What Is The Average Truck Insurance Cost Per Month?

Truck Driver Insurance

While there are several types of semi-truck insurance coverages, what you need as a new business owner will depend on your status as an owner-operator for the business. Suppose you are an owner-operator with a permanent lease to a motor carrier for your trucks. In that case, the motor carrier will cover some aspects of your commercial truck insurance, reducing your costs for driver’s insurance. 

On the other hand, if you are an owner-operator under your own authority, you will have to take care of all liabilities for insuring your trucks and your drivers. This is a bit more expensive.

The insurance plan you choose for your business will have several provisions covered. Understanding what is covered, what isn’t, how frequently you make payments, and other truck insurance requirements can help you choose the best plan.

Types of Semi Truck Insurance

As trucking continues to be a growing industry, professional truck drivers keep driving more and more. With all those miles, securing truck drivers and choosing the right truck driver insurance for your business is important. 

The right insurance for your company will mostly depend on your truck type and use. For example, a tractor-trailer has higher minimum liability insurance requirements than a truck used for local deliveries. 

Here are a few main types of truck driver coverages you can choose from:

• General Liability Insurance: The core of every truck driver’s insurance policy covers bodily injuries and property damages to others.
• Physical Damage Coverage: Covers the repair costs of your truck in case of fire, theft, vandalism, or glass breakage.
• Non-Trucking Liability: Covers the costs in case your truck isn’t under dispatch and used personally.
• Non-Owned Trailer Liability: Covers mishaps if you are pulling someone else’s trailer.
• Cargo Insurance: insures the cargo you are hauling in case of damage or loss. 

What Influences the Cost of Truck Insurance?

How much is trucking insurance? Well, the simple answer is it can vary a lot. The average trucking insurance cost is between $3,000 to $5,000 per year for owner-operators with a permanent lease with a motor carrier. For owner-operators with their own authority, the cost of semi-truck insurance can be much higher — around $9,000 to 12,000 per truck per year.

Prices of semi-truck insurance have risen steadily over the years, with costs ranging between $12,000 and $18,000 for new authorities. The insurance cost can depend on various factors other than the owner-operator status. 

Here are the factors that can influence your search for cheap truck insurance the most:

• The cost of your truck
• What type of goods are being hauled
• The driver’s age and their experience with a commercial driver’s license
• Distance being driven
• Your credit history
• Your payment plan — whether yearly, monthly, or per policy period

Every truck insurance company rates these factors differently, offering different truck insurance quotes and packages. Once you understand what type of insurance you need and what coverages it includes, it helps to compare prices from different policy plans and then make your decision.

Average Truck Insurance Cost Per Month

Average commercial truck insurance cost per month mostly depends on the insurance company policies and state regulations. 

How much is truck insurance? Here are the main coverages that a commercial truck insurance policy could include:

• Primary Trucking Liability: $500 to $1,500 per month
• Non-trucking Liability: $25 to $50 per month
• Physical Damage Coverage: $100 to $300 per month, depending on the value of the truck
• Occupational Accident Insurance: $140 to $210 per month
• Motor Truck Cargo Insurance: $50 to $150 per month

Average Commercial Truck Insurance Cost Per Year

How much is insurance on a semi truck? Average truck insurance costs can vary quite a bit:

• Primary Liability: $5,000 to $7,000 per year. Since all businesses require it by law, motor carriers cover this liability. However, under your own authority as an owner-operator, you must make sure you purchase this coverage in your plan.
• General Liability: Between $500 and $600
• Physical Damage: From $1,000 to $3,000, including collision and comprehensive insurance.
• Occupational Accident: From $1,600 to $2,200
• Cargo Insurance: Varies according to what type of cargo is being hauled. For example, if you had $1 million dollar cargo insurance, the cost could be between $400 and $1,800 per year.
• Bobtail insurance: From $350 to $400

In addition to the above-recommended insurance coverages, here are some other liabilities you may want to consider for your business:

• Trailer Interchange Insurance: Required when you are hauling someone else’s trailer full of goods and the company that owns the trailer does not have insurance to cover their goods.
• Umbrella Insurance: Costing about $500 to $700, umbrella insurance covers any gaps that may have occurred in your policy.
• Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist: The least expensive yet very useful type of coverage covers damages caused when you are involved in an accident without your fault and the other person is not insured enough to cover your expenses.
• Hazmat Insurance: If you are hauling hazardous materials such as chemicals, fertilizers, or fuels, then you will need this type of insurance.
• Livestock Cargo Insurance: As the name suggests, when hauling live animals (horse hauling), in the event of injury, death, or escape, this insurance will be useful to you.

Calculate your commercial truck costs with our truck financing calculator.

How the Price of Semi-Truck Insurance Is Calculated

Your insurance company gives you the pricing based on calculating these factors: 

• The truck’s weight
• The truck’s mileage
• The driver’s history of accidents
• The new CDL’s overall safety rating
• The year of the truck’s manufacture
• The vehicle type
• The engine type/size/miles per gallon

How to Lower Truck Insurance Rates

Finding cheap truck insurance isn’t impossible, but you need to know a thing or two to get it. As we mentioned, trucking insurance companies offer quotes that depend on many factors. However, there are a few ways you can lower the trucking insurance rates of your 18-wheeler insurance.

Hire Experienced Drivers

It is always better to hire experienced drivers than young people with little experience or sometimes no experience in driving trucks.

Invest in New Trucks

Although they can be expensive, investing in newer models of trucks can help your business be efficient in terms of fuel usage, safety, and pollution control. These factors matter to your insurance company so that they take lesser risks in covering for your damages should they occur. Sometimes, lesser risks for the insurance company may mean lower premiums for you.

Keep Track of Your CSA Scores

CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) scores are performance markers used by the FMSCA to identify motor carriers and drivers at high risk. If your CSA score is high, you also incur a higher risk. Lowering your CSA scores by employing safer driving practices and experienced drivers greatly reduces your risk profile. If scores are found to be high, your driving practices will be intervened and indirectly increase your insurance rates.

Monitor Your Credit Reports

Make sure your credit scores are good. If you have a record of late payments when you apply for trucking insurance, companies will consider you high risk and increase your premiums too.

Ask for Discounts

Well-established insurance companies generally offer discounts for safe driving records, older customers, and new customers to make their policies attractive. Simply ask your agent which ones you qualify for and see how much you can lower your rates.

Better Driving History

Trucking insurance companies generally want to work with drivers who don’t cost them much money. They will offer cheaper truck insurance rates to businesses whose drivers have clean driving records.

Bundle Package

To lower the costs of your semi-truck insurance, it is always better to bundle all your liabilities together in one heavy truck insurance package rather than buy them separately.

Paying Yearly

Trucking companies that pay their insurance in a lump sum once a year, as opposed to paying monthly, reduce their premium by almost 10%-20%. However, this figure can vary with the high cost of semi-truck insurance policies.

For example, a truck insurance quote that costs $11,300 annually may seem too much. However, if you break it into monthly payments, you get an average semi-truck insurance cost of $942 per month. 

Compare Truck Insurance Rates

To find the best or the cheapest truck insurance, you need to shop for policy packages from different trucking insurance companies and compare the premiums, deductibles, and coverages in each. Companies rate different factors on which your insurance depends and offer their policy packages at different prices.

Consider Higher Deductibles

You might want to consider higher deductibles and lower limits to keep your premiums low.

Look Out for New Insurance

While big insurance companies offer discounts to older customers, they also silently raise their rates at the end of each year. Successful trucking owners switch their insurance providers periodically and keep themselves updated about the latest policies and rates.

Where is the Cheapest Truck Insurance in the US?

When looking for affordable truck insurance policies, one of the best ways to find one is to look into truck insurance rates by state. Out of the 50 states, the following have the cheapest commercial truck insurance:

• Idaho
• Mississippi
• Wyoming
• Iowa
• Nebraska

However, the average truck insurance cost per month rates in these states can change depending on whether you don’t have your US Department of Transportation Administration (USDOT) filling. For example, Oklahoma isn’t the most affordable state for trucking insurance. Still, it is a great state to own a commercial trucking business due to reasonable rules and regulations and low gas prices. Truck insurance in Maryland is also one of the most expensive in the US.

What to keep your trucking insurance rates low? 

East Insurance Group offers competitive rates for your trucking insurance needs, so what are you waiting for? Just drop us a line or give us a call, and we’ll set you up with just the insurance plan you need!

If you have any further questions, check our FAQ section, where you can find additional useful information.