At a glance
- What it covers
- Covers claims that don’t involve driving: someone hurt at your yard or at a customer’s dock, damage to a customer’s property while you load or unload, and advertising injury.
- Who needs it
- Carriers who work on customers’ premises, or whose contracts ask for it.
Why You Need It
A customer comes into your office to discuss goods that he needs hauled; he slips on the freshly mopped floor and suffers a head injury when he falls. Another customer comes into your warehouse to discuss business; one of your employees accidentally hits him with a forklift (stranger things have happened!). You rent some warehouse space and goods you are storing there ignite and cause a fire that causes significant damage to the warehouse and to goods belonging to other parties. One of your employees publicly insults another trucking company and you are sued for slander.
In all of the above cases and many more, you need a general business liability policy if you want coverage (these policies are sometimes called CGLs, comprehensive general liability policies).
Coverages Typically Included
Coverages provided by trucker’s general liability policies typically include:
- Slips & falls by customers on your premises
- Erroneous delivery of goods that results in damages
- Behavior or conduct by an employee (other than a collision or rollover while driving) that causes damages to others
- Libel and slander (libel is a written disparagement; slander is a verbal disparagement)
- Fire on rental property caused by you
- Guard dog on your premises bites someone who is not a thief
These coverages are most often not provided in commercial auto liability insurance (the insurance that covers you while operating your vehicles). To have complete coverage for your business operations, you need a trucker’s general liability policy.
How Much
$1 million in coverage is recommended. If you choose to have an umbrella or excess policy (see separate article), the general liability insurance should be included under the umbrella.
