At a glance
- What it covers
- Liability for a leased owner-operator driving for personal use, off dispatch, when the motor carrier’s policy doesn’t respond.
- Who needs it
- Owner-operators leased to a motor carrier. The lease agreement often requires it.
When You Need Non-Trucking Liability Insurance
If you are driving your rig from completion point of one job and your next dispatch point and undertake any personal use along the way (or even if you don’t!), your bobtail insurance (see separate article) might not cover you — the insurer might argue that your use of the truck was outside of the scope of coverage. Non-trucking liability coverage is essential to protect you. Note that this insurance is different from bobtail insurance in that bobtail insurance provides coverage for driving without a trailer while you are still on company business, such as moving from one terminal to another.
How is "Personal Use" Defined
Exactly when non-trucking liability insurance comes into play can be difficult to determine. Generally “dispatch” is the key: if you are not under dispatch you might need non-trucking coverage. But whether a trucker is under dispatch at any particular point in time can sometimes be arguable. For example, when you are deadheading home after a delivery you should be covered under your bobtail insurance, but what if:
- You take a route home that is slightly longer than “necessary”
- You do any personal business, no matter how minor, along the way
- You visit someone along the way
- You take longer to make the trip than the insurer believes you should have taken
- You pulled your own trailer to the point of delivery (and thus are not owed a ride home by any trucking company)
Any of these situations could lead an insurer to deny coverage under your bobtail insurance should you have a collision or otherwise suffer a loss on the trip home.
Deductibles and Limits
Limits of coverage, which is the maximum amount the insurer will pay in case of a loss, should be the same as you have under your primary liability policy; the same with deductibles, which are the amount that you must pay before the insurer begins to pay. Note that as rigs are generally not driven a great deal of the time on personal business, non-trucking liability coverage is not expensive.
