Commercial truck insurance isn't one policy, it's a stack of coverages, and most of the expensive surprises we see come from an operator who bought a "trucking policy" without knowing which parts were in it. This is the map: every coverage a trucking operation carries, what each one actually does, who needs it, and where to go deep on the ones that matter to you. Bookmark it and follow the links into the details.
The two questions that decide your whole stack
Before any coverage, answer these:
- Are you for-hire or private? Hauling other people's freight for money (for-hire) triggers federal insurance filings and the broker-standard limits. Hauling your own goods is a different, lighter picture.
- Are you leased to a carrier or on your own authority? Leased on, the carrier's policy covers some lines while you're dispatched, so you buy the gaps. On your own authority, all of it is yours. We break that down in leasing on vs. your own authority.
Everything below flows from those two answers.
The core coverages (almost every for-hire operation)
Primary auto liability
Pays for the bodily injury and property damage you cause to others. It's what makes you legal, and for-hire interstate work means the broker-standard $1,000,000 combined single limit. It does not cover your own truck or your own freight. This is the foundation of the stack. Primary liability, explained like a human.
Motor truck cargo
Covers the freight you're hauling if it's damaged, destroyed, or stolen. The broker-standard limit is $100,000, higher for reefer, high-value, and specialized loads. The traps live in the exclusions (reefer breakdown, unattended-vehicle theft, named-peril forms, commodity exclusions), which is why cargo gets two of its own guides: what cargo actually covers and cargo insurance requirements.
Physical damage
Covers your own truck and trailer after a collision, fire, theft, or vandalism. Priced as a percentage of the unit's stated value, so an older truck is far cheaper to cover than a new one. Optional in theory, required in practice whenever the equipment is financed or leased (the lender demands it). Physical damage and non-trucking liability.
Get a quote with the full stack built right
The coverages that fill the gaps
Non-trucking liability (bobtail)
For leased owner-operators: covers liability while you're driving off-dispatch, the tractor home after dropping a trailer, a personal errand. Cheap (about $40 to $50 a month) and required by nearly every lease. It's easy to confuse with bobtail and unladen liability, so here's the three-way breakdown.
Trucker's general liability (TGL)
Covers bodily injury and property damage that happens off the truck, at a dock, a lot, or your premises. Frequently required by shippers, brokers, and facilities you deliver to as a condition of entry.
Trailer interchange
Physical-damage coverage for trailers you pull but don't own under an interchange or UIIA agreement. If you run under interchange agreements, you need it.
Reefer breakdown
An endorsement, not a base coverage: it covers spoilage from refrigeration-unit failure, which base cargo excludes. Essential for any temperature-controlled freight, and full of fine print (driver-error exclusions, maintenance conditions).
Occupational accident / workers comp
Injury coverage for you and your drivers. Workers comp where employees and state law require it; occupational accident as a common alternative for 1099 owner-operators.
How the stack changes by who you are
- New authority, for-hire: primary liability at $1M with the federal filing, cargo at $100k, physical damage on financed equipment, GL where required. Expect first-year pricing to run high, here's why.
- Leased owner-operator: you skip primary liability and cargo (the carrier carries those while you're dispatched) and buy the gaps, non-trucking liability, your own physical damage, and injury coverage.
- Established fleet: the same core lines, priced on your loss history and safety profile rather than new-venture assumptions.
What none of it covers
No trucking policy covers intentional acts, contraband, wear and tear, or a commodity your form excludes. And a certificate showing a limit means nothing if the form behind it excludes your freight or your operation. The number on the COI is the start of the conversation, not the end of it.
How McClure helps
We build the stack to your actual operation instead of selling a one-size template: the right liability limit, cargo sized to your real freight, physical damage only where it earns its keep, and the endorsements your contracts actually require. Shopped across multiple markets, with one agent start to finish. Get a quote with the full stack built right, and if you have a current policy, send the declarations so we can find what's missing or overbought. Not sure what underwriters see? Run the free DOT lookup first.