Home every night, inside 150 air miles, and possibly exempt from logging.
Commercial insurance for local and short-haul carriers — high-frequency urban work, the short-haul exemption, and the intrastate filings that replace the federal ones.
Tell us the situation.
A licensed human replies the same business day — not an auto-responder, and not five producers calling at once. We shop it across our carriers and tell you if the policy you already have is the right one.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
What local trucking businesses actually need.
Commercial auto
Vehicles the business owns and the people who drive them for work.
Without it — Frequent stops in congested areas is a high-frequency exposure, and it is rated very differently from highway miles.
Motor truck cargo
The freight itself while you are hauling it. Separate from the liability on the truck.
Without it — Local freight is still owed to whoever shipped it.
Auto physical damage
Damage to your own tractor and trailer. Primary liability pays for what you do to everyone else and nothing for your equipment, so without this a rollover you caused leaves you paying off a truck you can no longer run.
Without it — Low-speed damage is constant in tight yards, docks and city streets.
General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage — the line nearly every contract names by default.
Without it — Loading, delivery premises and customer sites sit outside the auto policy.
Workers compensation
Required in almost every state the moment you have employees. Priced on payroll and class code, which is why the class code is worth arguing about.
Without it — Repeated loading and unloading is where local drivers get hurt, not the driving.
Umbrella & excess liability
Extra limit stacked above general liability, auto and employers liability. Usually the cheapest million dollars on the policy.
Without it — Municipal and commercial delivery contracts frequently require limits above primary.
Non-trucking liability
Covers the tractor when it is being driven outside dispatch — home from the yard, or to the shop. The motor carrier’s primary liability generally responds only while you are under dispatch, and that gap is exactly when an owner-operator is driving on their own time.
Without it — Off-dispatch driving is excluded by primary liability at any radius.
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)
What local trucking operators ask us.
Am I exempt from ELDs if I stay local?
Possibly, and it is worth knowing precisely. The short-haul exemption applies to drivers operating entirely within a 150 air-mile radius of their normal reporting location who are released from duty within 14 hours and who start and end the day at the same place. Qualifying drivers do not have to keep a record of duty status or run an electronic logging device, but they do have to keep accurate time records proving they qualified. Exceeding the 14-hour window even by minutes voids it for that day.
Do I need federal authority for local work?
Only if you are crossing state lines or hauling interstate freight. Purely intrastate carriers are regulated by the state, and the credential, the form the insurer files and the minimum limit are all set locally rather than federally — they differ meaningfully from one state to the next. Getting this right is the difference between an authority that can book loads and one that cannot.
Why is my local premium not much cheaper than long haul?
Because radius reduces severity and local work increases frequency. Fewer highway miles means fewer catastrophic accidents, but constant stops, reversing, tight docks and urban traffic produce far more claims. The two effects partly cancel, which surprises operators who assumed staying close to home would halve the price.
Does it matter that my drivers go home every night?
It helps, and underwriters know it. Drivers home nightly are easier to retain, and driver turnover is one of the strongest predictors of loss in this class. A stable driver roster on a local operation is worth presenting rather than assuming nobody notices.