South Dakota Truck Insurance

• Auto Liability – Commercial Auto Liability is a critical component of your trucking insurance policy. This coverage protects you if you’re found liable for bodily injury or property damage while operating an insured truck. For example, let’s pretend you are merging on I-29 in Sioux Falls and sideswipe a car. Your semi truck left a bright red scratch on the passenger car’s door. Without auto liability insurance, you would be on the hook for the damages. However, when you purchase auto liability insurance, your insurance company will take care of damages caused by the collision. Let’s say you are driving through Rapid City and collide with a parked car with a passenger inside. In addition to property damage, your auto liability coverage will pay for bodily injury – medical bills, an ambulance ride, and visit to the emergency room – for the injured passenger. South Dakota requires auto liability coverage to operate legally on the road.
• Physical Damage – This coverage protects your insured semi truck and trailer for collision and other-than-collision incidents. Let’s say your truck is parked in a secure lot near Aberdeen with a fence and security cameras, but a thief manages to steal it overnight. Without physical damage coverage, you’d be out a truck and potentially be on the hook for that truck note. Purchasing physical damage is how you can protect your most important asset – your truck – from damages or theft beyond your control. Alternatively, let’s say you rear-end a trailer while waiting to get loaded and your truck is damaged. Your physical damage coverage will pay to fix your truck and keep your wheels rolling. Repairs are expensive! Talking to your truck insurance agent about covering your truck and your trailer is important.
• Motor Truck Cargo – Imagine this: You are taking a load from an e-commerce fulfilment center in Sioux Falls to a warehouse in Mitchell when suddenly you hit debris on the interstate! During the impact, those electronics in your trailer are banged up and deemed inoperable. Your cargo insurance will swoop in to pay for the damaged electronics so you don’t have to pay it yourself. Cargo is there for you when the unimaginable happens. The surest way to lose a client is to leave damages to their products unpaid. Cargo not only protects your wallet, but also your important business relationships.
• Reefer Breakdown – If you haul refrigerated loads, reefer breakdown coverage is a must! This coverage provides protection for loss of refrigerated cargo caused by a change in temperature because your refrigeration unit has an accidental breakdown. For example, you are hauling frozen seafood out of Rapid City headed for Pierre. When you reach the receiver, you notice the reefer unit isn’t working and your entire load is spoiled! Reefer breakdown fills the gap. This coverage will replace the spoiled cargo, pay your customer for damaged goods, and save your business partnership. Don’t forget to ask your agent how you can protect your refrigerated cargo.
• Trailer Interchange and Non Owned Trailer – This coverage is a must if you use other people’s trailers to haul freight. Let’s say you pick up a fully loaded trailer and drive it across the state. You’re halfway across the state when a deer runs into the side of the non owned trailer! Non owned trailer physical damage will pay to repair the non owned trailer for damages that occurred while it was attached to your semi truck. Alternatively, you may work for a company that provides a written trailer interchange agreement and their trailer is damaged while in the course of operation for your business. Not to fear! Trailer Interchange is here! Your agent will match you with the correct coverage for your business operation. But, if you’re using a trailer owned by someone else, make sure to mention it.
• Non-Trucking Liability – Being an owner-operator comes with a unique set of risk. You finished a delivery for the company you lease to and are no longer under dispatch. You decide to drive your truck to a grocery store to pick up some items for personal use on your way home. If you’re involved in an accident while driving to the grocery store, who pays for the damages? Non-trucking liability (NTL) is designed to protect owner-operators when they are using their semi trucks for personal reasons, such as commuting to and or from a terminal or operating the truck for non-business activity. Your agent will ask for a copy of your owner-operator lease agreement before binding coverage. Based on how that lease agreement is written, coverage may or may not apply in certain situations. Understanding your lease agreement is key.
• General Liability – Commercial General Liability covers your business for property damage and bodily injury that occurs in the course of business, but does not involve the truck. Confused? Don’t worry, we’ll explain. For example, you deliver a dishwasher in your box truck to a customer’s home in Brookings and install it for them. As you roll in the dishwasher, you trip and fall straight through their wall. Your general liability policy will pay the homeowner to repair their wall and any property damages associated with the fall. Don’t wait until an accident happens to protect your business from an accident.

South Dakota Truck Insurance Filings

We can help activate your MC/ICC. Business that travel across state lines for hire or operate intrastate for hire may need state or federal operating authority and proof of financial responsibility, or filings, for regulators. Your insurance company provides filings to the government. It tells regulators that you meet the required liability limit set by state and federal regulations.

Upon filings for an authority and purchasing a commercial truck policy, we can help with South Dakota filings and federal filings, including:

• ICC
• MCS90
• Form E
• Form H
• SR22
• And more

Learn more about FMCSA insurance requirements from our experts.