Insurance help! My rates have jumped thru the roof
 

Hi there. I am a Kansas carrier and hopefully somebody can point me in right direction. My rates currently are about $17,784/year for 3 trucks. This was 500 mile radius insurance. Well I am trying to rewrite my policy to cover what I need and wow. I have changed from 500 mile radius to unlimited radius and added reefer breakdown. The typical $1,000,000 liability, $100,000 cargo with $100,000 reefer breakdown. I have '09 Cascadia, '04 Century and '97 Century. Well my problem is they want to raise rates from the above $17,784/year to $39,000-$45,000 (depending on writer)/year. I had a $6,400 deer hit claim (prior to last renewal though), $5,900 claim when driver backed into another truck in truckstop, $3,400 when driver ripped landing gear off trailer. Only large claim was '09 laid over in September '13. Roughly with tow, cargo, physical damage its about $80,000 claim. My saferstats have been dropping since February and my HOS have fell tremendously. They wrote current policy in March '13 after my safety scores reached their highest. Anybody have any places to point me on insurance because $39k-$45k/year for 3 trucks isn't realistic. Thank you!

With the claims you've had, the insurance companies haven't broken even on you yet. It's going to be tough.

go to kw trucks fk frieghtshakers haha only a joke

Try OOIDA, tho i agree with no worries, it's going to be tough.

OOIDA isn't recognized by about 5 brokers I use so will not work :(. Looks like going to have to bite the bullet for a year and hopefully no claims and safety scores continue climbing. Then I'm sure rates will come back to reasonable.

Pretty high loss ratio. Be happy that someone will even take it. Forget your company CSA, how bad are the drivers from past employers? Past accidents from them? MVR's? How much experience do you require?

Sometimes you have to get rid of drivers to lower insurance. Still have the driver with the layover?

Yes I do. He's only driver I have with anything on record, the rest are spotless with no wrecks or tickets. One driver is 10 years experience, one has 8 and other has 20. Think I'm going to just get it done and roll hard. Hopefully nothing happens claims wise this year and next renewal it drops substantially.

I personally require 2 years in past 3 minimum.

If that's the case, then it's purely your claims history that's hurting you; improvement there is purely a function of time. Keep your nose clean and things should improve, especially the further you get from that layover. It wouldn't hurt to shop around. There are more carriers in this space than people realize and they will often be very competitive on a new policy in order to lure a new customer. It certainly takes time to gather the quotes, but if you could save even $5000 it would be well worth it.

I am shopping no doubt.

The deal I'm doing I can put another 2-3 trucks on and keep rolling. If those are lease trucks 2 will help tremendously cover my insurance, I'll pay their insurance (cargo and liability). I figure that can at least lower my bottom line. Won't get rich by no means but will make bottom line reasonable.

If you need the name of another insurance agent, let me know. Mine has done a good job of keeping rates lower than any others that I have contacted. I think everyone received a rate hike this year. I got hit last year and this year, even with no claims, clean mvr and good safety score. I actually switched insurance companies this year, but stayed with the same agent.

GMAN Ill talk to my agent Mo day see if she's had any luck on better rates from any other companies. If not I'll be getting with you.

I stayed with the same insurance agent and switched insurance companies and mine went down $70 a month this year. Exact same coverage.

you might also look at changing deductibles and some coverage you might not need.

She's checking $3,000 deductibles instead of $1,000. That big claim is killing me.

My insurance skyrocketed this year (for various reasons). I actually got the underwriter on the phone and he basically explained that for years there were a lot of companies in the game that underpriced themselves and now there is less competition and rates are rising. I my friends brother is a compliance consultant and he said supposedly it's no longer the DOT putting people out of business it's the insurance companies.

No doubt. Obviously DOT can shut you down but if can't pay insurance you're done. Just makes it hard to lose a driver, well you can't really. A driverless may as well be sold as quick as possible.

OOIDA is VERY expensive. The Northland insurance I have now is $3k a year less than OOIDA and MUCH better insurance. I'd never reccomend them to anybody but an enemy.

With those claims, I don't know who can help you, but I've been very happy with Buckner (The Buckner Company | Insurance, Employee Benefits and Surety Bonds) over the last five years. We were with OOIDA before that and they were ridiculously expensive and offered a substandard product.

If you're a NASTC member, they might be an option for you. They tried getting me to switch a couple years ago and were around $50 - $100 under what I was paying Buckner, but I'm too happy with the service I get from Buckner to ditch them for a mere $100.

Good luck.

Oh, if you call Buckner, ask for Kim Russell... she's awesome.

Thank you for info. I am a NASTC member. They told me if they could do something they would send me stuff right over in email, didn't get a thing. Looks like I just have to walk a fine line (which do anyhow) and make sure all equipment is tip top shape and drivers are up to par and the next year we roll without any claims then next renewal hopefully will drop substantially.

I had one claim coming off this year, but continuing the pattern I've had all year, someone just stole a brand new trailer full of chicken right out of our locked, secured, monitored by cameras, yard yesterday.

They jumped the wall, stole another truck and connected to the trailer and covered their face and cut open the gate. I have been telling everyone I don't want the drivers taking the trucks home but everyone knows better than me. I had GPS on the trailer but they disabled it in Miami and the trail went cold. I really don't know how I got in this business. I'm so anxious to pull the plug but the "unknown" of the future. On top of that, I am the main caretaker of my daughter which this business gives me time to do. I mean she's in school or pre-school but the mother has an executive level position in a financial firm and so it's me dropping her off to school and picking her up and taking her to all her other stuff she's involved in. I am heavily involved in her life and I can't put a price on that as much as I despise this business.

I am sorry to hear about the theft, Merrick. It sounds like they knew what they wanted. Have you considered that it could have been an inside job? No one wants to think about that sort of thing, but from your post, it sounds like they knew exactly what they were doing and what to go after. They also had knowledge about camera's and disconnecting the GPS. It could also have been professionals. From what I have been reading, theft is up with trucking. A load of chicken would need to be disposed of quickly. So, they had to have a buyer lined up. I suppose that I am getting ahead of myself. I am glad that you can be there for your daughter. Every business has setbacks. Sometimes trucking can be a roller coaster. Things go along just fine and then it seems like one thing after another happens. Things will get better. I think that there are many in this business who have a love/hate relationship with the industry. I certainly don't enjoy it as much as I did at one time. Hang in there, it will get better. You have come a long way in a very short time.

I myself don't drive my trucks for reasons some of you have read (one hand D.O.T. issue with getting waiver). Honestly I wouldn't want to while my kids are young. I would if needed to put food on table. Fortunately this new deal I am starting SHOULD put enough miles on consistently and average enough consistently to put decent money in bank and expand fleet by 1-3 trucks this year (upcoming 2014). Getting quality drivers is the hardest battle. I guess within next month I will see how it will work out. If works out like should I will be looking for power only drivers to lease onto me (1-3 also).

Merrick I think GMAN has good point of looking at current employees or recently released/quit employees. I think there you will find the scumbag thief.

We spoke to the task force and I told the guy that all people are considered suspects and he is free to have access to any personnel files he wants. There are other people that park in that yard and we are in South Florida which besides California is one of the highest cargo theft areas in the country. Apparently it was two Hispanics as the truck they stole (not mine) broke down in Miami. Then that's when they cut the GPS. I don't have Hispanics drive for me; never really did. No offense to anyone here but I stay away from Cubans. I'm married to a South American but even the South Americans here don't like Cubans. NOBODY likes the Cubans.

Who knows, I have about 35 drivers. Plenty of past drivers; people are jealous as we have brand new equipment so who knows. I guess the load was worth over $140,000. If you ask me the broker was dumb to not make sure we had the appropriate insurance. You hit the nail on the head GMAN, this is a love/hate relationship. Well I'm not in debt, I could shut down tomorrow and walk away with a good amount. All the trucks are Ryders and if I ruin my credit over the trailers I have my wife's (I kept her name off everything). We barely even have any personal debt. I'm 42 and have a brain in my head. Right now we are working on Air Freight and Intermodal but what are you going to do?

I would post video on youtube and paste URl to some tv agency also share on twitter and other stuff.