Friday, April 9, 2010

What Is Truck Driver Liability Insurance?

By Graham McKenzie

Your truck driver liability insurance is same as your standard liability plan, just that it covers your truck, not car. This insurance plan is mainly for the business-owners who need to provide protection for their delivery trucks. If your business has a truck then it is lawfully required to have truck driver liability insurance or you may be considered a law-breaker, and can be punished.

This type of insurance plans safeguards your truck from the all kinds of harm incurred by an accident. It may be possible that your truck got involved in an accident and you loose your only means of delivering your materials, what would you do then? If you don?t have enough funds to get your truck changed quickly, you may have to face losses like delay in shipment, compensate for the materials damaged, and may even harm your relation with customers. If you have newly started business then this loss could be too much for you to handle.

See what coverage is offered by your insurance plan. It may offer protection to your truck, the truck driver, and maybe the other vehicles that were involved in the crash. You may even want to like to know if the coverage to your truck is provided only when you are driving or also when you are not there in the truck. It may be that your truck gets hit when you h ad parked it on the roadside, so you may need insurance for this too. A good feature of the truck driver liability insurance is that it is considered lawful in all states, so you are free to drive your truck to any state of US.

You must remember that if you are driving across the states then you must have with you a DOT number. This number is a must for all commercial vehicles, which go across the states and even countries. This category includes all types of vehicles such as passenger vehicles, private vehicles, and the exempt commercial vehicles.

You may also get your cargo loads insured to be on the safer side. A commercial truck may be large enough to carry materials worth more than thousands of dollars, and this may get badly damaged if there is an accident. The insurance plans mostly provide coverage for particular types of products, so it is advised that you find out with your insurance company before getting your delivery truck loaded.

At times, the business owners require a truck just for some days. They may need to simple drive their company truck back from the dealer. When you are in such a circumstance, you can get a short term truck insurance. Most insurers provide four-days coverage, on per-day cost basis. This is an ideal choice as you get enough time to make a fast delivery.

One of the things you will have to change most often with your truck driver liability insurance is the drivers that are covered on your plan. Every driver must have an appropriate license and proper training to be allowed to drive your company truck. Furthermore, before a driver can be covered by the plan they must be approved by your insurance company. Do not hire any drivers with a bad driving record as they may be denied or because your insurance rates to go up.