How To Reduce Premiums For Commercial Truck Insurance
Any business that carries a commercial truck insurance policy will want to control its premiums as much as possible. How does a company reduce its premiums, though? You can address the following 5 areas of concern.
Drivers
Hiring standards and practices are among your best tools for asserting some control over truck insurance premiums. Whenever a company brings on drivers, it should try to hire folks with as much experience as possible. Every driver having at least a couple of years of experience will yield lower rates.
Similarly, you will want to conduct thorough background checks on all drivers. Reducing overall risk won't lead to an upfront drop in premiums, but it should keep your accident rates down. Also, if an insurer discovers that one of your drivers has a serious history of accidents, drug problems, or traffic violations, the rates for your company will go up.
Avoid Aging Trucks
Breakdowns cause accidents. For example, an aging truck is more likely to experience a brake failure at highway speed. Likewise, older trucks often lack modern safety and tracking systems. Overall, this is bad from the perspective of a truck insurance company.
The upfront cost of buying newer rigs can seem expensive. However, the long-term advantage of lower premiums, fewer accidents, and less maintenance will more than offset the cost.
Boring Routes
Whenever possible, try to pick the most boring routes possible. Notably, this doesn't always mean the most direct route. A route is boring if there isn't a lot of traffic, crime, or accidents. Also, avoid complex intersections or areas where trucks test weight and height limits. Even if you have to take longer routes, you will benefit from lower insurance prices if those routes are less eventful.
Raise the Deductible
Higher deductibles mean lower premiums because you have to pay more if an accident occurs. The key is to set a deductible that makes sense relative to your liquidity. You don't want a deductible that's higher than your company can comfortably pay at the lowest point for its available cash in any cycle. Otherwise, you might be scrambling to make up the difference, and that usually means taking on debt or selling off assets.
Legal Stability
Finally, try to run as legally stable of an operation as possible. Name and location changes, for example, aren't great for a business. Similarly, you don't want to let registrations or licenses lapse. The more consistently boring your company is on the legal front, the lower its commercial truck insurance premiums will be.
For more info about commercial truck insurance, contact a local company.
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