Do I Keep My Other Insurance When I Have Non-Trucking Liability

Non-trucking liability (NTL) only provides off-duty protection — which makes having other coverages a necessity. It primarily covers the road accidents and mishaps that may arise from driving your truck for personal affairs. Apart from the standard primary and cargo liability coverages, you will also need physical damage, trailer interchange, underinsured/uninsured motorist, and bobtail insurance coverages.

What Non-Trucking Liability Insurance Covers and What It Doesn’t

Understanding the scope and limitation of your NTL coverage helps you decide which policies to keep. Use extra coverage to cover inconsistencies. The idea is to create a chain of interlinking policies that cover situations and incidents that the other policies don’t.

NTL covers accidents arising from the following incidents:

• Driving to rest locations or stopovers after loading and unloading cargo
• Traveling to en route resting locations
• Driving to and from the trucking terminal
• Authorized repositioning of trucks in parking lots or terminals
• Transporting personal property during your off-duty hours

NTL does not cover accidents arising from the following incidents:

• Driving to rest locations or stopovers after reaching the FMCSA-approved maximum on-duty hours
• Prioritizing off-route resting locations over en-route stopovers
• Driving your truck to and from the repair shop
• Bobtailing the truck to the next hauling location

Note that some insurance providers can be vague with what non-trucking actually implies. These policies cost less than $50 per month, so they’d want to avoid claims as much as they can. 

Luckily, you can compensate for the inconsistencies with other insurance policies. Consult your insurer when deciding on the policies to combine with your NTL coverage. Ask them to explicitly detail their technical definition of non-trucking, as well as the scope and limitation of their typical NTL insurance. 

Do you find yourself on the fence between bobtail and non-trucking liability insurance? Let Assured Standard shed some light on the issue! Check out our piece explaining the differences between these two policies and why they aren’t interchangeable.