Trucking umbrella insurance, also known as excess liability insurance (ELI), is one of the most important types of insurance a trucking company can buy. It protects your business from gaps or limits in truck liability policy coverage, along with expensive lawsuits. Coverage gaps and lawsuits against trucking businesses that don’t have umbrella coverage often force them to close down.
In this article, we’ll reveal the top four insurers that offer trucking business insurance that can include umbrella coverage — along with what you need to know about the coverage so you can feel confident about exploring your options.
- 4 best trucking insurance companies that offer umbrella coverage
- What does trucking umbrella insurance cover?
- Do I need umbrella insurance for truckers?
- What types of liability can trucking umbrella insurance cover?
- What does commercial truck umbrella insurance cover?
- How much does commercial truck umbrella insurance cost?
- How can I save money on commercial truck umbrella insurance?
4 best trucking insurance companies that offer umbrella coverage
- Simply Business: Best for a simple buying process
- Commercialinsurance.net: Best for comparing quotes
- Reliance Partners: Best for understanding trucking insurance needs
- Colonial Insurance Services: Best for trucking insurance industry expertise
Simply Business: Best for a simple buying process.
Simply Business isn’t just a company name: it’s how the firm approaches small business insurance. It promises to make it clear, simple, and affordable.
The company was founded in 2005 as an online business insurance brokerage specializing in protecting truckers and other small businesses.
The insurer will help you find the right trucker business insurance, including umbrella coverage, at the right price.
Simply Business is known for being:
- Fast and affordable
- Able to provide solutions tailored to the needs of individual businesses
- Flexible when it comes to coverages and limits.
You owe it to yourself to get a quote from Simply Business for your trucking business insurance, including umbrella protection.
Commercialinsurance.net: Best for comparing quotes
Commercialinsurance.net makes it easy for trucking businesses to compare, buy, and manage insurance coverages that they need, including trucking umbrella coverage.
Commercialinsurance.net is a broker. They work with an intensive network of agents who have decades of experience in the trucking insurance business. However unique your trucking business is, you can count on commercialinsurance.net being able to connect you with the right agents who have experience in businesses like yours. They usually connect you with 2-3 agents so that you can get and compare quotes from these agents to find the best and the cheapest one for your business.
Reliance Partners: Best for understanding trucking insurance needs
Reliance Partners is committed to revolutionizing the insurance industry. The firm was launched in 2009 and strives to bring clarity, transparency, and new energy to providing trucker insurance. The people who work at Reliance Partners come from the worlds of trucking, freight, and logistics, so they are uniquely able to understand your business and its needs.
The company works with hundreds of insurance providers, making it likely they’ll be able to find the right truck insurance for you, including umbrella coverage if you need it, at a fair price.
Colonial Insurance Services: Best for trucking insurance industry expertise
Colonial is a leading provider of trucking business insurance. The experts at the firm understand the safety concerns of companies that transport cargo. It has developed the expertise and infrastructure to offer superior insurance products and services that meet and exceed the safety-sensitive requirements of the industry.
Colonial is known for its:
- Relationships and market clout that allow it to secure the most competitive policy terms
- Ability to help with Department of Transportation compliance
- Custom analysis of SMS/CSA scores and recommendations on how to lower them
- MVR and Pre-Employment Screening Reports (PSP)
- Discounts on truck dash camera systems
- 24/7 online access to certificates of insurance
- Safety engineers who help prevent incidents and claims
- Timely policy changes.
Finally, when it comes time to renew your truck insurance, including your umbrella coverage, you can expect Colonial to work with you to secure the most competitive terms available at that time, whether they’re from your current insurer or another one.
What does trucking umbrella insurance cover?
Umbrella insurance (sometimes called excess liability insurance) kicks in when trucking businesses have gaps in their coverage or policy limits that are too low to cover an accident-related loss or other type of incident.
Umbrella insurance is a relatively inexpensive way to bridge policy gaps and increase your liability protection limits.
If you’re not clear about whether you may have truck liability insurance coverage gaps — or if your policy limits could be too low — read your policy carefully or check with an experienced truck insurance agent or company representative.
Do I need umbrella insurance for truckers?
Accidents that involve trucks are often worse than those involving other types of vehicles. Damage and injuries are more extreme, and people are more likely to die in them. This often results in costly insurance claims and lawsuits that can cost many millions of dollars in legal expenses and settlements.
Umbrella insurance pays out when you exceed the limits of your commercial truck insurance policy, whether it’s because of an accident, other type of incident, or lawsuit.
If you’re not sure if you need umbrella insurance for your trucking business, speak with an experienced insurance agent or company representative to discuss the risks your operation faces and whether getting the coverage makes sense for you.
Ask yourself: What would happen to your trucking business if your equipment and other assets were liquidated to pay damages if a jury award or claim is above your insurance policy limits and you can’t afford the difference out of pocket?
What types of liability can trucking umbrella insurance cover?
Businesses buy excess liability insurance to back up the limits contained in their underlying liability policies, including:
- truck liability coverage
- trucking general liability – Learn more at the best trucking general liability insurance companies
- business truck liability
- employer liability
- workers’ compensation – Learn more at the best workers comp insurance for truckers
- professional liability.
For most cases, it’s used to cover exceptionally significant events and losses that don’t happen very often. Without umbrella coverage, these events are financially devastating to many companies.
ELI is also beneficial because it can save your business money by covering more assets with fewer individual policies.
What does commercial truck umbrella insurance cover?
Here are the most common things covered by typical umbrella policies:
Multiple sources of liability
Umbrella insurance protects against lawsuits and helps pay for damaged property and injuries. It may also cover incidents involving personal liability, for example, if an employee sues you over sexual harassment. It protects you in many different ways, which is why it’s referred to as “umbrella” insurance.
Delivers a higher level of protection
Many other insurance policies cover the same liabilities as umbrella insurance. However, a unique feature is that it provides protection above the limits that other policies offer for things like legal fees, medical bills, and damage costs. It can help you rest assured knowing you’re covered even if something calamitous happens.
Provides economic protection in a convenient way
Umbrella coverage supplies protection against economic losses that you could suffer because of unexpected, devastating events. In most cases, truckers are automatically eligible for umbrella coverage if they have any commercial liability protection, including commercial truck liability insurance.
Covers your health
If you or someone who works for you suffers serious bodily injury and health insurance doesn’t provide enough coverage for a full recovery — or if there is no workers’ compensation insurance — an umbrella policy can help. It can extend your health insurance limits and cover the cost of medical care and recovery.
Protects your reputation
An umbrella insurance policy also provides coverage for libel or slanderous lawsuits, which can be costly, and, if not defended against, could seriously harm your business.
Is there a difference between umbrella and excess liability insurance?
The two types of policies are similar. In some cases, you may need to answer some qualifying questions to get umbrella insurance, which is generally not the case with excess liability protection.
How much does commercial truck umbrella insurance cost?
Umbrella coverage is sold in $1 million increments. Most trucking business insurers offer umbrella coverage up to $50,000,000. An experienced insurance agent or company rep can help you figure out how much coverage you need. The market for this coverage is often erratic, so you must do your due diligence to ensure you’re paying a fair price for protection.
Because of higher jury awards, the rates for trucker umbrella insurance have increased dramatically over the last decade. Trucking umbrella insurance coverage typically starts at around $2,500 per year and the cost should be a separate line on your trucker business insurance quote.
This is just the average. Be sure to shop around with a few companies or with a broker such as Simply Business or commercialinsurane.net to compare several quotes to find the cheapest one for your trucking business.
How can I save money on commercial truck umbrella insurance?
The best way to save on umbrella insurance is to get multiple trucker business insurance quotes from different providers that include the umbrella coverage you need. Then you can compare coverages and costs to find the best overall deal for you.
