Insurance Needs For Truckers In New York State
If you are a trucker based in New York State, then you have insurance requirements you must meet if you want to stay legal when you are on the road. An independent trucker runs their own business, and it is your responsibility to make sure that you have all of the insurance you need to meet state guidelines. But it is also important to make sure that you have the coverage you need to protect your business, and that is why a consultation with one of our business experts is always a good idea.
Liability Requirements
As with any other type of commercial or personal auto insurance, New York State has minimum requirements that all truckers must meet. Those requirements are:
- $5 million in hazardous waste management
- $300K in household goods protection
- $750k in general freight protection
- $1 million in oil transport protection
- $5k per vehicle and $10k per incident for cargo insurance for intrastate residential movers and interstate contract drivers
Other Insurance Options
There are plenty of forms of insurance New York truckers are not required to have, but it is still a good idea to protect your business as much as possible. For example, if you do not have bobtail insurance, then your trailer detaching while you are driving is going to cause damage that you might be responsible for from your own resources.
With truckers on the road for so many hours, it is inevitable that they will wind up tangling with all kinds of motorists. Uninsured motorists are the worst because it can be difficult for a trucker to get the funds they need to repair their rig when the other motorist is not insured. That is why it is smart for truckers to carry their own uninsured motorist insurance and protect themselves from irresponsible drivers.
Business Insurance
As a New York State business, a trucker will need to carry insurance such as workers’ compensation and non-trucking liability to cover any event that occurs outside of regular trucking activities. It can be complicated for a trucker to understand how much they have to pay in workers’ compensation and how much non-trucking liability insurance they will actually need.
Since the state requires you to carry workers’ compensation, it is smart to have one of our business professionals analyze your situation and help you to make the right choices. It is very easy to pay more for business insurance than you actually need, which is why we always recommend talking to our experts before making any final decisions.
New York truckers are subject to the same insurance requirements as any other business, but they also have to make sure that they carry the right kind of insurance to protect their business interests. If you carry hazardous materials as part of your regular business, then the $5 million in hazardous liability insurance might not be enough to adequately protect your business. Before you hit the open road to get your business rolling, you should spend some time with our business experts and cover all of the insurance and risk needs you have and get the protection you need.