Best Commercial Truck Insurance
Based on In-Depth Reviews

Other Good Options

EIB Direct

Evolutions Insurance Brokers offers flexible coverage for all types of trucking businesses. It even covers rented or leased trailers. Though a bit on the expensive side, EIB is worth the cost for companies with particularly complicated insurance needs.

HUB International

HUB International is another insurer specializing in complex coverage needs and high value cargo. Again, expect to pay more for a higher grade of rick protection. HUB is a broker which means it partners with other insurers, so it’s a good idea to do a little research on the actual insurer.

The Hartford

The Hartford is a 200 plus year old insurance and financial services firm, meaning it has both the expertise to insure just about everything, and the financial security to weather any storm. Obviously its commercial trucking branch is not nearly as old, but its wealth of personalized options make it an excellent choice.

Travelers

Travelers is another company with vast experience in pretty much any kind of insurance you can think of. With options for every size of business and type of vehicle, you won’t have a problem getting the coverage that’s right for you.

What is Commercial Truck Insurance?

Commercial truck insurance is kind of like regular auto insurance on steroids. Auto insurance typically covers damage to--or theft of--your vehicle, your medical expenses, and liability for damages or injuries to others. Truck insurance covers all that at much higher levels, plus protection for cargo, livestock, pollution cleanup and hazardous material liability, workman’s comp, and dozens of other options depending on the vehicle, its accessories, job function, and cargo, if any.

Commercial truck insurance (or any of the other names we mentioned previously) is really an umbrella term for a whole family of specialized insurance products related to vehicles used for work. But for our purposes, we can simplify it down to five main areas of coverage. There is always more insurance you can buy, and almost infinitely specialized areas of coverage, but these are the Big Five:

• Damage or physical damage coverage: Covers damage or theft of the vehicle. Trucks are generally more expensive than cars (a semi can cost between $80,000 and $200,000 or more) and are significantly more dangerous. Consequently a much higher level of coverage is needed.
• Liability: Covers legal costs for damage or injuries to others. Again, because trucks are usually bigger and more dangerous (even with experienced, professional drivers), and have the potential to inflict massive physical or property damage, this coverage is far above what regular auto insurance offers. Liability is broken up into subsections depending on how and when the insurable event occurred. It’s important to know what your policy covers and what is left out.

Note: Full liability coverage may require additional insurance, since most commercial vehicle insurance only covers incidents that happen “on the job.” If, for instance, you drive your work vehicle home at the end of the day, you’ll need to add non-trucking liability insurance to your policy in case something happens between the office and your home.

• Medical: Because this is “professional” insurance, medical often covers not just hospital bills, but lost wages.
• Cargo or motor truck cargo: Insures your actual cargo. You can have all the damage insurance in the world for your truck itself, but it won’t cover a cent of your cargo if something happens. Imagine you’re hauling a trailer full of new 4K TVs and you jackknife in bad weather on I-95. You may walk away unscathed, and your truck itself may be covered, but without motor truck cargo insurance, you just had yourself a very expensive accident.
• Extras: All the miscellaneous coverage options that don’t fit into the categories above. This includes coverage for cherry pickers and cranes, reefer breakdown, pollution buy back, oversized and overweight vehicles, and a host of other options. The general rule of thumb is that if you can get it on the road, it can be insured… for a price. Just make sure to tell your insurance agent everything about your vehicle and where and how you plan to use it.

Do I Need Commercial Truck Insurance?

Do you use your vehicle primarily for work? Do you have a CDL? Is your vehicle registered to a company, rather than to you personally? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” you need commercial truck insurance. In fact, federal law mandates that truck drivers--haulers in this case--have at least $750,000 in liability coverage. Furthermore, most shippers and brokers require $1,000,000 or more (depending on the cargo in question) in coverage.

If you use your personal vehicle for work related errands, you may be able to get by with regular auto insurance. There is a bit of a grey area between using a personal vehicle professionally and having a dedicated professional vehicle. Navigating that grey area is best achieved by talking to your insurance agent and providing as many details of your situation as you can.

With some few exceptions, if you think you need truck insurance, it’s likely you do. There probably aren’t a ton of people out there who need truck insurance and aren’t aware that they do.

For most people who drive a commercial vehicle, the real question is what extras do they need on their policy. As noted before, a lot of that will be dependent on what kind of vehicle you drive and what you do with it. Two things you’ll probably want are towing insurance, since towing a rig can cost $4,000 or $5,000, and non-trucking liability insurance in case you ever drive your work vehicle while off the clock.

How Much Does it Cost?

Commercial truck insurance is far from cheap. If you think the insurance for your personal vehicle is high, prepare yourself for some serious sticker shock. The average cost of a standard policy for a semi is between $9,000 and $15,000. For comparison, you can buy a new no-frills 2020 Hyundai Accent for $15,195.

A 20-year veteran driver we spoke with, Edwin Diaz, told us that his annual policy is $14,000. He described it as “expensive, but worth it.” Diaz has driven everything from vans to semis to fuel trucks and currently owns his own truck. His policy is so expensive partly because he has a hazardous materials endorsement on his license, and partly because he does a lot of his trucking in Florida. “It’s more expensive because it’s in the state of Florida. Florida has one of the highest insurance rates in the United States.”

The total cost of your premiums is determined by many factors, some of which will be familiar to you if you have regular auto insurance, including but not limited to the following:

• How much professional driving experience you have
• How long you’ve been driving your current work vehicle
• Your age and gender
• Your credit score
• The average mileage of your trips
• Where you drive, including interstate trips
• How much your truck is worth
• What type(s) of cargo you transport

Besides being legally mandated, is it worth it? Considering that Walmart had to pay out a reported $90 million dollar negligence settlement for a 2014 collision with comedian Tracy Morgan, $15,000 is a serious bargain.

However, it is precisely events like this that make commercial truck insurance so expensive. So-called “nuclear verdicts” like this used to be rare, but are becoming increasingly common, which drives up the price of truck insurance for everyone. Typically payouts of this size are covered by what’s known as excess insurance, or insurance in excess of the liability limit on your primary policy. The risk manager explained the situation to us:

"When the excess carriers start feeling pain, they pass it all the way down... Used to be excess carriers sat there and waited for that one catastrophic event that happened every five-ten years, but it's happening all the time now. So because the excess carriers--the umbrella carriers--are driving their rates, it causes pain all the way down to the primary level."

In short, as the payouts increase, so too do the “pay-ins.”