Insurance considerations for a Dump Truck Operation

When you own a dump truck business, you might begin to think, am I protected properly with my insurance? As an owner, not only do you need to protect the people and equipment, but more importantly you need to protect the business. The right insurance for the dump truck industry, depending on operational scope may include:

• Commercial Auto Liability
• Physical Damage Insurance
• Cargo Insurance
• Pollution Coverage
• Non-trucking liability
• General Liability

Commercial auto liability: Covers your legal obligation to the other driver, if you’re on the job and get into an accident. It covers Bodily injury to other drivers’ medical bills, property damage to cover repairs or replacement of other drivers equipment, etc.  Check your state regulations for minimum requirements.

Physical damage: This covers repairs to your equipment. Liability insurance won’t cover damage to your vehicles, which is why physical damage is so important. There are 2 aspects of physical damage: collision – repairs if vehicle is in an accident    comprehensive – covers all repairs or damage for something other than a collision like theft, fire, vandalism, etc.

Cargo Insurance: Protects the load your hauling from losses like collision, theft, or fire. If you’re in an accident you might be responsible for compensating the client for the loss of the cargo. That’s where this insurance helps.

Non-Trucking Liability:  Acts similar to commercial auto liability in that it protects you while you’re not actively dispatched. If in an accident occurs while using truck for personal use, it will cover your legal obligation to the other driver. This is typically an owner operator scenario who owns the truck but might be leased on to an operation.

Pollution coverage: Will help you with your obligation to clean up environment in case of a spill or the loss of your load due to the accident. An example might be you wreck your dump truck and the load spills into a nearby creek, pollution coverage will help with the clean-up.

General Liability: This type of insurance helps you cover lawsuits about things bodily injury or property damage does not as a result of driving the dump truck. Things like slander, liable and delivering the load to the wrong place can be covered under General Liability. Another example is if a  customer falls/trips on your property and has injuries and decide to sue you,  the General Liability insurance would be coverage that protects you.

Please remember different losses are covered by different coverages, so please ask questions and understand what is and is not covered on your policy details.

One of the most important things to consider as an owner, is how does my company look to the insurance company and underwriting team. There are many factors that insurance companies look at to determine cost of each coverage, which directly correlate to risk and the cost to repair and cover common risks that occur within the dump truck industry. Some of the important factors but certainly not all the factors are:

• The overall business credit score
• Where you operate – city/state
• How far in distance is the radius of operation
• Type of products and loads handled – including potential backhauls
• Size and age of fleet
• How well maintained and documented is the maintenance of vehicles and equipment
• # of years in business and loss runs
• Gross vehicle weight of vehicle – GVW
• # of axles – single, tandem, triple, etc.
• Drivers record – do you perform proper pre-hiring procedures
• Safety program and retention policies
• Garaging location and security – fencing, alarms, etc.
• How quickly do you communicate driver changes and equipment changes -these need to be accurate to make sure your covered in case of an incident?

Providing the correct coverage, adding value to the operation, and servicing the account is why you want to talk with us at TrueDTI.  

TrueDTI specializes in insurance for the trucking industry. We only deal with best rated insurance companies, that provide excellent service and if necessary, a proactive claims management process. Let TrueDTI become your trusted advisor, we have over 30 years of trucking experience and are committed to an excellent customer experience.