Every state in the union has requirements for commercial truck insurance. Pennsylvania is no different from the rest. This article looks at the requirements, the cost, and even some of the best companies we recommend for commercial truck insurance in Pennsylvania.
- 6 best commercial truck insurance in Pennsylvania
- Commercial truck insurance requirements in Pennsylvania
- What does commercial truck insurance cover in Pennsylvania?
- Commercial truck insurance costs in Pennsylvania
- Factors affecting commercial truck insurance costs in Pennsylvania
- How to find cheap commercial truck insurance in Pennsylvania
6 best commercial truck insurance in Pennsylvania
After researching several companies, we decided to highlight these six companies.
- InsurePro: Best for on-demand, pay-per-day trucking coverage
- THREE: Best for low cost coverage and great digital experience
- Progressive: Best Overall and best for several discounts
- Simply Business: Best for comparing quotes
- The Hartford: Best for companies with fleet of trucks
- Commercialinsurance.net: Best for small trucking companies
InsurePro: Best for on-demand, pay-per-day trucking coverage
InsurePro is an innovative broker specializing in small business insurance. Trucking is one of their main focused industries. They provide an innovative trucking coverage, allowing you to pay for the coverage only when you are on the road. They call it on-demand insurance coverage. You don’t need to pay for days that you are not driving your truck to haul cargo. This will save you a lot of money in trucking insurance expenses.
They also offer quotes online, which is quite rare. In our research, only three insurance companies offer commercial truck insurance quotes online: Progressive, THREE insurance, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaways, and InsurePro. We got a quote from them for catering food truck only working 3 days a week and here is the quote we received from them, one the the cheapest quote for commercial truck insurance that we have seen in our years of covering the trucking industry.
You may want to give them a try even if you want to get a standard trucking coverage.
THREE insurance: Best for low cost coverage and great digital experience
THREE is a Berkshire Hathaway’s subsidiary that offers commercial policies from commercial auto to business liability and workers’ compensation insurance. Every THREE policy includes commercial auto. They simplify the business insurance coverage so that the policy document can fit into 3 pages, even they consist of several coverages.
THREE focuses on selling insurance directly to small businesses, bypassing agents and brokers. They have built their products in a way that they can be distributed, sold, and managed entirely online. Building insurance products this way also helps them cut costs, making their rates more affordable than others.
As a result, they can offer quotes online and when you are happy with your quote, you can proceed buying the policy online as well. After that, you can manage your policy completely online using their dashboard with many great features.
Below is a quote example we received from THREE for a trucking company in Texas. Your rates and quotes will be different. THREE is available in Pennsylvania too, so you may want to give it a try.
Progressive: Best Overall and best for several discounts
Progressive offers commercial auto insurance all across the country. There are approximately 750,000 business owners who rely on Progressive to provide protection for the vehicles that help provide their livelihoods. The company specializes in customizing policies to match the unique needs of each business while assisting them in finding ways to make the coverage more affordable.
One of the ways to reduce your commercial truck insurance cost is to take advantages of several discounts Progressive offers from bundling with other business insurance policies, to safe driving record, to pay premiums in full, and many others.
Progressive is also the first insurance company offering truck insurance quotes online. It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes to get a quote from Progressive. You may want to give it a try.
Simply Business: Best for comparing quotes
Simply Business is a broker that Travelers Insurance owns. Because they are affiliated with Travelers, you can typically expect a quote for insurance from Travelers. Besides Travelers, the company also partners with several leading insurance companies. When you complete your online quote request, the company will return multiple quotes for you to choose the best and the cheapest one for your trucking business. If you prefer compare several quotes in one place, you may want to start with Simply Business.
Simply Business earns a 4.1 customer satisfaction rating out of 5 on Trustpilot.
The Hartford: Best for companies with fleet of trucks
The Hartford began as a fire insurance company more than 200 years ago. Now they offer insurance products to a variety of professions, including commercial truckers. They have earned a stellar reputation as one of the leading small business insurance providers. In fact, they have insured more than 1 million small businesses in the US.
Trucking is one of their focused industries. Within trucking, they actually specialize in fleet truck insurance. They have built their trucking coverages to be completely customizable to different fleet sizes. If you run a trucking company with fleet of trucks, more than 20 trucks, you may want to give them a try.
Commercialinsurance.net: Best for small trucking companies
Commercialinsurance.net is an online broker for small business insurance. They specialize in coverage for small businesses that are often considered too small for the larger companies to even consider covering. The company will also take on the risk of insuring new companies.
New trucking companies are usually considered high risk, and may be difficult to give coverage. If you have difficulties in finding coverage for your new trucking company, you may want to work with commercialinsurance.net
Commercial truck insurance requirements in Pennsylvania
All commercial auto policies in Pennsylvania are required to have a split 15/30/5 limit. That means $15,000 per person, $30,000 per accident (bodily injury), and $5,000 property damage limits. Some vehicles are required to have higher limits, but these are the minimums. Pennsylvania also requires medical benefits coverage to pay medical expenses of people covered by your policy in the event of injury during an accident.
In addition to these coverages, interstate truckers from Pennsylvania are required to meet minimum federal standards to receive their authority for operations. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulates the federal rules for commercial trucking insurance. The FMCSA sets limits based on truck size and the cargo being hauled.
What does commercial truck insurance cover in Pennsylvania?
Commercial truck insurance is a type of policy that covers vehicles being used for business. If you use your vehicle for work, you need commercial truck insurance. Commercial trucking insurance is made up of several parts. Some of them are similar to personal auto insurance:
Primary liability: Covers damages you do to others’ property in an accident
Physical damage coverage: Covers your truck and your equipment if it’s damaged in an accident. Learn more at the trucking physical damage insurance companies.
Medical payments: Pays for injuries to other parties.
Uninsured/underinsured motorists: Covers you if someone with either no insurance or not enough insurance to cover the costs damages either you or your vehicle.
Other parts of trucking insurance are unique to trucks.
Non-trucking liability: this coverage provides protection if the truck damages property or causes injuries while it’s not under dispatch. Learn more at the best non-trucking liability insurance companies.
This coverage is sometimes confused with bobtail insurance. They are similar, but with subtle differences. Learn more about the differences between the two and determine which one you actually need.
Motor truck cargo coverage: coverage for your cargo if it’s damaged or lost. Motor truck cargo coverage can be either broad form or specified perils. Broad form coverage protects your cargo is anything goes wrong. Specified perils only covers you for losses named in the policy. You want a broad form policy. Learn more at the motor truck cargo insurance companies.
Trailer interchange: Covers a non-owned trailer. Learn more everything about trailer interchange coverage.
Commercial truck insurance cost in Pennsylvania
Most insurance premiums in Pennsylvania are between $12,100 and $17,800, with the average premium being approximately $14,100. These estimates were based on one-truck operations requiring liability, cargo, bobtail, and physical damage coverages. Your actual charges will vary based on several factors. It isn’t unusual for the same trucker to get different rates depending on the company providing the quotes.
Average commercial truck insurance cost per month in Pennsylvania
The average commercial truck insurance cost is $1,175 per month. This policy includes trucking liability, cargo truck insurance, bobtail, and trucking physical damage coverages.
Below are the breakdowns of the average costs for each coverage:
| Commercial truck insurance coverages | Average costs |
| Trucking liability | $620 per month |
| Bobtail insurance | $50 per month |
| Cargo truck insurance | $175 per month |
| Trucking physical damage | $330 per month |
These are just the averages. Your rates will be different. Two trucking companies never have the same insurance costs. So be sure to shop around with a few companies. Get quotes online is a good way to compare several quotes. Progressive, InsurePro, and THREE are the three companies offering truck insurance quotes online in Pennsylvania.
You can also work with a top broker like Simply Business or Commercialinsurane.net to compare several quotes in one place.
Factors affecting commercial truck insurance cost in Pennsylvania
The factors affecting your commercial truck insurance costs in Pennsylvania include the following things:
- The insurance company you choose.
- Your profession because not all risk is the same.
- The size and kind of vehicle you have.
- The driving history of any drivers who drive for your company.
- Your location. Believe it or not, whether you are in a city or a suburb affects your insurance premiums, as do the weather and other risks in your area.
- How far you travel has a profound effect on your insurance premiums because staying closer to home has less risk than traveling over a distance.
- The kind and amount of coverage you need also affect your premiums. If you only carry minimum liability coverages, you will pay less than if you have more or different types of coverage.
Other things could affect your insurance premiums, but these are the main things that insurance companies will factor into your costs.
How to find cheap commercial truck insurance in Pennsylvania
Finding cheap commercial truck insurance in Pennsylvania can seem difficult, but you can do it with a little effort. Many companies offer online quotes to help ease the process. If you want quotes from multiple companies, you might consider using an insurance broker rather than an insurance agent. With any insurance quote, you want to ensure you are looking at the same kinds of coverages with the same limits each time, so you get a clear picture of the costs you can expect from each company.
Final thoughts
You are required to maintain minimum liability coverages in Pennsylvania as well as to maintain federal minimum liability limits. The coverage costs vary depending on the kind of coverage you need and the company you are working with. Some of the companies and brokers offer online quotes and policy management. If you only maintain minimum limits, your cost will be cheaper than if you purchase additional coverage; however, it isn’t typically a good idea to only maintain minimum limits as that might not fully protect your interests.
