What insurance does a trucking company need in Alberta?

Trucking insurance is not one policy. It is a program assembled from several coverages, and which of them belong in yours depends on what you haul, where you run and how the operation is structured.

The building blocks

• Commercial auto liability — third-party injury and property damage arising from operating your units. The limit is usually driven by your authority, your contracts or your shippers.
• Cargo — the freight in your care, custody and control. Limits and excluded commodities vary widely between insurers.
• Physical damage — your own tractors and trailers, on the stated values shown on the policy.
• Non-trucking liability — for use outside dispatch, typically where a unit is leased to a carrier.
• Trailer interchange — where you pull trailers you do not own under an interchange agreement.
• Commercial general liability — the yard, the shop, loading and unloading, and premises exposures away from the vehicle.

What an underwriter will ask for

Getting these together before you start saves a week of back-and-forth:

1. 1A unit list with VINs, year, make, model and stated values
2. 2A driver list with licence numbers, classes, dates of birth and abstracts
3. 3Your safety fitness certificate and authority details
4. 4A description of the operation, the commodities hauled and the operating radius
5. 5Three to five years of loss runs, if you have been insured before
6. 6Your current policy, if there is one

The gap that causes the most trouble

It is not an exotic exclusion. It is a truck or a driver added mid-term that nobody reported to the insurer. A unit bought in March and a driver hired in April are not automatically on a policy written in January. Reporting them takes a phone call; discovering the omission at claim time is a different conversation entirely.

New authorities

New ventures can be placed, but the market is narrower and underwriters look closely at the owner's driving and operating history, the units, and how the business is set up. Expect more questions than an established carrier gets, expect the first year to be the most expensive, and expect a clean year to be worth real money at the first renewal.

If you are setting up authority, start the insurance conversation earlier than feels necessary. It is one of the few parts of the process that cannot be rushed at the end.