The Complete Guide To Bobtail Insurance

Bobtail insurance is a type of trucking insurance you may not have realized that you need.

If you run a commercial trucking business, it’s a given that you’ll have specific insurance policies to cover accidents and mistakes when your trucks are out on the Interstate with a trailer hauling goods. However, when your truck is driving around without its trailer, a practice otherwise known as bobtailing, you may not be covered for accidents that occur.

Fortunately, bobtail trucking insurance provides coverage for exactly those scenarios. Since driving around without a trailer is a specific risk, if you ever find yourself behind the wheel of a truck without a trailer, bobtail insurance is for you. Read on to learn everything you need to know about bobtail insurance, how much it costs, and where to get it.

What Is Bobtail Insurance?

Bobtail insurance is a type of liability insurance that covers damage caused by trucks when they’re driving without a trailer. Think of it as a policy that fills a potential gap in coverage — the trucking insurance provided by an employer may not cover accidents once a trucker is done unloading a haul and is bobtailing their way home. This inexpensive add-on provides truckers with insurance on the way home and between runs.

What Bobtail Liability Insurance Covers

Liability insurance is the most basic form of insurance available. If you’re at fault for an accident, liability insurance will cover the costs to fix vehicles or pay for medical bills. It’s important to understand that a bobtail liability plan would only cover your vehicle when your truck is without a trailer and driving home or between jobs. Here are the details of what bobtail insurance covers:

• Bodily Injury Coverage: If your truck injures someone, this policy will cover medical treatment and assistance.
• Third-Party Property Damage Coverage: If your trailer-less truck causes damage to a third party, your policy will cover damage or replacement costs.
• Legal Costs & Attorney Fees: Need to defend yourself in a lawsuit? Liability covers the legal costs associated with a lawsuit brought to you regarding third-party bodily injury and third-party property damage.

What Bobtail Liability Insurance Doesn’t Cover

First and foremost, bobtail liability insurance doesn’t cover any accidents or damage that occur while your truck still has a trailer. Since bobtail insurance is specific for trailer-less vehicles on the road, this policy won’t help you in other scenarios. It’s gap insurance that protects you during a sliver of time when other policies don’t offer coverage. Here are some of the things your bobtail insurance won’t cover:

• Driver Injuries: Injuries to an employee are covered under workers’ compensation insurance or under your own trucking insurance.
• Damage To Your Property: While damage to other people’s property is covered, you will need a commercial trucking policy to file a claim for assistance repairing your own damage after an accident or incident.
• Driving Your Truck For Personal Use: If you’re bobtailing while using your truck to drop off your kid at a soccer game, then there’s a chance that bobtail insurance might not cover you if you were to end up in an accident. You would need non-trucking liability coverage in that case.
• The Loss Of Income If You Can’t Use Your Truck: Business interruption insurance will help with lost income and the cost of relocation if a disaster or accident causes you to shut down your business (or if a leader property suffers damage) and you lose money.

Do I Need Bobtail Liability Insurance?

Bobtail liability insurance is designed specifically for drivers working in the commercial trucking industry who drive a truck without a trailer. You might need bobtail liability insurance if:

• You drive a truck under someone else’s authority without a trailer
• You want to protect yourself from lawsuits or expenses if an accident occurs while bobtailing
• Your motor carrier requires you to have a bobtail policy

Bobtail Liability Insurance VS Non-Trucking Liability Insurance

Do you still need bobtail liability insurance if you have non-trucking liability insurance? The short answer is that it depends.

Non-trucking liability is a specific endorsement used to cover a truck when it’s being driven for non-business purposes. Bobtail insurance will never cover you if you’re driving your truck while off-duty and you have a trailer attached, regardless of whether it’s holding cargo or not. So if you ever drive your truck for personal use and are involved in an accident while carrying a trailer, you would need a non-trucking liability insurance policy to cover the damages.

When you’re bobtailing, you could be either driving for personal purposes or for reasons related to work — coming home from a drop-off, in-between runs, etc. Whether or not bobtailing insurance covers instances when you’re driving your truck without a trailer and without being dispatched will ultimately depend on your contract.

Unladen liability insurance is a newer policy offered for truckers that combines the coverage of both bobtail liability and non-trucking liability. Insurance companies that specialize in commercial trucking will offer this coverage.

Additional Types Of Liability Insurance

For all of the things your bobtail liability insurance doesn’t cover, there are other insurance policies that will help provide you with the coverage you need to fully protect your truck in the event of an accident. So, what options do you have?

Here are the main liability insurance policies available for businesses:

Talk with an insurance expert to see which policies are right for your business.

How Much Does Bobtail Liability Insurance Cost?

When you work in commercial trucking, your truck is the key asset in your business. An accident or damage can set you back financially. Insurance is the key to protecting you and your business. Bobtail liability is an endorsement that’s added to a general commercial trucking policy. The average going rate for bobtail liability is between $30-$50 per month for one million dollars of coverage. Monthly premiums increase if you need more than one million in coverage.

The FMCA reported 3,676 bobtail crashes in 2020 — 1,508 were injurious and 91 were fatal. Accidents while bobtailing can and do happen. Bobtail liability insurance is an affordable policy since it’s an add-on; don’t let the cost scare you into being underinsured while on the road.

Where To Find Bobtail Liability Insurance

Due to the specificity of trucking regulations and safety requirements, finding an insurance agent and provider familiar with commercial trucking and bobtail insurance is an important part of your buying process.

In general, there are four easy steps for buying insurance: Know what insurance you need, gather your business documents, comparison shop, and purchase! 

Most major insurance agencies offer commercial truck insurance, but according to the Consumer Advocate, the highest-rated commercial trucking agencies (based on coverage options, policy strength, pricing, financial rating, and customer experience) are Progressive, Esurance, and CoverWallet.

Other Insurance Policies Truckers Need

The commercial trucking industry is an integral part of our economy. Every day on the road, trucks move goods and equipment and encounter risks that could have long ripple effects across many small businesses. Insurance is the way to protect against all those trucking worst-case scenarios. Here are some other policies available to truckers:

Primary Liability Truck Insurance

This is necessary insurance for anyone who wants to get behind the wheel of a truck with the trailer attached. It protects the people and things that are hurt if your truck causes an accident.

General Liability Truck Insurance

This policy pays for the damage done to someone on your property or someone’s property while your truck is present. Also covers lawsuits involving libel, slander, and false advertising.

Physical Damage Coverage

This is the policy you will need to cover the damage done to your own truck and equipment in the event of an accident or a disaster. (This covers the blue book replacement costs.)

Motor Truck Cargo Insurance

If you suffer cargo damage through accident, disaster, or getting stranded in an ice storm or traffic jam, this insurance endorsement will protect your commodities.

Uninsured/Underinsurance Motorists Coverage

If you only have liability insurance and someone without insurance is involved in an accident with you, you may end up being left without a truck or a business if you need to pay those expenses out-of-pocket. The current data says that one in eight drivers on the road is uninsured. (And in some states, such as Mississippi and Michigan, that rate is over 25%.) This helps you if the person is either uninsured or underinsured for the accident.

Reefer Breakdown Coverage 

A refrigerated truck might have its own equipment and mechanisms to worry about. This specific endorsement to a trucking insurance policy would cover the cost of lost cargo, refrigeration breakdown, or damage of products due to a collision. (Sometimes insurance policies have exclusions. The most commonly seen products excluded from coverage are: frozen foods, seafood, and tobacco products.)

Final Thoughts

Some drivers may not think that bobtail insurance is a necessity, but accidents and mistakes can happen at any time, and those in commercial trucking should be prepared. If you ever drive a truck without a trailer and want to protect your vehicle, your job, and yourself, bobtail liability insurance is an important and necessary endorsement to your commercial truck insurance policy.

FAQs: Bobtail Insurance For Small Businesses