By practicing good safety and being proactive with all insurance policies, four of my insurance customers all recently have been rewarded with lower insurance premiums. Not one of them had to increase their deductibles, lower the stated value of their trucks, remove coverage or anything else.
At renewal, their premiums simply went down!
These four customers represent a very diverse cross section of truck owners in our industry. That is why I wanted to share their stories. Each of them is an excellent example of how to operate a trucking company to be safe and compliant -- and, above all, to reduce insurance premiums!
Before we look at my customers and how each of them lowered their premiums, first we need to discuss the realities of the ever-increasing cost of insurance. We all know that insurance companies have been raising their premiums. Most have increased premiums anywhere from 20% to 40% within the last year or two. Let’s suppose a hypothetical insurance company has raised premiums 30% from the previous year. Let’s also suppose that one of the hypothetical insurance company’s insureds receives a lower premium -- say, last year’s premium was $15,000 and the renewal premium is $10,000.
That would represent a total premium reduction of around 60%.
How does that work? The hypothetical insurance company reduced the insured’s risk score by around 60%. (“Risk score” here is my own chosen verbiage to help explain how insurance carriers rate and consider each application before offering a quote with a premium.) If the risk score had remained the same, the insured’s premium would have increased by 30% to accommodate the insurer's premium increase. (Last year’s premium was $15,000, and the renewal premium would be close to $20,000 in that scenario.)
All four of my customers we’re going to look at employed some common strategies. What they all achieved:
