After a truck payment, insurance is often the biggest fixed cost for owner-operators, particularly those running under their own authority. When shopping for damage and liability insurance, finding the most coverage at lowest price should be your goal, but minimizing costs is more directly related to how you operate your business.

Whether you’re leased or running under your own authority, there’s plenty you can do to reduce costs when updating existing policies or shopping for new ones.

Optimizing current coverage

Owner-operator Rick Ash, leased to HVH Transportation of Denver, insures via Continental Owner-Operators Ltd. (coolmembers.com), a Billings, Mont.-based association that aggregates risk by offering a large group insurance plan to owner-operators. Many fleet plans are structured in this manner, as are association plans like that of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (ooida.com). For physical damage and non-trucking-use liability, or bobtail, insurance, Ash pays $283 a month, including occupational accident insurance. “Every year, when my policy renews, they ask me if I’ve had accidents, and if personal info has changed,” he says.

Both could affect liability rates, whether like Ash you’re leased and need only bobtail insurance or you have your authority and need primary or commercial auto liability. If Ash goes a year without any accidents, his insurer sends him a rebate check of $125 to $150.

Updating business information, such as freight, miles driven and area of haul, is crucial to obtaining accurate rates. For instance, “liability will vary depending on whether the operator is in regional or long-haul,” says Wes Brackey, president of Great Plains Casualty (greatplainscasualty.com), writing physical damage and bobtail through its Independent Contractor Services Association. Rates go up with long haul “because they’ll more often find themselves in unfamiliar places,” he explains.