The way I had it explained to me, by our Canal Insurance agent, back in 03, was that if you had a load, like Steve is hauling, each unit was a separate claim if an accident occured, so long as each unit was on a separate invoice from the shipper, showing the individual receiving destination and the driver was filling out a separate carrier BOL for each unit. Was able to haul several loads because of that little exception, even though we only had $100,000 in cargo insurance.

For instance, we hauled 3 jet engines from Widbey Island NAS to California. One to NAS LaMoore, one to NAS Miramar, and one to NAS North Island, San Diego. If all three had been destined to one base, we would not have been able to haul the load, without buying a rider policy.

Maybe the Agent explained it wrong, and we got lucky??

 

Yeh, but how much for just kicking it up for that load?

 

Have you ever fought a bull shirt cargo claim in the trucking industry?? Tell us about it....

 

Steve-- I've been there and I'm trying to give you some advice, take it or leave it, but its not BS and for your info, your insurance company wont cover those ONIONS or any PRODUCE when push comes to shove, you or your company will be sued for the value of that produce load. I've lost over $20K in produce claims in my lifetime, berries, lettuce, cabbage. You should not show the $200,000 cargo on your cert. Do it your way and hope for the best.

 

When you get screwed I hope you share it here. I could give you a real freight claim story but the statute of limitations hasnt expired, cant discuss it. 8)

 

I remember when I hauled cars our insurance company treated each car as a separate claim with it's own deductible. :?

 

 

Nope, tend to avoid those situations. Though I did have a the manager of a large brokerage threaten to file an $80,000 claim against us just a few weeks ago. I took one listen to his threat and laughed myself silly. The funny thing about BS claims is that you don't have to worry about them if you follow the proper procedures.

The fact that someone has or has not had to fight a claim is irrelevant. Some have to go through the fire to learn how something works. Others can learn without that mess. I know my policy backwards and forwards, as well as the laws governing cargo liability and claims. It's not an area I'm particularly worried about being taken in. And I do carry large amounts of coverage.

 

What are you talking about?

 

Steve mentioned his cargo coverage and a load of onions. When you are facing a cargo claim with produce, your insurance company is going to tap dance their way out of covering the claim, so you arent really covered for cargo when you haul produce. But, I'm full of BS and Steve and No Worries will follow their procedures and never get burned because they KNOW how the claim will come out in their favor. My point in this started with if you show excessive amounts of cargo coverage and a claim occurs, the claim will be inflated, the insurance company will back out on you and you and the claimant who is ususally more financially stable will take you through the fire in court and either you lose or you exhaust your finances in court and go out of business. Thats a hard lesson to learn because you think some one gave you some BS advise on the internet. Steve, you learned to truck over the internet. I'm sure when you do have a claim you will be here asking for advice or researching threads to form your defense team. I wasnt trying to DOG you, but I can!