Choosing deductibles and stated values for fleet trucks

The chassis is often the less expensive half of a working truck. A service body with compartments and a crane, a dump body and hoist, shelving and an inverter in a cargo van or a refrigeration unit on a box truck can add as much value as the base vehicle. If the schedule shows the chassis price from the window sticker, a total loss may pay for little more than a bare truck.

• Keep the invoices for every body and permanently attached item and send them when the unit is added.
• Revalue at renewal. A body that was new five years ago has depreciated too, and an older truck still scheduled at its purchase price may be costing premium for value it can't recover.
• Separate attached from portable. A welder bolted to the bed may be treated as part of the vehicle; a generator that comes off at night generally isn't.
• Ask how the form handles custom equipment and permanently installed electronics, since some forms limit them unless they're described on the schedule.

Tools, materials and portable equipment generally aren't treated as auto property. They're typically placed on an equipment (inland marine) policy; the other business insurance we place shows where that fits. Don't count the same item on both schedules and don't assume the auto policy catches what the equipment policy leaves out.

A single total loss is the scenario most owners picture, and it's often not the one that hurts most. The pattern that more often strains a fleet is several mid-sized claims in one policy year: a backing hit at the supply house, a cracked windshield, a sideswipe on a narrow job-site road, a cut-out catalytic converter. Each one typically costs the full deductible.

1. Pull three to five years of loss runs and count the physical damage claims in each year, not just the dollars.
2. Multiply your worst year's count by each deductible you're considering.
3. Compare the result with what the higher deductible is quoted to save in premium.
4. Check it against the cash the business could spend in a bad month without delaying payroll or a supplier.
5. Run the test separately for comprehensive and collision, since theft, glass and weather losses tend to follow their own pattern.

Lenders get a vote, too. Financed and leased trucks usually come with a maximum deductible and a loss payee requirement written into the finance agreement, so read those documents before settling on a figure the lender might not accept.

A disabled truck usually costs more than its repair bill. When the only crane-body truck in an equipment repair company sits in the body shop, the field calls it handles can stop or get handed to someone else. A rental counter can often replace a pickup. It can rarely replace a ten-wheel dump or a custom service body at all.

That's why rental reimbursement deserves a look next to the deductible. A daily limit sized for a passenger vehicle is unlikely to come close to renting a heavy unit, if one can be found. For fleets with one or two specialized trucks, an older spare kept on liability and comprehensive may do more for uptime than any coverage change. For dump truck insurance in California, the time lost in the middle of grading season can be a real part of what a collision costs.

Fleets rarely need one deductible for every unit. A common approach groups vehicles by value and role:

• New and financed units carry physical damage at the deductible the lender allows and the business can absorb.
• Mid-life trucks carry a higher deductible, because the gap between premium and value narrows as they age.
• Older, paid-off pickups may drop collision, or physical damage altogether, once the premium nears what the truck is worth.
• Specialized units get a stated amount backed by invoices, plus a plan for when they're out of service.

Write the reasoning down. A one-page note explaining why each group carries the deductible it does helps keep the decision from being remade from scratch every year. When you're ready, quote the fleet at two or three deductible levels so the trade-off shows up in dollars, and use the 120-day renewal plan to time the decision. The vehicles these choices apply to are described on our commercial truck insurance page.