Flatbed Loads – Transport And Coverage

Posted on April 17, 2018

Flatbed trucks play a key role in the smooth operations of a number of industries, particularly manufacturing, construction, and transportation. Tons of flatbed loads are transported all across the country for shipping, manufacturing, sale, or display. Flatbed haulers ensure that commodities reach their destinations safely and intact.

Types of Cargo Carried on Flatbed Trucks
Flatbed trucks are designed to carry large and/or heavy cargo. Flatbed loads can range from containers to heavy equipment. Some of the most common flatbed loads include:

Tractors, Machinery, and Farm Equipment
Farm tractors, machinery, and other equipment can weigh a few tons at a minimum. Their size alone requires a carrier that can accommodate the machinery in terms of width, height, and weight. Flatbed trucks are ideal for carrying large and heavy equipment because they provide a secure and safe means of transport.

Miscellaneous Construction Materials
Construction materials such as heavy lumber, metal pipes and trusses, steel poles, and concrete slabs are far easier to transport and deliver as flatbed loads.

Baled Tires
Each year, the U.S. discards millions of rubber tires that, when not disposed of properly, can become fire hazards and create serious waste. To minimize waste and reuse tires, tire bales are produced and repurposed for building and construction. These are often used as retaining walls, impact barriers, road fill, and erosion control. A baled tire weighs about 1,000 lbs, which means that a single batch is often transported via flatbed trucks.

Dry Products in Bulk
Flatbed trucks are commonly used for moving Super Sacks – industrial fabric bags that contain dry products including grains, seeds, peanuts, sand, and fertilizer. These sacks have an estimated 2,000 pounds load capacity and are often loaded on pallets. These sacks are carried long distances to farms, manufacturing facilities, and construction sites.

What Type of Insurance is Available for Flatbed Loads?
Flatbed trucks are typically designed not to have sides or roofing. As such, they are vulnerable to external factors that could result to damage and/or loss to the load. The lack of side and rear barriers can also increase the risk of damage or injury to people or property. This is why flatbed loads must be protected with trucking insurance. Some of the most common insurance coverage available for flatbed trucking include:

Liability Coverage
Liability coverage insures against damage caused on other property due to the driver/operator’s fault. This is mandatory protection for all flatbed haulers.

Collision Coverage
Collision coverage provides insurance in case of damage caused by a road accident that involves another motorist.

Comprehensive Coverage
Comprehensive coverage offers protection from the cost of damage that may be caused by certain external elements other than vehicles. This could include fire or theft.

Cargo Coverage
Cargo insurance offers protection to flatbed loads in case of damage during the transport.

Storage and Towing Coverage
This type of insurance provides protection for storage and towing.

Loading and Unloading Coverage
Covers issues such as loss or damage that may occur during the loading and unloading of the commodities.

Loss Mitigation
This type of insurance protects against further losses after a documented accident.

Combined Deductible
This insurance allows the hauler to pay a single deductible instead of multiple deductibles for cargo, collision, liability, etc.

Earned Freight
Earned freight offers coverage for income lost in case of an accident or failure to deliver the shipment.

Refrigerated Trucking Companies: Getting The Best Deal

Posted on April 8, 2018

The trucking business is riddled with challenges that, like in any other business, are best allayed by being insured. Yes, insurance is a surefire way to ensure that your operations are never affected by the kind of damaging interruptions that can force a once thriving business down the path of bankruptcy. In particular, refrigerated trucking companies find themselves in a precarious position owing to the perishable nature of the goods they transport. When something as routine as an electrical fault can result in goods being completely ruined, it’s important to always have a plan B in the form of a reliable truck insurance policy.

I’ve often approached start-up insurance companies other than my own insurer with the hope that I’d stumble upon a cheaper and better insurer. Not that there was anything amiss with my insurer. He was awesome and very expedient when it came to the processing of claims. However, what impressed on me was how rare refrigerated trucking insurance was. In fact, most insurance companies have never heard of it, let alone explored the possibility itself.

High Risks=Higher Premiums

Refrigerated trucking insurance is considered a high-risk business for an obvious reason: too much uncertainty. Consider -for a second- the kind of cargo typically ferried by refrigerated trucks. Meat, fresh produce, flowers, fish, seafood, frozen products and the like. As you will soon find out, this is a factor that contributes to the higher insurance rates pegged for reefer trucks. Such goods have a higher likelihood of being affected by changes in weather and technical faults than tinned foods and bottled drinks, for example.

During the excitement of finally finding an insurer to cover your business, it’s easy to forget to read the fine print in your insurance contract -and you can be excused for not doing so, a reefer policy is a rare find. It may later turn out that your policy doesn’t cover certain cargo, like frozen foods, fish or medical products. So before accepting a load, be sure to find out beforehand if your insurer will reimburse you for any losses you may incur.

Choose The Right Coverage

Closely tied to this is the need to choose the right cargo to ferry, as well as the right coverage for such goods. Whilst it may be profitable to haul products such as frozen goods -meat, ice-cream and seafood included- and high maintenance cargo such as flowers, you should also ensure that you are prepared for the worst. Because such goods spoil faster than conventional cargo, the need to exercise proper care is real. Your insurer is not a genie who will grant you every wish. In fact, most insurers emphasize the need for reefer companies to maintain their vehicles regularly as they won’t reimburse clients whose contributory negligence is the direct cause of loss.

So don’t be surprised if your insurer expects you to keep records detailing every maintenance and inspection job carried out on your vehicles. Failure to produce such records can result in an insurer refusing your claim.