An adjuster and an appraiser are both professionals who play important roles in the insurance industry. However, they have different responsibilities and areas of expertise.
An adjuster is a professional who investigates insurance claims to determine the amount of money that should be paid to the policyholder. Adjusters are typically employed by insurance companies and their primary responsibility is to evaluate the damages, determine the cause of the loss, and negotiate settlements with policyholders and 3rd parties. They also work to ensure that the insurance company is not paying more than it is required to pay under the terms of the policy.
An appraiser, on the other hand, is a professional who evaluates the value of assets such as real estate, jewelry, artwork, and collectibles and/or estimates damages sustained in a loss. Appraisers are typically hired by insurance companies to determine the value of an item that is the subject of an insurance claim. They use their expertise and knowledge of the market to provide an estimate of the value of the item or repair cost, which is then used to determine the amount of money that should be paid in the event of a loss.
In summary, adjusters and appraisers play different but complementary roles in the insurance industry. Adjusters investigate claims and negotiate settlements, while appraisers determine the value of assets and provide estimates of the amount that should be paid in the event of a loss.
- You should always discuss your new business venture with your CPA and/or attorney. Once you are ready, you or your representative can register your company with the Secretary of State and IRS.
- Register and activate your company with FMCSA at fmcsa.d.gov/registration
- Request Form BOC-3 filling by your Process Agent. You can select one from fmcsa.dot.gov/process-agents
- Complete UCR Registration at https://www.ucr.gov/
- Apply for IFTA license and decals if any of the following applies:
- Any vehicle with two axles and a gross vehicle weight over 26,000 pounds
- A vehicle of any weight with three or more axles
- A vehicle over 26,000 pounds
- Register with Drug Testing and FMCSA Clearinghouse, see additional information at https://clearinghouse.fmcsa.dot.gov/
- Purchase insurance required for your line of work.
Dear customers,
We want to extend a warm welcome to you as a new or renewing client. We appreciate your recent purchase and are eager to ensure that you are taking full advantage of all the services we offer. Here are 5 key things you should keep in mind:
- You should have received a link to our online certificate issuance service. If you need any assistance with it, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
- If you require our service team to issue a certificate, you can contact us at coi@giasure.com. Our team is available from 8:30am to 5:30pm Eastern Time, and the processing time is typically within 5-10 minutes.
- If you need to make any policy changes, such as updating vehicles, drivers, coverage, or values, please email us at info@giasure.com.
- In the unfortunate event that you need to file a claim, please report it to claims@giasure.com.
- For any payment inquiries or to make Zelle or check payments, please use billing@giasure.com.
If you have any questions or concerns about your policy, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
The price for Commercial truck insurance greatly varies depending on:
- type of operations, location, radius of operations
- claims history
- driver’s age
- driver’s accident and violation history
- number of years in business
- CDL experience of drivers
- safety scores (yes, insurance companies check your FMCSA safety records and history of violations)
- truck and trailer age and value
- owner’s credit score
As well as other factors are used to determine your rate. Therefore, if you are in the trucking business for the long haul, you have to monitor not just timely delivery of loads, but the safety of your operations to keep down the cost of insurance.
Type of insurance and associated costs
General Liability
Typical trucking company with 1-5 trucks pays $500-600 a year and larger trucking fleets $1,000 – $2,000.
Commercial Automobile Liability
Safe trucking operators with proven record pay as little as $5,000 – $8,000 a year per truck for $1,000,000 liability limits, however, carriers with minor violations, few or minor accidents or new ventures pay $10,000-$16,000 a year per truck. Companies with poor safety scores, inexperienced drivers or drivers with serious accidents, can be paying as high as $20,000 – $30,000 a year per truck. Cargo Van operators usually pay about 30%-50% less per unit than tractor-trailers.
Motor Truck Cargo Insurance
The price of this coverage is heavily affected by the type of commodities hauled:
Dry van: operators on average pay about $1,000 per truck a year for $100,000 limits, with preferred customers paying as little as $600 – $800 per truck, and high risk operators pay as much as $1,200 – $2,000 per truck.
Many shippers will require high cargo limits to cover replacement cost of expensive products such as; electronics, tobacco and other target commodities, which will increase costs of this coverage.
Refrigerated good hauling: Average operator pays about $1,200 – $1,600 a year, with some of the top ranked operators paying as little as $800 a year per truck, and high-risk operators’ cost can easily exceed $2,000 per truck.
Another factor which increases the cost of reefer breakdown insurance is the type of commodities hauled. For example, operators hauling meats, seafood or pharmaceuticals might be paying 10%-30% extra vs fresh produce haulers. Similarly, dry vans and target commodities may require higher limits, which will affect the cost of insurance.
Flatbed and overweight/oversize operators: Cost of insurance is similar to dry van operators; however, overweight and oversize operators are more likely to purchase cargo limits at $250,000 a truck vs $100,000 for dry van operators, resulting in average price of $1,200-1,800 per truck for preferred customers, and over $2,000 for others. As with any other type of cargo, if you are hauling specialty and hard to replace equipment, you may need to increase your cargo limits.
Car Hauler: Car haulers generally have some of the highest cargo rates in the industry. Normally, operators hauling 5 or more vehicles at the time will need $250,000 cargo limits, which costs $3,000 – $4,000 a year per truck for preferred customers, with the average trucker paying about $5,000 a year per truck. High-risk operators are likely to pay over $6,000 a year per truck. If you are hauling exotic and luxury cars, you may need to purchase $350,000 – $500,000 cargo limits, which usually increases your cargo insurance cost per truck by additional $1,000 – $2,000 a year.
Physical Damage Coverage
Insurance companies calculate this coverage as a percentage of the cost to replace your truck or trailer. For example, if your truck’s and trailer’s combined replacement cost is $200,000, underwriters may rate it at 3%, which will translate into $6,000 ($200,000 x .03). Large fleets with proven safety scores can be paying as little as 2%-3% of total replacement cost, with owner operators and small fleets with good records paying 3%-4% of their equipment value a year. Operators with below average qualifications usually pay 6%-10% rate of the replacement value.
Another interesting and little-known secret in the industry is that insurance companies will charge a higher rate for low replacement cost equipment and a discounted rate for high value equipment. What it means for truckers is that for $20,000 replacement cost of a truck, you may be charged as much as 8% rate, which translates into a $1,600 per year premium, however, if you replace this truck with a brand new unit with insurable value of $140,000, your rate may drop to 3%, which will cost you $4,200 a year (if the original rate remained, the price would be $11,200).
Trailer Interchange Coverage:
Similar to physical damage coverage, it is normally calculated as a percentage of the trailer’s cost. Average customer (dry van, valued at $40,000) pays anywhere from $600 to $1,000 per trailer, with preferred customers paying as little as $400, and high-risk operators paying $1,200 and higher. Specialty trailers with higher replacement cost will drive up the premiums higher.
Occupational and Accident Insurance:
Truckers occupational and accident insurance costs normally range between $120 – $200 per month per driver. Which is relatively expensive to other industries, where costs can be as little as $50 a month.
Worker’s Compensation:
Just like Occupational and Accident Insurance, truck drivers have some of the highest rates, anywhere from 5% to 15% of the payroll, which is more than 20 times higher than a rate for an office employee.
Now that you learned general truck insurance pricing, let’s get your customized quote ready!
- If vehicle is stopped in unsafe location, move it to safety. If vehicle is on fire, or smoke is coming out of the vehicle, turn off the engine, exit the vehicle and relocate to safety. Call for help.
- Take photos/video of all vehicles involved and their position on the road.
- Call police to file an accident report. Make sure to call police from your phone.
- Obtain contact information of other driver, passenger and witness.
- Do NOT discuss what happened in the accident with other driver; only obtain other parties contact information. DO NOT ADMIT FAULT.
- Report all accidents or incidents to your insurance company immediately.
Yes, changes in equipment will impact your insurance rates. Insurance companies look at many factors, here are things you need to keep in mind and discuss with GIA insurance agent before buying a new truck:
Truck Age – Newer trucks have more safety features, which translates into lower liability rates with many carriers. However, new trucks have higher market value and replacement cost, meaning in case of an accident, the insurance company will need to pay more to fix or to replace the truck. The cost of collision and comprehensive coverage (physical damage coverage to your truck and trailer) is likely to be more expensive with a new truck than with the used one. You may want to ask GIA agent to quote higher deductibles to mitigate the increase.
If you are considering buying an older model, please keep in mind that many insurance companies do not accept or surcharge for older equipment. Some insurance companies do not accept trucks over 20 years old, or surcharge heavily for trucks over 15 years old. For specialty operators, such as car hauler and refrigerated goods haulers, some insurance companies will not accept trailers that are older than 10 years old. Please make sure to discuss purchase of used equipment with your GIA agent before committing to a purchase.
New Driver – For many fleets, purchase of a new truck, also means hiring a new driver. We see many clients commit to purchasing a truck, only to find out that the new driver is not insurable or does not have proper endorsements on CDL. For example, we had a client who leased a truck with manual transmission, but their new driver’s CDL was endorsed for automatic transmission only. In other instances, drivers had unconfirmed accidents that turned out to be at fault which resulted in heavy surcharges. There is only one solution to this problem, contact your GIA representative to check new driver’s records and impact on insurance prior to purchasing or leasing equipment for new drivers.
Ready to commit to a purchase? Before you head to the dealership, email GIA Group the following:
- Expected purchase date
- Year, make, model and VIN
- Purchase price (please keep in mind that we need to know the higher of the two, either market value or the replacement cost of the truck, extra services purchased, such as warranties are not covered by insurance and should not be included in the replacement cost or market valuation)
- If you are financing or leasing your new purchase, please provide a loss payee information:
- Name of the bank (or company)
- Mailing address
- Loan number if applicable
- Email address of the finance manager or sales representative, so we can email them a certificate of insurance with loss payee information.
- Enjoy your new purchase!
11 things to keep in mind when selecting truck stop.
Parking is one of the many factors considered by insurance companies when quoting clients. It’s not just the price that can change with your parking location, your eligibility for certain coverages may be impacted by the parking location you select.
Insurance companies have vast pools of data, and they know which locations are more likely to be targeted by thieves and vandals. For example, certain parts of Illinois, New Jersey and Florida are excluded from theft coverage. In other instances, insurance companies for high-risk areas increase deductibles for theft.
Many insurance companies will not cover a theft of your equipment and of cargo, if truck was left unattended in an unsecured location. Insurance companies define an unsecure location as one that is not secured by a fence, gate and is not monitored 24/7 by either a person at the location or remotely by
surveillance cameras.
Whether you are looking for a short or long-term parking for your truck, you do not have the data that insurance companies have, but you can easily spot clues or get information from fellow truck drivers, here is a list of things to ask and to watch for:
- Is the whole parking area secured by a fence?
- Is there a functioning gate?
- Security cameras? (Find out for how long data is kept, if there is no recording of video footage it’s like having no cameras)
- 24/7 monitoring in person or via cameras or both?
- Any signs of vandalism inside and outside of the parking? (Any signs of vandalism increase chances of recurrence)
- Ask other truck drivers if they know of theft and vandalism cases at the location?
- Read online reviews, any complaints of vandalism, theft? Or perhaps parking facility sells more spots than it has? Any drivers complained that they had to park outside of the fenced area?
- Any signs of a flood? Or parking is in known flood area?
- Is it well illuminated at night?
- Poorly maintained? While maintenance may not be a concern for you, it is usually a sign of bigger problems and shortcuts taken by the management that will eventually impact you and your safety.
- Keep in mind that malls and shopping centers are not valid parking locations for trucks and you are likely to be fined or towed away. If you have to park at the business location that is not designated truck parking, make sure to double check with the owner or manager of the business before parking overnight.
Any location with signs of vandalism, poor maintenance, missing security features is a sure sign of future problems. Answering the above listed questions will help you find a parking location that is the most likely to provide you with a security and peace of mind.
Also, did you know that a truck parking lot is one of the most common places for truckers to get into accidents?
- Avoid backing up where possible, look for spots where you can enter and exit without backing up and with plenty of space.
- Be mindful of truckers next to you. Look out for trucks in bad condition and/or poorly parked, it may be a good indicator of careless or inexperienced drivers that may damage your truck when exiting.
- Take a picture of area where you parked, so your truck and DOT # of trucks near you can be seen. In case of a hit and run, you will be able to track the culprit.
- Park in well-lit areas. Good illumination decreases a chance of vandalism, theft and other drivers are less likely to hit your truck.
- Where possible, do not park near entrances and exits, these are the areas with highest traffic so it increases a chance of an accident.
- When choosing parking spot, try to avoid trucks that will have to back up towards your truck.
- Always lock your truck! Make sure that all doors and windows are closed and locked. Do not leave any valuables visible.
- If possible, keep your dash camera running, so you can play back and determine what happened while you were away.
- Where possible, try to park in the sight of the surveillance cameras.
To get started let’s make sure we are talking about the right type of cameras:
Most importantly, the camera must be able to record the road in front of the truck and if possible inside of the cab (driver facing).
Secondly, make sure that the camera stores data in the digital cloud. Many clients try to cut the cost and purchase cameras with local storage (meaning records are kept either on the hard drive of the camera or on the SD card). Unfortunately cameras with local storage are very unreliable and data tends to get destroyed with the camera during the severe crashes when it’s needed the most.
According to Samsara, 50% of their dash cam customers have used footage to exonerate drivers in accidents, saving $5,000 to $25,000 on average a year, with some customers saving in excess of $100,000. Not surprisingly, 15% of their customers reduced their insurance rates after implementing cameras.
Here are some war stories from adjuster’s we interviewed:
Accident that never happened: An accident was reported by an attorney claiming that two people were injured in an accident where an insured vehicle struck his client’s vehicle and fled the scene. His report was backed by a police report with a plate number of the insured’s unit. The accused party denied the involvement and the case ended up in court. By downloading the data from the dashcam, the insurance company proved that the insured vehicle was more than 3 hours away from the alleged scene of the accident and there were no recordings of any accidents on the alleged date.
Control of the road dispute: An accident was reported by the insured for record only. Their vehicle was making a left turn under a green arrow, when a vehicle in the opposite lane of travel traveled straight and struck the insured head on. About 6 months later, the insurance company received a letter from an attorney for the other driver and passenger claiming injuries and demanding a substantial pay out for repairs and injuries. Case was successfully dismissed when the insured driver testified and his statement was backed by the recording of the accident.
No impact: Insured reported an accident where his truck struck a dumpster, which was supposed to be a small property damage only claim. Later on, the insurance company received a letter from a lawyer claiming catastrophic injuries to his client who was allegedly pinned by the truck into the dumpster. After reviewing the video again, the adjuster noticed the claimant about 20 feet away from the dumpster and could be seen approaching the dumpster after our insured struck it. Adjuster was able to successfully deny the claim thanks to the video.
Road rage: An accident was reported by a driver of a private vehicle, claiming that an insured truck totaled his car, ran him off the road and almost killed him. Driver was demanding a reimbursement for his vehicle and payment for his pain and suffering. After downloading the video file from the insured’s cloud storage, the adjuster learned that the claimant and another unidentified driver were involved in a road rage, where they would cut in front of each other and jam on brakes. In the video we could see the other vehicle cut off this claimant and jamming on brakes, the claimant lost control, went into our insured’s lane of travel and ended up under the truck. Thanks to the video, adjuster was able to successfully deny the claim with $0 pay out.
Some of the insurance companies for truckers already require dash cams and others offer substantial discounts. According to one of the insurance companies we work with, an insured using a cloud based camera gets 3% discount in the first year and in subsequent years can see further improvement in pricing due to lowered claim payouts and that can be a question of insurability or of saving as much as 30% for each exonerated loss.
Besides preventing insurance fraud, exonerating your drivers in accidents, dash cams also help to dispute tickets, prevent or recover thefts and help catch hit & run drivers.
Now that we agree that dash cams will make you safer on the road and will help cut your insurance cost, let’s chat about your insurance savings. Call us at 888-GIA-4YOU or email at sales@giasure.com
PSP is a pre-employment screening FMCSA program that provides a commercial driver’s history of inspections and crashes for 5 years.
According to FMCSA, companies using PSP to screen potential hires on average lower their crash rate by 8% and improve out-of-service rates (OOS) by 17%.
According to one of our insurance partners, motor carriers with substantially better than average OOS scores save as much as 10% and companies with marginal OOS scores can see insurance rates increase as high as 50%.
PSP only costs $10 per order, to sign up register at: Pre-Employment Screening Program.
Keep our roads safer and insurance rates lower by hiring with PSP. Give us a call to inquire if you qualify for a PSP discount on your insurance policy!
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- Email us during office hours at coi@giasure.com and include the following information for the certificate holder:
- Company Name
- Full Address
- Email Address of Fax Number
- If additional insured status is required, please state so.
- For 24/7 online certificate issuance, please email us at info@giasure.com and request a onetime registration link to set up your online access.
Before you start using a new or replacement truck or a trailer please email us at info@giasure.com with the following:
- Start date
- VIN (Vehicle Identification Number), year, make, model and market value (if physical damage coverage is needed)
- If the unit is financed or leased, provide name of the bank or lessor, along with full address, loan number if available and email or fax where a new certificate of insurance should be sent
Before you hire, you need to have us check if the prospect is eligible for coverage and if eligible, how much would the price change? Please email us at info@giasure.com with the following:
- Proposed start date
- First Name, Last Name, Date of Birth, Driver’s License Number
- If CDL, date CDL was originally issued
Email us at info@giasure.com the following:
- If this a truck you sold, please provide a Bill of Sale
- If this is a leased truck, please provide a copy of the “Lease Termination”
Generally, Insurance Fillings, are type of documents that certify to the government that you have minimum required Liability or cargo insurance limits to operate your business.
- MCS-90 – an endorsement to liability insurance policies guaranteeing the minimum required liability limits for bodily injury and property damage
- Form E – is a document insurance companies file with your home state or applicable government department as a proof of bodily injury and property damage liability certificate of insurance.
- Form H – is a document insurance companies file with a state as a proof of cargo insurance.
- BMC-84 – is a surety bond in the amount of $75,000, issued by the insurance company and filed with FMCSA.
Majority of our insurance partners accept checks and credit cards. In some cases where we need to collect your down payment or if the insurance company is not able to receive your monthly payment, you can always use agency pay. We can collect your payments using the following:
- Zelle — it’s free and many businesses have high daily transfer limits and deposits normally are received the same day.
You can find us with the following:
tel: 855-876-0717
email: billing@giasure.com - ACH (fees may vary depending on your bank)
GIA Group, LLC (some banks require address: 148 E Street Rd # 171, Feasterville, PA 19053) normally arrives in 1-3 business days.
Email us at billing@giasure.com for routing and account numbers. - Check — image via email payable to GIA Group, LLC – Trust Account all 4 corners of checks must be visible check must be completed and signed, just like regular deposits we only need a front of the check.
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