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The reasons behind trucking’s rising insurance rates

The largest driver of increased rates right now is available insurance capacity. Distracted driving, the commercial truck driver shortage, nuclear verdicts, and litigation funding have also compounded the problem.

Over the last 10 years, commercial trucking insurance rates have skyrocketed. Despite those rate increases, however, insurance companies are experiencing losses, which means the transportation insurance industry is seeing continued deterioration and availability in capacity.

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Heavy-duty truck orders rebounding from COVID slump

After the early pandemic days of uncertainty, when OEMs shut down production, heavy-truck build levels plummeted. But production has recovered quicker than in past recessions, and demand has set up the industry for a booming future.

Half a year ago, when the COVID-19 pandemic first started shutting down local, national and worldwide economies, it created uncertainty for truck makers and buyers. Now the truck market appears to be making a V-shaped recovery from the nadir of spring as fleets focus on fall orders to prepare for a potentially busy 2021 that could spur high demand over the next three years.

“We have a flash recession caused by a natural disaster. Normally natural disasters are regional. This natural disaster was not only countrywide but worldwide,” Don Ake, the FTR Intelligence vice president for commercial vehicles, said during a recent FTR Engage virtual session on commercial vehicle supply.

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Trucking economist: ‘Recession likely over’

ATA economist Bob Costello believes the pandemic recession has ended, but not before it changed the future U.S. economic landscape by reshaping consumer habits in a way that has benefited the trucking industry — unlike past recessions that hampered it.

“The recession is likely over.”

Bob Costello, the American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) chief economist, delivered this promising, unofficial news to virtual attendants of the 2020 McLeod Software User Conference during a Sept. 30 presentation on the economy.

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