[GMAN]

I have spoken to several other insurance agents. My agent got back with me today with a different quote. Last year I took off the physical damage on my trailer. When I had him quote it this year I added the trailer back in so that was most of the increase. If the collision is taken off I still have about $200 increase over last year but it will keep me under $5,000 for the annual premium. One reason that I was thinking about adding the collision back to the policy was because someone stole 5 tarps from my step deck while my truck was in the shop over night. This was only a couple of weeks ago. They thieves cut 2 straps that were holding them and took the tarps. I had 2 steel tarps with 8' drops, 2 steel tarps and one 60' long blue plastic/vinyl tarp. I paid about $1,500 for them. I don't think that they can be replaced for the same amount of money. But, that is the reason that I am having second thoughts about collision.

I know what you mean, Roadhog. Obama's policies are having an impact on everything in our lives. They seem to be coming at us from all directions. He doesn't need more money to secure the border. He certainly can't blame this one on Bush, although he is trying. He uses executive orders for everything else, he could use one to stop the flow of invaders from the southern border. I have no doubt this was organized some time ago. It takes the focus from the Middle East and what is going on with our economy. He could easily put the National Guard on the border. I would much rather see them in Texas and Arizona than in Iraq or Afghanistan. In fact, the governors could mobilize them. At one time the state National Guard came under the control of each governor.

[Maniac]

Well I think for $ 200 a year I would keep the collision,can you replace your trailer for $200 ? my trailer still comes in at $25,000, new they are $60,000 , my collision is hardly why my premium is high, I carry 1 million liability, and $100,000 cargo, I operate pretty much solely in the north east, heavy traffic, and I have overweight permits, part of the work I do, all the other guys that run with me are in the same price range for ins

The ins companies are trying to get back what they put out in natural disasters, right or wrong they pretty much have the markets cornered,

[merrick4]

My numbers would make you guys sick. I am waiting for the cargo quote but the auto liability and comp and collision on non Ryder owned assets went up $47,000. From what I was told, this is a culmination of a few things. One, like Maniac said, they lost a lot of money with the natural disasters. Sandy alone pushed Ryder to get out of the insurance business.

Also it has been a very soft market for several years and a lot of companies put themselves out of business. I deal with one agent and he said the market fluctuates yearly but that it stayed soft for an abnormal amount of time that we all got used to it. (People like Gman who have been in this longer than me can comment on that). However he said the re-insurers are lowering their rates by 25% which will get companies to get back into the market.

I've had it bad this year. I had another trailer stolen full of pork right out of the yard and I had a sensor go bad this week and freeze a whole load of flowers. This Miami area is incredible with the theft of freight. I was talking to the police and basically they claim due to budget cuts they don't have the resources to handle it. The adjuster today told me there's nothing they can do. That is bull. If they want to break something up they can. They broke up the mafia no? Charlestown, MA use to be the armored car robbery capital of the country and they broke that up. They can stop it. However we now have a guard at night and I'm installing a second GPS sensor in each trailer.

It's getting tougher and tougher out there. And now this Walmart incident with the comedian is not going to help things. We tried to get set up with a major shipper and as our HOS are above the threshold we were told basically the Walmart incident changed everything and companies are going to get a lot more strict. Nobody seems to read on the fine print which they, well have as fine print on the score page:

The symbol is not intended to imply any federal safety rating of the carrier pursuant to 49 USC 31144. Readers should not draw conclusions about a carrier's overall safety condition simply based on the data displayed in this system. Unless a motor carrier in the SMS has received an UNSATISFACTORY safety rating pursuant to 49 CFR Part 385, or has otherwise been ordered to discontinue operations by the FMCSA, it is authorized to operate on the nation's roadways.

[wrongwayTommy]

I saw a 15-20% increase too G-Man
really sucks since I have a clean everything just like last year.
I have renewed mine but I`ll be looking ahead for next year


2 trucks
5 trailers
physical damage
liab
cargo

$13,260.00 a year
one truck is 5295 including physical damage,lia,and cargo,my truck and the trailers are the rest.

as far as this sicko we have in Washington and the rest of the lib,`s I wish they would all go back
to the jungle and crawl back into their huts.We have to put up with this bunch for 2 more years and
I do hope we can survive .

[GMAN]

Originally Posted by Maniac

Well I think for $ 200 a year I would keep the collision,can you replace your trailer for $200 ? my trailer still comes in at $25,000, new they are $60,000 , my collision is hardly why my premium is high, I carry 1 million liability, and $100,000 cargo, I operate pretty much solely in the north east, heavy traffic, and I have overweight permits, part of the work I do, all the other guys that run with me are in the same price range for ins

The ins companies are trying to get back what they put out in natural disasters, right or wrong they pretty much have the markets cornered,

My physical damage on my step deck will run the premium up about $600-700. According to the dealer from whom I purchased the trailer, it is still worth about $24,000. You are right about not being able to replace it for that amount of money. I only dropped the physical damage last year due to the premium hike. I was mostly thinking about damage from an accident. It is pretty difficult to do much damage to an open deck trailer. After the theft of my tarps, I am giving more consideration to the possibility of theft rather than physical damage to my trailer.

[GMAN]

Originally Posted by wrongwayTommy

I saw a 15-20% increase too G-Man
really sucks since I have a clean everything just like last year.
I have renewed mine but I`ll be looking ahead for next year


2 trucks
5 trailers
physical damage
liab
cargo

$13,260.00 a year
one truck is 5295 including physical damage,lia,and cargo,my truck and the trailers are the rest.

as far as this sicko we have in Washington and the rest of the lib,`s I wish they would all go back
to the jungle and crawl back into their huts.We have to put up with this bunch for 2 more years and
I do hope we can survive .

Well, your rates are close to mine. It is still too high. At least neither of us are paying as much as Merrick. Of course, he has to insure a lot more trucks and is in a high risk area. I spoke with my insurance agent and they don't really like to insure Florida based carriers, but do write in the state. I am glad that my company isn't based in Florida. There is no telling what they would quote me. Florida must have a lot of thefts.

[GMAN]

I did it. I signed the contract to renew my insurance with my current agent and company. For the liability and cargo, I am paying about $200/year more than last year. I am still under $5,000 for that part of the coverage. Every quote that I received was higher than what my current insurer quoted. I had hoped that I could get a reduction, but all these insurance companies seem to be in a mood to raise, not lower rates. At least this way I won't have a lapse in coverage and there is plenty of time to get new certificates out to those with whom I do business.

[mndriver]

I wish my rates were that low...

[GMAN]

I made a comment to my agent about the rate and said something about the mega carriers. According to him, they are paying about what I pay for a much smaller operation. I find it difficult to believe that they are paying around the same rate as me. I figured they would be paying a much lower rate due to the number of vehicles. But, they also have a lot of claims, even though most of them self insure, up to a point.

[merrick4]

The sure do have a lot of claims. Once a Werner truck backed into one of mine. So I called the incident in to them. There was a 1-800 number or something and it let to a series of prompts. I got to one set of prompts and it said, " for fatalities dial 1, for not fatal accidents dial 2" or something like that. I was blown away by that though.