Insurance is one of your largest expenses as a trucking operation.
1 truck or 1,000, your insurance program is costly and should have an intentional strategy.
It's no secret that trucking insurance rates are on the rise. Claim free operations with clean CAB scores are seeing 5-10% rate increases. Some insurance companies are taking 25%+ rate increases or exiting the market completely.
Trucking owners don't deserve to get surprised with these last minute renewal quotes.
Communication from your agent can alleviate much of the hassle in the trucking insurance renewal process, and likely eliminate the need for you to work with multiple agents (more to come on this).
Here are a few steps you can implement NOW, to take control of your policy and guarantee you're not forced into over-paying for a last minute renewal policy.
1. Renewal Strategy Review: Know what insurance companies your agent is marketing your operation to and the rates they are seeing. This way when I call on you to visit about your renewal, you'll already know what companies are working on your renewal. This saves you time by not having to gather and send all the information to me, just to find out your agent already has the markets blocked. Additionally, underwriters don't work on applications as promptly or aggressively when they receive multiple submission from multiple agents.
2. Sign off on the narrative of your operation that is being presented to the insurance companies. Your narrative plays a huge role in selling the insurance company. This paints a very clear picture of your operation and the reasons they should offer the best rate to you. There is a lot of detail that goes into the narrative. Schedule A Call with me to go into greater detail on this.
Bottom line is you need a documented renewal plan to make sure you:
1. Get the best insurance rate possible for your operation
2. Get your insurance renewal in time to make changes, have filings made, and get renewal documents distributed/issued
3. Don't get blindsided if a large increase is expected
Think of your operation as a professional athlete...you want one agent working with as many companies as possible. The insurance companies set the rates, not the agent. So competition for your business is at the insurance company level, not the agent! If you don't have any service issue with your current agent, and if new agents you interview don't have any markets your current agent has...well then it doesn't really make sense to just "get a quote" from every agent that calls you.
If anything I've said resonates, or you'd like to learn more just reach out with any method below:
Currently writing trucking insurance in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama