Freight Broker Liability Insurance: Is It Needed?

I ran across a press release today concerning freight brokers and liability insurance. A major insurance company is responding to a "recent federal court decision" by providing this liability insurance.

Here is my quick response - don't fall for any scare tactic that might be implied here. Here is why .....

In our training we show you how to pre-qualify your motor carrier for two reasons: 1) for your own benefit so you know about your carrier, and 2) to keep you from being considered "negligent" when hiring and working with carriers. It's a very simple process to check out the carrier.

If you are found negligent when hiring your carrier, you could be liable for damage, missing pieces or more.

Now, it's quite impossible to be 100% guaranteed that your motor carrier is "squeaky clean". You don't have to go to that extent. But you DO have to do certain things and document them so that you fulfill the two reasons that I gave above.

Bottom line - you DON'T need this liability insurance (unless you are indeed negligent when checking out carriers).

I'm going to call the contact person at this insurance company myself to find out what this "recent federal court decision" is. This issue of freight broker negligence has been around for years. It's nothing new or nothing recent.

Comments

[Paul Beck]

Pls keep us posted on this subj. It seems like every time I get ready to commit to this turn in my career somethings comming up! go figure, huh? We'll get thru this tho. thnx for all your updates and info.

[Dale]

Thanks a bunch John. Please keep us posted on what you find out from this contact person.