Insurance for general freight trucking

General freight trucking log 3.1 recordable injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers, 35 percent above the private-industry figure of 2.3 and number 10 of the 37 trades on this site. That record is what an underwriter sees first, and it is why the checklist below leans on workers' compensation and liability limits.

Tailor the checklist

1General freight trucki 3.1 per 100
2Private industry 2.3 per 100
3Rank of 37 #10

Total recordable cases per 100 full-time workers, 2024: this trade against private industry and the 37 trades on this site. Bars to scale. Source: BLS SOII Table 1.

Recordable cases

3.1

per 100 FTE, 2024

Serious cases (DART)

2.4

77% of all cases

Fatal injuries, 2024

404

≈35.3 per 100,000 FTE

Workforce

1,144,382

full-time equivalents

What goes wrong in this trade

Vehicle crashes are both the injury story and the liability story; with 404 fatal injuries in 2024 this industry's fatality rate is among the highest on this site, and it is the reason primary auto limits above the federal minimum are routinely demanded.

The checklist for general freight trucking

Auto
Commercial auto liability
Primary liability at the 49 CFR 387.9 minimum, filed with FMCSA on form BMC-91/91X for interstate for-hire carriers.
State minimum auto liability applies to business vehicles. Interstate for-hire carriers of vehicles 10,001 lb GVWR and up must carry the 49 CFR 387.9 minimums ($750,000 non-hazardous property; $1,000,000 oil; $5,000,000 bulk hazmat).
Cargo
Motor truck cargo
Required by brokers and shippers, usually as a condition of the load.
Not an FMCSA filing requirement for general freight carriers; required by nearly every broker and shipper contract.
WC
Workers' compensation
Required once you have employee drivers in nearly every state; owner-operators often buy occupational accident instead.
Required by state law in nearly every state once you have employees; the employee-count threshold and exemptions are set state by state and are not reproduced here.
GL
General liability
Loading-dock and premises claims that auto excludes.
Not required by federal law. Required in practice by most contracts, landlords and many state contractor licences.
Umbrella
Commercial umbrella / excess
Shippers increasingly require excess over the primary auto.
Not required by law; required by many general contractors and commercial landlords.

Red tags mark policy types that a law or licence usually requires; green tags are what contracts, landlords and clients ask for. Tailor the list for your situation (no employees, no vehicles, alcohol) with the checklist tool.

What the injury record means for the premium

General freight trucking: total recordable cases, cases with days away/restriction/transfer (DART) and cases with days away from work, per 100 FTE, 2024, columns to scale.

Workers' compensation is rated on payroll and class, then adjusted by your own loss history, so a trade with 3.1 cases per 100 workers starts from a high base rate before an underwriter has looked at you. Worse, 77 percent of those cases involved days away from work, restriction or transfer — the expensive kind. The fatality figure, roughly 35.3 per 100,000 full-time workers in 2024, is several times the all-industry level and is the single number most likely to appear in an underwriter's notes. The practical consequence: a documented safety programme and a clean experience modifier are worth more here than shopping carriers.

The nearest trades by injury rate are plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors (3), siding contractors (3.2), landscaping services (3); the same payroll insured in those classes would start from a similar workers' comp base.

Legal, licence or contract?

Fixed by law

Workers' compensation once you have employees, in nearly every state (threshold and exemptions set by the state; not reproduced here).
Public liability of at least $750,000 for interstate for-hire carriage of non-hazardous property in vehicles of 10,001 lb GVWR or more; $1,000,000 for oil; $5,000,000 for bulk hazmat — 49 CFR 387.9. Details.
State minimum auto liability on any vehicle the business operates.

Asked for by contracts and licences

Getting quotes. Take this checklist to a broker who writes general freight trucking — ask them to quote each line separately so you can see what the 3.1-per-100 class rate is doing to the workers' comp figure versus the liability lines. This site does not sell or quote insurance.

Sources: BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, Table 1 (2024), incidence rates per 100 full-time workers; BLS SOII Table 3 (2024), hours worked by detailed industry; BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, Table A-1 (2024); 49 CFR 387.9 — Schedule of limits, public liability (eCFR). Fatal rate per 100,000 FTE is derived (count ÷ hours × 200,000,000) and approximate. Checked 2026-10-23.