Western Truck Insurance Blog - Travel With Care
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Western Truck Insurance Services has evolved into a highly respected, professionally managed, truck and transportation insurance brokerage. Their mission is to provide high quality insurance and risk management by a staff dedicated to building the finest national truck insurance brokerage. They are committed to deliver exceptional value which results in more profits to our clients and companies.
Western Truck Insurance Blog - Travel With Care
1w ago
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently issued an alert for motor carriers where cybercriminals are posing as agency auditors via email to obtain information and gain unauthorized access to their FMCSA accounts. Once the bad actors gain access, they can change the information and impersonate carriers and other entities to engage in fraudulent freight transactions.
This scam is called phishing and is defined as a technique used to acquire sensitive data through fraudulent solicitation in an email or on a website. The perpetrators masquerade as a legitimate business, age ..read more
Western Truck Insurance Blog - Travel With Care
3w ago
With the sun setting comes additional risks for truckers driving at night. Visibility is reduced, making it more challenging to see the road, other vehicles, and obstacles. Depth perception, color recognition, and peripheral vision can all be compromised in the dark. The glare of headlights from an oncoming vehicle can also temporarily blind a driver. In addition, as we age, we have greater difficulty seeing at night. A 50-year-old driver may need twice as much light to see as well as a 30-year-old.
Asleep at the Wheel
Fatigue is another risk that could impair a driver’s performance at night ..read more
Western Truck Insurance Blog - Travel With Care
1M ago
Commercial truckers should be ready for inspections when approaching a weigh station or scales to guarantee compliance with weight limits and various safety standards. If a vehicle is found to have violated or violates any roadside inspection conducted by an officer, the vehicle will be put out of service (OOS).
Certain critical vehicle inspection items meet the criteria for an out-of-service order. The top five vehicle OOS violations are:
Brake systems (25.2%)
Tires (19.3%)
Defective service brakes (14.1%)
Cargo securement (12.4%)
Lights (11.5%)
Preventive Vehicle Maintenance
To avoid OOS v ..read more
Western Truck Insurance Blog - Travel With Care
3M ago
There are more than 168,000 truck accidents every year, with about 32% involving an injury and around 3% resulting in a fatality, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Texas had the most truck accidents in 2022, with California, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Illinois rounding out the top five states. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that one in three long-haul truckers will be involved in a serious truck accident during their career.
Trucking Accidents Costs and Lawsuits
Trucking companies facing litigation for small verdicts and settl ..read more
Western Truck Insurance Blog - Travel With Care
3M ago
Workers’ Compensation and Occupational Accident Injury Insurance are two distinct types of coverage designed to address different aspects of workplace injuries in the trucking industry.
Workers’ Compensation Insurance
A statutory form of insurance, Workers’ Compensation insurance provides benefits to employees who suffer work-related injuries or illnesses. It is designed to protect both employees and employers in the event of workplace accidents. The policy typically covers medical expenses, rehabilitation costs, and a portion of lost wages for employees who are injured or become ill while per ..read more
Western Truck Insurance Blog - Travel With Care
3M ago
Physical Damage Truck insurance is designed to protect commercial trucks and other vehicles used in transporting goods. The Collision portion of the policy provides coverage for damage to the insured truck that occurs as a result of a collision with another vehicle or object. This includes accidents where the insured truck is at fault. The Comprehensive portion, which is also known as “Other than Collision” coverage, insures against a wide range of perils or events that are not related to collisions.
Both Collision and Comprehensive coverages include a deductible, which represents the out-of-p ..read more
Western Truck Insurance Blog - Travel With Care
5M ago
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) mandates that, every two years, transportation companies update their Motor Carrier Identification Report (Form MCS-150). Updates may include changes or modifications to contact information (phone number, address, etc.), operating authority changes, ownership and control changes, insurance information, safety data, USDOT number, vehicle and equipment information, and other info.
Updating the MCS-150 is critical for ensuring the quality and completeness of carrier information within the FMCSA’s systems for various reasons:
Regulatory Compl ..read more
Western Truck Insurance Blog - Travel With Care
6M ago
Truck inspections are expected to change as federal trucking regulators and commercial vehicle enforcement agencies push for wireless roadside inspections. Motor carriers will have to equip their trucks with devices to transmit the identity and condition of trucks and drivers to roadside enforcement. However, according to the North American Transportation Association (NTA), how motor carriers would transmit truck and driver data is not clear.
For example, there are questions that remain unanswered involving the proposed implementation of Universal Identification (UID), which would provid ..read more
Western Truck Insurance Blog - Travel With Care
6M ago
Third-party litigation funding, anti-corporate sentiment among juries, and other factors have created an environment over the last decade or so in which huge settlements and awards are commonplace. Third-party litigation funding is the practice of investors’ buying an interest in the outcome of a lawsuit and has quickly become a multibillion-dollar industry, contributing to the upward cost of awards and settlements. Hedge funds, institutional investors, and public and private companies have poured billions of dollars into funding litigation.
As a result of higher settlements and awards, the Li ..read more
Western Truck Insurance Blog - Travel With Care
7M ago
An auditable insurance policy is one in which the premiums the insured pays are based on payroll and/or sales projections at the start of the policy term and then adjusted based on actual figures at the end of the term. Auditable policies are typically used with Workers’ Compensation and Commercial General Liability insurance, but can apply to Motor Truck Cargo and Auto Liability as well.
How an Auditable Policy Works
When a business purchases an auditable insurance policy, the insurance company bases the premium on the estimated sales revenue or payroll for the period.
The premium is di ..read more