Truck insurance
How much does commercial truck insurance cost?
No agency sets or publishes commercial truck insurance prices, so any site quoting you one exact number made it up. What does exist on the record: one national insurer's published book averages, the federal liability floor every policy must clear, and the rating factors underwriters apply. This page renders each of those, with a source on every figure.
By Evan Reid, Founder of Haul Handbook · Updated Jul 21, 2026
The only published averages
No government agency publishes commercial truck insurance premiums. Every premium figure on this page comes from a named published industry source; anything those sources do not publish stays blank instead of being estimated.
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2025 new policy premium per power unit for liability and physical damage coverage for policies with no violations, as published by Progressive Commercial. One insurer's published book average across its national for-hire trucking policies, not a quote. Individual premiums move with the rating factors listed on this page.
Those averages bundle liability and physical damage. The full stack a carrier actually shops for runs longer, from cargo coverage to bobtail; the coverage types a carrier needs breaks down each one and who forces the purchase.
The federal floor under every quote
Before FMCSA activates operating authority, your insurer must file proof of liability (BIPD) coverage at or above the floor set in federal rule for what you haul. Every amount below renders from the sourced federal record:
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These floors are filing minimums, not prices, and your insurer sends the proof to FMCSA for you through the BMC-91 filing your insurer makes. Where insurance sits inside the whole startup budget is covered in what it costs to start a trucking company.
What brokers ask for above the floor
OOIDA reports that while FMCSA sets the federal liability filing floor, most shippers and brokers require one million dollar liability limits before they tender a load. The federal floor itself comes from the 49 CFR Part 387 federal minimums. That makes $1,000,000 in liability limits the working market standard for a general freight carrier, whatever the federal floor says.
For scale on where the premium lands inside your operating budget: ATRI's 2025 industry research puts the total marginal cost of each mile a truck runs at $2.336, and at $1.854 once fuel is stripped out. Insurance is one line item inside that total, which is why a bad premium can decide whether a lane pays.
What moves the quote
Underwriters publish the rating factors even though they do not publish the rates. Each factor below comes from a named insurer's own published guidance:
- Operating radius
- Truckers with a large operating radius usually take on more risk from longer drive times between stops and more varied routes, so wider radii price higher.
- Vehicle type and weight
- The vehicle you run sets part of the price; it generally costs more to cover a heavy semi truck than a lighter pickup or box truck.
- Vehicle age and safety equipment
- Newer trucks with advanced safety features can cost less to insure because they reduce the likelihood of accidents and theft.
- Driving history
- Accidents and violations move commercial truck premiums more than they move personal auto policies; even a minor speeding ticket can raise the price sharply.
State insurance requirements
The figures above govern interstate authority. If you run intrastate, your state sets its own liability minimums and filing forms, and they differ enough to change your quote. The sourced state-by-state breakdowns:
- Alabama trucking insurance requirements
- California trucking insurance requirements
- Colorado trucking insurance requirements
- Florida trucking insurance requirements
- Georgia trucking insurance requirements
- Illinois trucking insurance requirements
- Indiana trucking insurance requirements
- Iowa trucking insurance requirements
- Kentucky trucking insurance requirements
- Louisiana trucking insurance requirements
- Michigan trucking insurance requirements
- Missouri trucking insurance requirements
- New Jersey trucking insurance requirements
- New Mexico trucking insurance requirements
- New York trucking insurance requirements
- North Carolina trucking insurance requirements
- Ohio trucking insurance requirements
- Oklahoma trucking insurance requirements
- Oregon trucking insurance requirements
- Pennsylvania trucking insurance requirements
- South Carolina trucking insurance requirements
- Tennessee trucking insurance requirements
- Texas trucking insurance requirements
- Virginia trucking insurance requirements
- Washington trucking insurance requirements
- Wisconsin trucking insurance requirements
For every other state, the insurance requirements table covers all 51 jurisdictions, including the ones still pending verification.