How do I handle a trucking insurance claim and renewal?

Chapter 01

Who do I call first, and what goes in the claim file?

Call your insurer’s claim line or your agent the same day, and write down every claim number you get. Look in your policy for the part that lists your duties after an accident or a loss. It says how soon you must report and what help you must provide the insurer. Read it that night. Then start one claim file for the crash, and put every photo, report, bill and email in it with a date. The same crash also goes in the accident register that federal rules make you keep (the accident register rule).

Here is how that looks in real life. Say you run four trucks. Your policy year runs from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. On Tuesday, March 3, 2026, your driver in truck 3 is 40 miles from delivery. He is hauling 22 pallets of boxed kitchen appliances. A car cuts in front of him and brakes hard. Your driver brakes and swerves. The truck clips the back corner of the car and hits the guardrail. Nobody is hurt. But the radiator is crushed, the truck cannot move, and a tow truck takes it to a shop.

What your driver does at the scene, and in the first hours after, is in the first 32 hours after a truck crash. This page picks up that evening, when you call the insurer.

You give the date, the place, the driver’s name and what happened. You say the load was damaged too. Then you learn that one crash can open three claims. The first is for your own truck, under the physical damage part of your policy, if you carry it. The second is for the car and the guardrail, under your liability cover, which pays for damage you do to others. The third is the cargo claim, which the shipper brings against you for the load. Your insurer may give you one claim number or several. It may send a different adjuster for each part. Write down every number and every name.

The claim file is one folder, on paper or on your computer. Put in the police report number, your driver’s photos, his written statement and the ELD record for that day. Add any dashcam video, the tow bill, the bill of lading and the delivery receipt. Add the broker’s rate confirmation and your contract with the broker. Keep a call log as well: the date, who you spoke to and what they said. Months later, that log is how you prove what you were told.

The crash also goes in your accident register. Under the federal definition, it counts as an accident because the truck had to be towed away (the federal definition). You must keep the register for 3 years after each accident. Each entry lists the date, the town and State, the driver, and the number hurt or killed. It also says whether hazardous materials spilled, other than the truck’s own fuel. Next to it go copies of any accident reports that the State or your insurers require (the accident register rule). So the report form your insurer sends you belongs there too. If FMCSA or the State asks, you must show them your records about the accident. An auditor asks for this register as well, as the list of records for a safety audit explains.

Chapter 02

How do I work with the adjuster after the crash?

The adjuster works for the insurance company. The adjuster looks at the damage, reads the reports and determines what the policy covers. Answer every request fast, send what is asked for in writing, and keep a copy in the claim file. Helping the insurer is part of the deal in your policy. For your own truck, you pay the deductible and the insurer pays the rest of a covered repair. Claims from other people are for the insurer to handle under your liability cover. Let the adjuster deal with them.

On Wednesday, March 4, the adjuster calls. She asks for the police report, the photos and your driver’s statement. She also wants to record a phone interview with your driver. Before it, have him read his own statement and the ELD record for the day, so the times he gives match. On Friday, March 6, an appraiser sent by the insurer looks at the truck at the shop. The shop writes its estimate of the repair, and the adjuster compares it with the appraiser’s assessment.

Then the shop takes the front end apart. It finds a cracked bracket that nobody could see before. The shop sends an estimate for the additional work to the adjuster for approval. Shops call this a supplement. Do not let the shop start the extra work before the adjuster agrees in writing. Otherwise you may end up arguing about who pays for it.

Say the repair is approved and truck 3 is back on Friday, April 10. The insurer pays the shop, less your deductible. The deductible is shown on the first pages of your policy, called the declarations, and you pay that part yourself. Five weeks without truck 3 also cost you loads. Owners call this downtime. Whether any lost income is paid depends on your policy. If it does not list cover for lost income or a rental truck, do not count on it.

The car’s owner will claim against you for the car. The road owner may send a bill for the guardrail. Both go to your insurer under the liability part of your policy. If the car’s owner calls you, give them your claim number and the adjuster’s name. Do not promise to pay them yourself. Your policy may forbid you to agree to pay without the insurer’s consent.

The adjuster also asks two questions. Is truck 3 listed on your policy? Is your driver on the list of drivers the insurer accepted? Both answers are yes. Here is why she asks. Federal rules make you keep proof of your liability insurance at your main office. For an insured carrier, that proof is a form called the MCS-90 (the insurance rule). It is an endorsement, a page added to your policy that changes it (the rule on the forms). In it, the insurer promises to pay a final court judgment for injury or damage you cause to the public. It pays even where your policy would not.

The same form has a catch. The carrier “agrees to reimburse the company” for certain payments. Those are payments the insurer “would not have been obligated to make under the provisions of the policy” (the form’s wording, and the current form on FMCSA’s site). In plain words, the insurer may pay the person you hurt and then send you the bill. Say your policy covers only the trucks listed on it, and truck 3 had never been added. If the car’s owner won in court, the insurer could pay and then ask you for the money. The form also says its cover does not apply to “property transported by the insured, designated as cargo”. So the MCS-90 never pays a cargo claim.

That wording was printed in the federal rules until 2018. That year FMCSA moved the form to its website. It said the update only swaps small words, such as “mailed” for “transmitted” (the 2018 rule). We checked the current form, dated July 2024. The sentences quoted here are the same in it (the current form on FMCSA’s site). Ask your insurer for a copy of yours.

The car cut in on your driver. If the crash shows on your safety record and you think he could not have prevented it, there is a separate request for that. It is explained in how to dispute a crash in DataQs.

Chapter 03

What do I owe the shipper for the damaged load?

Federal law makes the carrier liable for the actual loss or damage to the load it hauls (the federal law on damaged loads). When the shipper sends a written cargo claim, you have 30 days to confirm in writing that you got it (the rule on confirming claims). You have 120 days to pay it, refuse it or make a firm offer in writing. If you need longer, you must write at day 120 and every 60 days after, saying why (the rule on deciding claims). Your cargo insurance, if you have it, pays by its own terms.

Back to truck 3. Your fourth truck hooks up to the trailer on Wednesday, March 4 and delivers the load. The receiver takes 16 pallets and refuses 6 crushed ones. It writes the damage on the delivery receipt. That note is not a claim yet. A note on a delivery receipt, or an inspection report, does not count as a claim by itself (the rule on filing claims). A claim is a written message. It names the shipment, says you are liable and asks for a set amount of money.

On Monday, March 16, the broker emails you a letter from the shipper. It names the load, blames the crash and asks for $14,400 for the 6 pallets, their invoice value. We made that amount up. That letter is the cargo claim. An email is enough. Since June 15, 2018, a claim may come on paper or electronically, and a copy of the invoice is enough (the 2018 rule). Older advice that the rules need the “original” bill of lading and invoice is out of date.

Who pays it? Federal rules require cargo insurance only from carriers that move household goods (the rule on cargo insurance and the amounts). For general freight, no federal rule makes you carry it. You have it because you chose it, or because a contract asked for it. Say you carry it. You send the claim to your insurer that same day.

You are still responsible for meeting the federal deadlines, even when the insurer’s cargo adjuster does the work. Open a separate file for the claim and give it a number. Write the date you got it on the claim itself (the rule on confirming claims). Within 30 days, confirm in writing that you got it, unless you pay or refuse it by then. Say what documents you still need. For you, day 30 is Wednesday, April 15. Ask the adjuster whether the insurer will send that letter or you should. Then make sure one of you does.

To assess a claim, the rules name three papers. They are the bill of lading, proof of the freight charges, and the invoice or a copy (the rule on checking claims). You ask the shipper for the invoice for the 6 pallets. The adjuster asks for your photos of the load, the delivery receipt and your driver’s statement.

Do not throw the 6 pallets away. Damaged goods the receiver refuses are called salvage. The carrier must notify the cargo owner, if possible, then sell or dispose of the goods in a way that is fair to everyone involved. It must keep an itemized record, and write any money it gets into the claim file (the rule on salvage). Your cargo adjuster may arrange the sale. Here, 2 pallets turn out to hold only dented boxes, and they sell for part of their value.

The decision has to come within 120 days after you got the claim. For you, that is Tuesday, July 14. If it cannot, write to the shipper that day with the status and the reason for the delay. Then write again every 60 days (the rule on deciding claims). Say the adjuster offers $11,200 after the salvage, and the shipper accepts on Tuesday, May 26. The insurer pays, less your cargo deductible. These amounts are made up too.

Now say the shipper had asked for all 22 pallets, or for pallets that arrived fine. The law makes you liable for “the actual loss or injury to the property”, not more (the federal law on damaged loads). You can refuse all or part of a claim, in writing, with your reasons. Be clear. An offer to settle is not a refusal unless you say in writing which part you refuse and why. A letter from your insurer counts only if it says in writing that the insurer acts for you. This matters because the shipper has at least 2 years to sue, and those 2 years start from a clear written refusal. The same law says a carrier cannot give a shipper less than 9 months to file a claim. Your bill of lading or contract may give more.

Read your contract with the broker and the rate confirmation too. They may set how much you owe for damage to a load and how soon you must pay. They may let the broker hold your pay for the load until the claim is settled. A carrier and a shipper may agree in writing to limit what the carrier owes, if the limit is reasonable (the same law). If a claim is large or disputed, have a lawyer read the contract.

Some owners think about paying a small cargo claim themselves, to keep it off their insurance record. Read your policy first. It may require you to report every accident and every claim, whether or not you ask the insurer to pay.

Chapter 04

What does the claim change at renewal and the premium audit?

At your truck insurance renewal, insurers study your loss runs. That is the insurer’s report of every claim on your policy, with what it paid and what it still sets aside for open claims. After the policy year ends, your policy may call for a premium audit. The insurer checks the real miles, revenue or trucks against the estimate your premium was based on, and bills or refunds the difference. Neither is a federal rule. Both depend on your policy and your State. The claim file and your mileage and revenue records are your proof.

On Tuesday, June 9, your agent asks for your loss runs, to shop the renewal that starts July 1. They show the truck claim as paid and closed. But the claim for the load still shows as open, with the full amount the shipper asked for still set aside. The money an insurer sets aside for an open claim is called a reserve. An underwriter, the person who prices your policy, could read it as a claim that may still cost that much. So you send the adjuster a copy of the settlement the shipper signed. You ask the insurer to close the claim and send fresh loss runs.

Check every line of them. Look for claims that are not yours, wrong dates and a claim counted twice. If your agent needs loss runs from a past insurer, ask that insurer too. When the underwriter asks about the crash, your answer is in one folder. It holds the police report, your driver’s statement and the photos of the car that cut in.

The renewal application asks about your trucks and drivers, and your expected miles or revenue for the next year. Those estimates can set the premium you pay up front. Estimate honestly, because the premium audit will check them.

On Tuesday, August 4, a letter from the insurer’s premium auditor arrives. It covers the policy year that ended June 30. Your policy says what your premium was based on. Say yours is based on miles. The auditor asks for the miles of each truck for the year and your gross revenue. The auditor also wants the dates any truck came on or off the policy.

Your IFTA fuel tax records give you the miles of each truck, quarter by quarter, if they were kept right. How to keep usable IFTA mileage records shows how. Your invoices and bank deposits give the revenue. Truck 3 sat in the shop for five weeks, so the year’s miles came in under your estimate. If the audit confirms the lower miles, you may get money back. In a busier year it goes the other way, and you get a bill.

Answer the auditor on time. An audit bill is premium you owe. If it goes unpaid, the insurer may cancel the policy. Federal rules let either side cancel with 35 days’ written notice (the insurance rule). What a cancellation does to your trucks and your authority is in what to do when your insurance is being cancelled.

What has changed, and what could we not check? The federal claim rules have not changed in substance since June 15, 2018. That is when claims by email and copies of documents became enough (the 2018 rule). The MCS-90 form FMCSA uses today is dated July 2024. The sentences we quote from it have not changed (the current form on FMCSA’s site). We did not read any State’s insurance laws. Claim handling, loss runs and premium audits can differ by State and by policy, so check yours.

If you want someone to keep the claim file, follow up with adjusters and prepare your renewal and audit records, here is what we offer.