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Truck insurance is for owner drivers and fleet operators running prime movers, rigid trucks, tippers or refrigerated units. If the truck is financed, the lender will usually require comprehensive cover with its interest noted, and freight customers often set a limit for the goods you carry. Fortis Risk Solutions compares commercial motor wordings and checks the conditions that catch operators out, such as driver age, licence history and unattended vehicle rules. After an accident we help you lodge the claim and keep the repairs moving. Have the rego details, your drivers and the loads you carry listed. Call 03 7046 3766 or send an enquiry.
What Truck Insurance Covers
Truck insurance covers damage to the truck and trailer, the owner's liability for damage to other people's vehicles and property, the load and the income lost while a truck is off the road, for owner drivers and trucking fleets. It is written on a commercial motor wording, because a heavy vehicle that earns money is a different risk from a private car.
The losses on a truck are large and they arrive fast. A prime mover jackknifes on a wet freeway and the trailer and load are damaged. A tipper rolls on a soft site. A refrigeration unit fails on a long run and the load spoils. A truck is stolen from an unfenced yard overnight. Each one can stop the income from that truck for weeks.
In Victoria, injury to people in a road accident is covered by the Transport Accident Commission through the registration charge, so a truck policy deals with damage to vehicles and property. Heavy vehicle operators also answer to the Heavy Vehicle National Law. Loading, unloading and work on a customer's site can fall between the motor policy and public liability insurance. We check both wordings together.
Fortis Risk Solutions arranges truck insurance Victoria-wide and for interstate operators from offices in Box Hill and Hawthorn. It is part of our business insurance range. We look at the vehicles and trailers, the goods carried, the drivers and the radius of operation before we approach insurers. Vans and utes used for work sit under business car insurance, often on the same fleet policy.
Who this covers
Businesses in this group include:
- Owner drivers
- Small trucking fleets
- Prime movers and trailers
- Tippers
- Refrigerated trucks
- Tow trucks
If your business is not listed, ask us. The sections below are the starting point for any business in the group.
Truck Insurance: Cover Sections and Benefits
Truck Insurance - Client Case Studies
Cases from the Fortis Risk Solutions broking team. Client names have been removed.
Client case: Truck Reverses Into a Customer’s Building
The client situation: While making a delivery, a company truck reverses into the customer’s loading dock, damaging the building and the rear of the insured truck.
How the policy may respond: The Commercial Motor policy may cover accidental damage to the insured truck and the business’s legal liability for the third-party property damage caused to the customer’s building, subject to policy terms and exclusions.
How Fortis Risk Solutions helps: We lodge the claim, arrange the assessment and deal with the customer’s insurer, so the business is not caught between two claims.
Client case: Delivery Truck Accident
The client situation: A wholesaler’s delivery truck is travelling to a customer when the driver loses control in wet conditions and collides with another vehicle. Both the company truck and the other vehicle are damaged.
How the policy may respond: Commercial Motor Insurance may cover accidental damage to the insured truck as well as the business’s legal liability for damage to the other vehicle.
How Fortis Risk Solutions helps: We check that every vehicle and every regular driver is declared on the policy, which is where motor claims most often go wrong.
Client case: Truck Accident Damages Goods in Transit
The client situation: A wholesale business is transporting a large order of stock from its warehouse in Sydney to a customer interstate. The delivery truck is involved in an accident, causing several pallets of goods to be crushed and damaged.
How the policy responded: The Marine Transit policy helped cover accidental physical damage to the insured goods while being transported by road.
How Fortis Risk Solutions helps: Goods on a truck are not covered by the truck’s motor policy. We arrange marine transit cover for domestic deliveries so the stock itself is insured.
Every policy is different and the outcome of a claim depends on its terms. As your broker, Fortis Risk Solutions compares insurers and policy wording before you buy, and lodges and manages the claim for you when something happens. Talk to us about your own cover.
Truck Insurance FAQs
A comprehensive truck policy covers accidental damage, fire and theft for the truck, and your liability for damage to other people's vehicles and property. Optional sections add downtime cover, goods in transit, windscreen, towing costs and a replacement vehicle. Third party property damage only cover leaves the truck itself uninsured, which some owners accept for older vehicles.
Downtime cover pays an agreed daily or weekly amount while a truck cannot work after an insured accident, for a set period, depending on the policy wording. It helps with finance repayments and wages while the truck is repaired. It works like business interruption insurance for a single vehicle. It matters most when parts for a prime mover can take weeks to arrive.
Not by the vehicle section. Damage to the goods you carry needs goods in transit or cargo insurance, which covers loss or damage to the load from accident, fire, theft and, where selected, refrigeration breakdown. Check your carrier contracts as well. Many set out who bears a loss to the goods and what limit of cover you must hold.
Not necessarily, but each unit needs to be listed. Prime mover insurance covers the tractor unit, and trailers are scheduled as separate items with their own values, because a trailer can be damaged on its own or swapped between prime movers. Check whether a trailer stays covered while it is detached or towed by another operator's prime mover.
Yes. Truck insurance brokers place single trucks for owner drivers and fleet policies for operators with several vehicles. A fleet policy puts every vehicle on one schedule with one renewal date. Owner drivers should also look at personal accident and illness cover, because the business stops when the driver cannot work. Operators who also store or handle goods should review logistics insurance.
Truck wordings differ on driver age and licence conditions, radius of operation, agreed or market value, and how downtime and cargo claims are paid. FRS helps you disclose the vehicles, drivers and loads accurately, structure limits for liability and cargo, compare specialist transport insurers and act as your advocate at claim time. Depots, yards and workshops are insured under a business insurance package alongside the trucks.
No truck policy suits every owner operator, so the useful question is which wording fits the way you work. With a single truck, downtime cover matters most: check whether it is included and how many days it pays while the truck is off the road, because that is your income. The load comes next. Look at the goods in transit limit, and whether spoiled refrigerated freight after a breakdown can be covered. A broker lines these sections up across insurers so you compare like with like.
Talk to a broker about Truck Insurance
Call 03 7046 3766 on weekdays between 9:30am and 6pm, email admin@fortisrisksolutions.com.au, or send an enquiry and a broker from our Box Hill or Hawthorn office will come back to you about truck insurance. Tell us what the business does and what the lease or contract asks for, and we take it from there.