Some driver with only 3 mos experience hit my truck on 5/11/07. Messed up the front. It's in the body shop getting repaired. The truck driver's insurance co "Progressive Express" is paying for towing & physical damage but is giving us a hard time about paying us for loss revenue. I've submitted a loss profit spreadsheet with formulas that OOIDA gave me. The insurance agent is a real jerk and I might have to take him (the ins co) to court.

Have any of you O/Os or own authority drivers experience this problem before. Thanks

Interesting post....hope the long timers here like G-man jump in......had to happen to someone at least once here?
Yeah Ins. Co's are basta$ds ....just looking to collect premiums and not pay claims......yeah better then no-Ins at all scenario at least tho.

Joy,

What you're talking about is business interruption. The guys insurance is normally gonna fight you. Check your policy. It may cover it or it may cover for a rental.

Most likely you will have to file a lawsuit and a judge will decide. Progressive is not known for handing over money easily.

This happens a lot with car claims. Lets say you have a new MBZ and someone hits it. They pay to fix it, but now the car is worth less becuase it's been in an accident. It's called Dimished Value. Many people in my area have gone to court and the judge throws the case out.

It has been my experience (though not with trucking) that for loss of use issues the best avenue is to get a policy that provides that for you. When your truck gets damaged your insurance company will cut you a check that day for a rental while yours is being fixed. Then your insurance company will try to get the money back from the other involved party or their insurance company.

good luck.

I am sorry to hear about the accident, Joymax. I had 2 drivers hit the same truck within 6 weeks. Both did almost identical damage to the front of the tractor. The first guy's insurance carrier was nice. We worked everything out on the telephone without a hassle. The second guy had Great West and this guy was also a real JERK! We talked and he refused to pay over a certain amount of money, which was less than my net revenue. An insurance company will pay up to your actual net revenue after everything has been paid. Less if they can get away with it. I spoke with an attorney and was advised to settle with them for what they had offered. He told me that by the time he got his share of the judgement that I would likely not wind up with any more money and probably less, especially with the lost time to go to court. To this day I will NEVER have Great West Insurance, because of this guy. :evil:

You will be asked to provide actual profit and loss figures for your business. If the numbers are from your accountant, all the better. While it is good to have numbers from OOIDA, those are not your figures. If you are leased to a carrier, they should be able to assist you on the revenue side. You may want to see if his insurance company will pay for the rental of a truck for you in lieu of paying for lost revenue. You may come out better this way. Good luck.

Thanks everyone for comments and support. We did submit our own actual revenue #s to the other guys insurance company. This was on Tues. and it's now Friday and we have heard nothing from them yet. I contacted the truck driver who hit us and told him in a nice way that we would be coming after his assets if his insurance company did not pay.

Progressive wanted us to pay out of pocket for the rental and then they would reimburse us. Penske & Ryder wanted us to put up $5,000 on a credit card or certified check because we had no history of renting with them and we are only a one year old company. They also wanted us to pay $600.00 per week plus 10 cents per mile. I was advised not to pay anything out of pocket.

Keep us posted with your progress. This is interesting to know the outcome.

Thanks!

Wow, what a mess!

I was hit while parked just 45 days after buying my own rig about two years ago. The other company promised to take care of everything but no money showed up. After six months and a lot of nasty letters and nasty phone calls I finally hired a lawyer by the hour to write a threatening letter. I got paid 48 hours later by FedEx.

Sadly our society is more and more controlled by lawyers!