INSURANCE REQUIREMENTS

May 20, 2014 at 12:45 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. I am in the process of buying my first hopper. I am in the SW MO area.Phone # is 417-664-1628. What do the majority of shippers require for insurance? Any advice I could get from those of you more experienced would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

Replied on Tue, May 20, 2014 at 03:34 PM CST + 1
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. I think you can get by with 25k cargo, but 100k is best. Most want 1 million liability. Just remember that there is a hungry lawyer on every street corner so more insurance the better on liability.

Replied on Tue, May 20, 2014 at 03:39 PM CST - 1
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. Thank you for that sir. You are absolutely correct about the lawyers. What about an umbrella policy? Thanks for any good advice

Replied on Tue, May 20, 2014 at 07:06 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. Right now I just have the standard 1 mil liability plus cargo, but now that you mention umbrella policy maybe I should look into that.I had a shipper require "commercial general liability" which for instance covers me if a worker fell of my trailer.That policy costs me 500 a year, but I went without it for a few years.Thanks for mentioning the umbrella idea!, maybe somebody else could shed some light on that.

Replied on Tue, May 20, 2014 at 07:06 PM CST

Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.

Right now I just have the standard 1 mil liability plus cargo, but now that you mention umbrella policy maybe I should look into that.I had a shipper require "commercial general liability" which for instance covers me if a worker fell of my trailer.That policy costs me 500 a year, but I went without it for a few years.Thanks for mentioning the umbrella idea!, maybe somebody else could shed some light on that.

Replied on Tue, May 20, 2014 at 07:20 PM CST + 1
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. the umbrella policy is not needed. we pay enough, it cost about an addition $1,200.00

Replied on Tue, May 20, 2014 at 08:24 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. Hi Jeff thanks for the advice. I noticed you're from the lake, I'm from Lebanon. Give me a call sometime maybe we can work together in the near future. Take care

Replied on Tue, May 20, 2014 at 08:45 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. $25,000 on cargo is all you need as well...

Replied on Tue, May 20, 2014 at 08:45 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. $25,000 on cargo is all you need as well...

Replied on Wed, May 21, 2014 at 02:23 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. I have $50,000 in cargo insurance, 1,000,000 in my liability truck insurance and a 2 million dollar general liability (umbrella) policy. The "umbrella" is needed by some and not by others....but at roughly $500/year, its pretty cheap insurance.

Replied on Wed, May 21, 2014 at 02:31 PM CST + 1
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. $25,000 Cargo is good for grain, but not anything else. Lost a load a poultry meal a while back, and the bill was $32,000. If you try and pull for large corporations, or any thing like a van trailer or step, most brokers and shippers require $100,000.

Replied on Thu, Jun 05, 2014 at 09:58 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. Cargill&HTC require general Liability..

Replied on Fri, Jun 06, 2014 at 11:18 AM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. If the umbrella policy will cover a load due to delay or any unforseen issue i would get it. my 100,000 dollar policy did not. the motor went down on my truck reciever rejected my load. had to pay the 7,000 salvage value didnt cover out of my pocket. a load of chicken feed. morral of the story CYA.

Replied on Fri, Jun 06, 2014 at 11:59 AM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. You must remember that cargo insurance is not for the cargo alone, but is also for the cost of picking the commodity up if you spill a load. Depending on what the comoddity is, this can be very expensive.

Replied on Fri, Jun 06, 2014 at 04:24 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. Quote: "You must remember that cargo insurance is not for the cargo alone, but is also for the cost of picking the commodity up if you spill a load. Depending on what the comoddity is, this can be very expensive." You may think insurance is expensive.. But it won't be when you need it.. Either by your fault or the fault of an uninsured person. Tow trucks at hundreds.. That hundreds of dollars an hour, loaders, dump trucks.. Workers.. Etc all on the clock... Could be maybe not hundreds an hour but thousands.. So is that insurance really that expensive? If your policy isn't enough.. It comes out of your pocket.. Can you afford it? It's either pay higher premiums.. Or pay all of those involved that's there to clean up that supposed low dollar product. Just something to think about.

Replied on Fri, Jun 06, 2014 at 04:24 PM CST

Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.

Quote: "You must remember that cargo insurance is not for the cargo alone, but is also for the cost of picking the commodity up if you spill a load. Depending on what the comoddity is, this can be very expensive."

You may think insurance is expensive.. But it won't be when you need it.. Either by your fault or the fault of an uninsured person. Tow trucks at hundreds.. That hundreds of dollars an hour, loaders, dump trucks.. Workers.. Etc all on the clock... Could be maybe not hundreds an hour but thousands.. So is that insurance really that expensive? If your policy isn't enough.. It comes out of your pocket.. Can you afford it? It's either pay higher premiums.. Or pay all of those involved that's there to clean up that supposed low dollar product. Just something to think about.

Replied on Tue, Feb 03, 2015 at 11:32 AM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. Can you send me the imformation on this insurance company.

Replied on Wed, Feb 04, 2015 at 08:44 PM CST + 1
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. I have had factories charge my insurance company for finished product packaged because the truck broke down in route or didn't make delivery in time and vegetables could not be canned and processed. Example i once hauled a load of sweetcorn from a farm in route to a canning company, truck goes down in route, shop can't get my truck repaired fast enough. Its 95 degrees outside corn spoils in my end dump and its Friday plant is closing at 5pm and not opening until monday. Found a cattle farm to dump the load at, Cattle farmer did pay me for fuel to get back home. Sweetcorn farmers were getting about $70 dollars a ton for their corn at this time. The factory billed my insurance company Great west 6 times that amount for finished packaged product in other words $420 dollars a ton. have agent read over contracts carefully with you and make sure customer does the same with you and the agent.

Replied on Wed, Feb 04, 2015 at 08:44 PM CST

+ 1

Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.

I have had factories charge my insurance company for finished product packaged because the truck broke down in route or didn't make delivery in time and vegetables could not be canned and processed. Example i once hauled a load of sweetcorn from a farm in route to a canning company, truck goes down in route, shop can't get my truck repaired fast enough. Its 95 degrees outside corn spoils in my end dump and its Friday plant is closing at 5pm and not opening until monday. Found a cattle farm to dump the load at, Cattle farmer did pay me for fuel to get back home. Sweetcorn farmers were getting about $70 dollars a ton for their corn at this time. The factory billed my insurance company Great west 6 times that amount for finished packaged product in other words $420 dollars a ton. have agent read over contracts carefully with you and make sure customer does the same with you and the agent.

Replied on Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 08:50 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. On virtually all bulk commodities $30k cargo will be sufficient. Some of the other guys are right though. If you were ever in an incident where the load spilled, they may not scrap the entire load, but the cleanup for the entire load will come out of the cargo insurance. If it were only the commodity value itself, $10k would damn near cover every load, but you have to account for clean-up. You're required by law to have $750,000 liability insurance, but many Insurance companies wont start you out with less than $1 Million.

Replied on Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 08:50 PM CST

Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.

On virtually all bulk commodities $30k cargo will be sufficient. Some of the other guys are right though. If you were ever in an incident where the load spilled, they may not scrap the entire load, but the cleanup for the entire load will come out of the cargo insurance. If it were only the commodity value itself, $10k would damn near cover every load, but you have to account for clean-up. You're required by law to have $750,000 liability insurance, but many Insurance companies wont start you out with less than $1 Million.

Replied on Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 08:52 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. Talk to your insurance agent. If the cost is minimal, the more insurance you have the better off you are. I don't see any reason to have as much as $100k cargo insurance, but if we're talking about only a few bucks a month it really can't hurt!

Replied on Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 09:20 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. I just got a letter from my insurance agent that the feds are considering a bill that would up the liability minimum to 1.5 mil and all cargo to 100,000. Looking into it the additional costs on the liability will only be in the neighborhood of $50 to $250 per month depending on how many trucks you have. In my case I carry $150,000 load insurance on all and $1,250,000 liability. Most of my customers require $100,000 load but for a small fee its safer to cover my a.. I have found that you can offset the costs of premiums by adding dash cams and tracking devices. Also all of my loads are sealed.

Replied on Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 09:20 PM CST

Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.

I just got a letter from my insurance agent that the feds are considering a bill that would up the liability minimum to 1.5 mil and all cargo to 100,000. Looking into it the additional costs on the liability will only be in the neighborhood of $50 to $250 per month depending on how many trucks you have. In my case I carry $150,000 load insurance on all and $1,250,000 liability. Most of my customers require $100,000 load but for a small fee its safer to cover my a.. I have found that you can offset the costs of premiums by adding dash cams and tracking devices. Also all of my loads are sealed.

Replied on Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 09:26 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. There was an article in this mont's Landline Magazine about this very thing. Sounds like minimum liability requirements are going to go up, but even if they double, that doesn't mean the rates will double. I saw one figure where if they raised the requirement to $1.5 million, the average increase in price would be somewhere under $50/month. As far asCargo Insurance requirements, Why are you required to have so much? I can't think of anything I can put in a hopper that would require more than $30k---including cleanup.

Replied on Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 09:26 PM CST

Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.

There was an article in this mont's Landline Magazine about this very thing. Sounds like minimum liability requirements are going to go up, but even if they double, that doesn't mean the rates will double. I saw one figure where if they raised the requirement to $1.5 million, the average increase in price would be somewhere under $50/month. As far asCargo Insurance requirements, Why are you required to have so much? I can't think of anything I can put in a hopper that would require more than $30k---including cleanup.

Replied on Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 08:22 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. I haul mostly recycled metals with end dumps. Mostly multi-axle heavy haul work. Some of my trucks are carrying 54 tons so with those I carry $250,000 cargo ins. Also anyone who has ever pulled a roll-off knows how dangerous they can be. That being said my rates directly reflect my costs to perform a speciality service. My hoppers are insured significantly less but are still hauling a lot of weight. Soy beans are cheaper to clean up then alluminum shavings or steel shreds. Each business has their own needs and I personally feel that uncle sam setting our requirements is wrong. If we have to adhere to them then why doesn't every car going down the road have to adhere to the same? Why can't trucks get away with plpd? just saying.....

Replied on Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 08:22 PM CST

Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.

I haul mostly recycled metals with end dumps. Mostly multi-axle heavy haul work. Some of my trucks are carrying 54 tons so with those I carry $250,000 cargo ins. Also anyone who has ever pulled a roll-off knows how dangerous they can be. That being said my rates directly reflect my costs to perform a speciality service. My hoppers are insured significantly less but are still hauling a lot of weight. Soy beans are cheaper to clean up then alluminum shavings or steel shreds. Each business has their own needs and I personally feel that uncle sam setting our requirements is wrong. If we have to adhere to them then why doesn't every car going down the road have to adhere to the same? Why can't trucks get away with plpd? just saying.....

Replied on Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 09:04 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. I might suggest under insured motorist. One of my trucks was hit by a name your price insured & they only had $ 10,000 in liability ins. his car was totaled and my truck had $ 14,000 damage. in one week he had a check for his car and it took 3 month to get my check for $10,000. I have to turn the rest in on my insurance policy.

Replied on Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 12:43 AM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. So you saying $25,000 cargo insurance is all i need,,how about for the Broker?

Replied on Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 12:45 AM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. So you saying $25,000 cargo insurance is all i need,,how about for the Broker?

Replied on Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 12:46 AM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. So you saying $25,000 cargo insurance is all i need,,how about for the Broker?

Replied on Sat, Jul 25, 2015 at 04:51 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. Quote: "So you saying $25,000 cargo insurance is all i need,,how about for the Broker?" Brokers have contingent cargo and GL. Their cost is substantially less then ours, they have less risk, that is why they deserve less reward not more.

Replied on Mon, Jul 27, 2015 at 11:41 AM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. I am amazed at how many Bills of Lading come across my desk with absolutely no load value listed. No matter what coverage you have if you do not list the value of the commoditiy you are hauliing on your bills, chances are you will not get the insured value alotted, some may only give you cents on the pound. It doesnt seem an important matter until something happens, just an fyi to cya.

Replied on Mon, Jul 27, 2015 at 11:41 AM CST

Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.

I am amazed at how many Bills of Lading come across my desk with absolutely no load value listed. No matter what coverage you have if you do not list the value of the commoditiy you are hauliing on your bills, chances are you will not get the insured value alotted, some may only give you cents on the pound. It doesnt seem an important matter until something happens, just an fyi to cya.

Replied on Mon, Jul 27, 2015 at 01:05 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. Quote: "I am amazed at how many Bills of Lading come across my desk with absolutely no load value listed. No matter what coverage you have if you do not list the value of the commoditiy you are hauliing on your bills, chances are you will not get the insured value alotted, some may only give you cents on the pound. It doesnt seem an important matter until something happens, just an fyi to cya. " No value declared equals very little in the claim department. Had a customer try to file a claim on us once, stating that the recliners that we hauled in were valued at $3000.00 each. We did not damage the recliners, their dockworkers did by crushing them with their C-Clamp, they were to lazy to hand unload. I denied the claim, offered to settle with them for $300.00 in exchange for the damaged recliners. All of the sudden they quit trying to file paperwork on my insurance.

Replied on Mon, Jul 27, 2015 at 01:05 PM CST

Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.

Quote: "I am amazed at how many Bills of Lading come across my desk with absolutely no load value listed. No matter what coverage you have if you do not list the value of the commoditiy you are hauliing on your bills, chances are you will not get the insured value alotted, some may only give you cents on the pound. It doesnt seem an important matter until something happens, just an fyi to cya. "

No value declared equals very little in the claim department. Had a customer try to file a claim on us once, stating that the recliners that we hauled in were valued at $3000.00 each. We did not damage the recliners, their dockworkers did by crushing them with their C-Clamp, they were to lazy to hand unload. I denied the claim, offered to settle with them for $300.00 in exchange for the damaged recliners. All of the sudden they quit trying to file paperwork on my insurance.

Replied on Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 09:47 AM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. Thank you sso uch Alffred!!!!

Replied on Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 04:43 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. Ask your shipper/customer/broker to name the value of the load, then there is no guess work, if you need to, you can get a additional rider for the extra value as organics, hemp, special blend fert. and such are much more valued than standard commodities.

Replied on Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 04:48 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. Quote: "No value declared equals very little in the claim department. Had a customer try to file a claim on us once, stating that the recliners that we hauled in were valued at $3000.00 each. We did not damage the recliners, their dockworkers did by crushing them with their C-Clamp, they were to lazy to hand unload. I denied the claim, offered to settle with them for $300.00 in exchange for the damaged recliners. All of the sudden they quit trying to file paperwork on my insurance." why would you sette if it was hidden damage? just curious......they themselves damaged unseen to the driver picking up......taking a photo of the packaging would prove you did not cause the damage from carriage.

Replied on Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 04:48 PM CST

Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.

Quote: "No value declared equals very little in the claim department. Had a customer try to file a claim on us once, stating that the recliners that we hauled in were valued at $3000.00 each. We did not damage the recliners, their dockworkers did by crushing them with their C-Clamp, they were to lazy to hand unload. I denied the claim, offered to settle with them for $300.00 in exchange for the damaged recliners. All of the sudden they quit trying to file paperwork on my insurance."

why would you sette if it was hidden damage? just curious......they themselves damaged unseen to the driver picking up......taking a photo of the packaging would prove you did not cause the damage from carriage.