How do insurance companies price a trucking fleet?
They start from exposure (power units, miles, revenue, radius and states) and adjust it by the fleet’s own experience: three to five years of losses, the quality of its drivers, its FMCSA inspection and crash record, the commodities it hauls, its equipment, and the safety controls it can prove. On a large fleet the loss history carries the most weight, because there is enough of it to be statistically meaningful.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
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Large fleets. Lori takes on only a few large fleets at a time, so each one gets a full renewal: the submission built properly and shopped with every insurance company that fits. Two openings remain for the rest of 2026.
Lori Adams, TRS
Commercial Trucking Insurance Advisor
Twenty-five years in trucking insurance. Knows the filings, the radius rules and the carriers that will actually take the risk.
Transportation Risk Specialist (TRS)
Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What the underwriter reads, and what you can do before renewal
Loss runs, 3 to 5 years
- What it tells the underwriter
- How often claims happen, how large they get, what is still open
- What you can do
- Order them early and add a note on every large or open claim
Driver list and MVRs
- What it tells the underwriter
- Violations, experience and turnover across the drivers
- What you can do
- Run current MVRs and remove or retrain the drivers you would not hire today
FMCSA inspections and crashes
- What it tells the underwriter
- Maintenance and hours-of-service discipline, crash involvement
- What you can do
- Check your own record and explain what changed since
Radius, lanes and states
- What it tells the underwriter
- Miles exposed and where a lawsuit would be heard
- What you can do
- Report mileage by state accurately from IFTA records
Commodity
- What it tells the underwriter
- Cargo value, theft target and hazmat exposure
- What you can do
- List every commodity with its share of loads
Equipment
- What it tells the underwriter
- Age, values and safety technology
- What you can do
- Send a current schedule with VINs and stated values
Safety program
- What it tells the underwriter
- Whether the controls are written and enforced
- What you can do
- Send the documents, not a description of them
The detail
FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System uses roadside inspection and crash data from the last two years, is updated once a month, and groups a carrier’s results into seven categories it calls BASICs: Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator, Hours-of-Service Compliance, Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Hazardous Materials Compliance and Driver Fitness.
FMCSA, CSA: How the Safety Measurement System measures carriers
Since the FAST Act of 2015, FMCSA does not show the public the BASIC percentiles and alerts for property carriers; the absolute measures and the inspection, violation and crash records behind them remain public.
At least once every 12 months a motor carrier must obtain each driver’s motor vehicle record from every state that licensed the driver, review it to decide whether the driver meets minimum requirements for safe driving, and keep the record and a dated note of the review in the driver qualification file.
Within 30 days of hiring a driver, a motor carrier must request the driver’s motor vehicle record covering the prior three years from every state that licensed the driver, and investigate the driver’s safety performance with DOT-regulated employers over the preceding three years.
What this means for you
- Frequency worries an underwriter more than one bad year. A single severe claim can be explained. A steady run of small accidents says something about hiring or supervision, and it predicts the large one.
- Open claims are unfinished numbers. A reserve on an open injury claim can grow after the renewal is priced, so underwriters lean toward caution on files with large open claims. A short note on the status of each one helps.
- Drivers are the fleet’s risk. MVR violations, experience in the class of truck and turnover move the price more than most equipment choices. A written hiring standard that is actually enforced is evidence an underwriter can use.
- Your FMCSA record is read before you are. Inspections, out-of-service results and crashes are public. If the record shows a problem you have fixed, say so in the submission with the date and the fix.
- Radius and states change the severity. Long-haul miles through heavy-traffic corridors and states with large verdicts price differently from regional work, even with the same trucks and drivers.
- Telematics and cameras help when they are used. A camera program counts most when you can show what you do with the footage: coaching, discipline and exonerated claims. Hardware alone is a line on an application.
Related questions
- Which matters most: loss history, drivers or CSA data?
On a large fleet, loss history usually carries the most weight because it is the fleet’s own result over thousands of trips. Drivers and FMCSA data explain the losses and predict the next ones, so underwriters read all three together. A clean loss history with a worsening inspection record gets questions; a bad year with a documented fix gets a hearing.
- Do insurance companies see our CSA scores?
They see the public data: inspections, violations, out-of-service results and crashes. Since the FAST Act of 2015, FMCSA has not shown the public the BASIC percentiles for property carriers, but the records behind them remain public, and underwriters read them directly or through data services. You can see your own percentiles by logging in to FMCSA’s site.
- CSA scores and fleet insurance
- Will cameras lower our premium?
They can help, and no one can promise a figure in advance. What helps most is evidence of use: how footage is reviewed, how drivers are coached and claims where the video cleared your driver. Some insurance companies require cameras as a condition of quoting a fleet with losses, which is a reason to have them before you are asked.
- ELDs, telematics and trucking insurance
- Why does the number of states we run in matter?
Because miles in dense traffic produce more accidents, and the state where a case is tried affects how large a verdict can get. Underwriters take mileage by state from your IFTA records, so report it from those records rather than estimating it.
Need this handled?
Reading about it and having it handled are different jobs, and the second one is ours. We place the accounts other brokers decline — claims history, a cancellation, an unusual operation, a business nobody wants to underwrite twice — and we will tell you when the policy you already have is the right one. Tell us the situation and a licensed human replies the same business day.
Lori takes on only a few large fleets at a time, so each one gets a full renewal: the submission built properly and shopped with every insurance company that fits. Two openings remain for the rest of 2026.
Written by the licensed brokers at Boring Insurance. Last updated 2026-10-11. See all guides.