Truck Liabilitiy Insurance is usually the most expensive part of any truck insurance
package. Truck liability protects you from any damage or injuries that you may cause to other people while you are driving your truck. Truck accidents usually involve more damage and injury than personal auto accidents due to the large size and weight of the trucks. Truck liability coverage is mandated by the State of California and other federal agencies. You are required to provide a proof of adequate insurance coverage to be sent to them in order to operate your vehicle. There are heavy fines associated to having limits of coverage lower than what is mandated.

Truck liability coverage is generally rated and supplied to you on a "scheduled vehicle" basis. "Scheduled" simply means that each truck which operates under your authority must be scheduled or listed on the insurance policy. If the vehicle is not on the schedule, or list of vehicles, then the insurance company is not required to give coverage for the non listed vehicle. If you happen to have only a few vehicles on your policy then this is normally not an issue. However, for larger trucking companies with hundreds of vehicles this can become a task. You need to be careful and make sure that your communication with your broker is well established. This is where having a good broker really pays off.

Larger trucking fleets sometimes require more of a broad and general coverage on their insurance policy. There are a lot of options for this type of situation but you need to make sure that your broker knows what they are doing in order to make sure that you are getting the type of coverage that you need. Some common additional coverages can include; owned/non-owned, hired vehicles, subcontracted vehicles, or private passenger vehicles. Most of these types of fleet insurance policies use annual mileage and/or annual gross revenue as premium rating factors. Most of the time by using these factors as rating criteria you can simplify and reduce the overall cost of your insurance.

There is a wide range of policy additions/changes that can be made. Any change to your insurance policy is called an "endorsement". Endorsements can extend your insurance auto liability. There are also a wide range of deductibles which will allow your to share in the risk of your insurance. In the event of a claim or loss your deductible acts as your share in the losses and can be used to reduce the overall cost of insuring your risk. A higher deductible may lower the cost of your insurance through the year however it will cost you more out of pocket in the event of an accident. A smaller deductible will allow you to save more of your money in the event of an accident but you will usually pay for it throughout the year with a higher premium. Interstate truckers will need the MCS90, the BMC91x, and the appropriate State form endorsements which extend coverage to the regulatory
agencies.

Insurance policy limits for commercial operations with trucks over 10,000 gross
vehicle weight (GVW) have a required limit of $750,000 for liability insurance. This liability insurance limit is set by the FHWA on interstate travel. In California this is the lower limit of liability insurance as well.