucking business is vital to the economy, and commercial insurance firms know this. Therefore, the demands of truck owners and drivers about safety are addressed explicitly by commercial truck insurance.
All commercial trucks must have insurance.
The FMCSA will only let your business fleet operate with proper insurance coverage. Upon registration, commercial vehicles get a unique DOT number from the FMCSA. However, you won't get your DOT number and can only engage in commercial operations after first providing evidence of insurance.
There's a Lot at Stake in the Trucking Industry
The American Trucking Association estimates that commercial vehicles transport around 72% by weight of all U.S. freight annually. The number of registered trucks in the nation has climbed by almost 81% during the last decade, according to Statista. As the owner of a trucking company, you have a responsibility to ensure the safety of your vehicles, freight, and drivers because of their vital role in the national economy.
According to Keep Truckin, a provider of fleet management software, it might cost as much as $175,000 to get a trucking business up and running with just one vehicle. The initial investment quickly balloons into the hundreds of thousands when you include paying for drivers, vehicle upkeep, expanding your fleet, and other incidentals. Your goal of becoming the most extensive fleet owner-operator in the United States can be dashed in one court fight, if not in the company itself.