Nearly 4 million people in the American workforce drive big-rigs for a living. Given trucking’s promise of decent compensation in exchange for low education, that’s a number that’s more likely to expand than contract.
If you’re thinking about jumping into the driving fray, picking up a rig, and starting to pull freight, one of the chief expenses you’re going to have to shoulder will be truck insurance. For those of you wondering, “How much is truck insurance?” – keep reading.
Below, our team walks through everything you need to know to get a sense of where in the truck insurance cost spectrum you’re likely to fall. Furthermore, we cover the key points of coverage that truck insurance provides drivers like you!
The Question of Cost
While we wish we could save you time and just tell you how much you’re going to have to pay per year for truck insurance, we can’t. That’s because, like all insurance policies, truck insurance prices vary based on several factors.
Understanding what those factors are so you can get a sense of if you’ll pay more or less for coverage is the best way to prep yourself before product shopping. Here are a handful of the most important insurance affecting points we think you should keep in mind:
Where You Work
Insurance prices predictably vary based on the kind of city you live in. If you’re living in an impacted, expensive city, your how much is truck insurance question is going to have a much worse answer than if you’re pulling freight in around a small town in South Dakota.
Unfortunately, many state insurance laws don’t allow you to shop for coverage with providers out of state. Therefore, you’ll be tied down to the options provided in your local market, even though they may be a lot more expensive than what you’d find shopping elsewhere.
What You Pull
As you might imagine, if your truck was filled with shipments of paper that totaled about $20,000 in value, you’d pay less in insurance than if your truck was filled with iPhones totaling $200,000 in value.
Why? Well, for starters, insurers are going to be liable for a lot more if your iPhone load gets stolen vs your paper load based on cumulative value alone. Taking things further, when you think of the likelihood of your cargo being stolen or even damaged, it makes sense that insurers would see more risk with electronics than they would with reams of paper.
All of those factors are considered when putting together a monthly insurance premium.
Client Requirements
As an owner-operator that’s driving their own truck while shopping for work from shippers, you’ll find that the shippers you work with may require drivers to maintain certain levels of insurance. They can be particularly picky when it comes to cargo coverage.
With that in mind, even if the level of coverage you buy into works for most of your clients, you may have to pay more for truck insurance to satisfy a single outlier. That’ll create questions for you as to whether or not pickier clients are worth courting.
Your Driving Record
Just like standard auto insurance, your driving record will have bearing on how much you pay for truck insurance. The fewer accidents you have on your record, the better.
If you have accidents on your record, you may want to work with an attorney to see if any of those incidents can get expunged, particularly if they’re making insurance rates cost-prohibitive.
How Often Are You Driving
The more you drive your truck, the more liable you are to make an insurance claim. Therefore, you’ll want to have a good idea of how many miles you plan on putting on your vehicles, per year, before shopping insurance quotes.
Answering that question correctly on your application could save you thousands of dollars per year.
Looking at Coverage
As you’ve seen, several factors affect truck insurance premiums. Assuming you fall on the high-end of cost based on those factors, you’ll certainly want to be confident in knowing that you’re being well taken care of for what you’re spending.
To that end, rest easy in knowing that quality insurance will cover your personal protection. It’ll cover your property (the truck you own). It’ll even take care of external liability (property and health of others) and your cargo.
To what degree all of those things will be covered comes down to your coverage limits in each category. Our advice to you is to talk to an insurance broker or organization like Hummel that specializes in hot shot carriers to get a better understanding of what coverage limits are and what you should opt into.
Insurance professionals will be able to assess your unique situation and opine on how much insurance is too much or too little. And remember, if you find that you need more coverage as you go, you can always increase your limits with proper notice.
Wrapping Up Our How Much Is Truck Insurance Question With Averages
You know the factors that affect truck insurance and what coverage you’ll get when you opt into quality insurance products. Taking that information and applying it to quotes should help you manage expectations and find great deals.
If you’re looking for averages for truck insurance, we’ll say that you can plan on paying anywhere from $600 to $1000 per month for coverage. Again, where you’ll fall in that range will be based on your unique situation.
Do you look at those averages and think you can’t afford insurance based on your clients? If so, consider working with a company until you can. By driving for another company, they’ll cover your insurance obligations so you can focus on driving.
Still have more how much is truck insurance questions? Wondering where you can get a truck insurance quote? For those lingering questions and more, explore additional truck insurance and transportation write-ups on our blog.