Carriers without General Liability (CGL)

How could a carrier get their trucks licensed without general liability? Any truck that is licensed is covered under some sort of general liability.
 
Is it even possible for any carrier not to have this coverage? I thought it was mandatory, but I could be wrong.
 
it's not mandatory and we have come across a few guys who don't have it
our policy right now is to stay away from them, but this protection is almost a zero cost factor when you look at it in a yearly perspective
99.99% of carriers have it, but the one day you really need a truck, he doesn't have it...
 
I would stay away from those carriers too! WAY too risky to deal with anyone who doesn't have the coverage.
 
I've never heard of this. You can't get a license plate in Ontario without liability insurance. There are minimum requirements for liability insurance within Ontario. I've worked in insurance before on personal and commercial so I have some knowledge of the industry.

Which insurance company did they use because I've never heard of this?
 
This is different from the liability insurance that you need to get plates for a truck. Nonetheless, you would be very foolish to have a policy and omit this coverage.
 
If you were a small one or two truck operation with no office to speak of and your employees were family members, I could see where this type of insurance might not be necessary. Every company that has employees, visitors to their office (including the FedEx guy or gal) should have it. It also provides coverage in the event your company is subject to a law suit. I've never heard of someone purposely declining it as a component of their entire policy.
 
even with no office you need this because the trucks are like a work space for the drivers so when they're out on the road this coverage is needed
 
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True, however if they were injured while at work, Workers Compensation would be the primary responder to an injury claim. General Liability insures your business against claims made. You would also have it as part of your homeowners policy. Again, protection against claims made such as your neighbour slips on your steps, or the old tree in your back yard falls into the neighbours house. I wouldn't rule out using a carrier who doesn't have it, because my dealings with them will be covered by either his auto PL & PD policy or his Cargo Policy. It might sway my opinion of them as a competant business person however. It is inexpensive coverage that all business should have to protect themselves.
 
what about if the shipper steps up onto the truck to the driver's window to talk to him and he slips off and hurts himself?!? isn't this the type of accident that doesn't fall under cargo nor auto insurance?
 
I would think that type of injury would be covered by the shippers insurance, unless of course, negligence could be proven against the owner of the truck. Such as a faulty step on the truck, etc.. If the shipper injured himself while at his workplace, either workers compensation, or their liability policy would be the primary responders to such a claim. If the injury was catastrophic, the injured party could look to the truck owner after they have exhausted all other avenues of compensation.
No question, in the U.S. where the climate is "sue everyone", having as much coverage as possible makes good business sense.
 
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There is a little known rule in Ontario that your insurance covers a slip and fall or other injury that occurs when either entering or exiting a vehicle. I know because I have made use of this. I broke a rib falling off a truck step and being the owner of the company I do not cover myself under WSIB. But Loaders is right in that if it is work related you would go through worker's compensation etc first. I was explained the general liability in this sense by my agent...take for example your driver is smoking a cigarette and throws the butt out the window of the truck and there is some oil or gas residue on the ground and it catches fire. It is due to negligence on the part of the driver, but you would be covered for this negligence.
 
I know for a fact that if that slip and fall happened in the US you would be sued we had a company in our insurance captive that got sued for an unbelievable amount by an employee of the company they were making a delivery to and got hit for a lot of money, Ontario fairly safe but that is starting to change accident settlements are now going in the millions.
 
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Here is another little known fact. Under most car insurance policies now (due to a change in the law a few years ago to help a nearly bankrupt WSIB) an employee who gets hurt on the job while driving someone else vehicle has the right to opt out of WSIB and put in a claim with their personal insurance company. They big difference is that under WSIB the injured party does not have the right to sue anyone. Under their personal insurance they do have the right to sue, with the exception of their employer. It is a gamble for the injured party, if they have a good case against anyone involved that might be negligent in the eyes of a judge they could get a huge settlement, but if they lose they get nothing, and cannot go back to WSIB. If you are looking for a lawyer these days there is a good chance you will find one in an emergency room making sales calls on injured workers.
 
@youngtea
Although you are nuts not to have a General Liability (GL) or Commercial General Liability (CGL) policy, it is not a requirement to have said policy to acquire license plates in Ontario, or any other state or province that I know of. However, what you do need to acquire license plates are Public Liability (PL) and Public Damage (PD) policies.
GL/CGL policies are more commonly referred to as "Slip & Fall" policies.

@whatiship
The caveat to that is that the employee must go to their private passenger vehicle (PPV) coverage first and then that policy subrogates to the carrier's policy. Carrier policy underwriters take an extremely dim view of that course of action and will string the PPV policy along for years before paying out, if they pay out at all. Usually it takes a lawyer to get it done, and those types of lawyers don't come cheap.

An employee is far better off going thru WSIB than any other policy, since all other policies will take WSIB payments, whether they are realized or not, into account when rendering their decisions anyways. Besides, as a WSIB adjudicator once told me, WSIB insures stupidity :)
 
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so if someone doesn't have CGL, the lawyers will be going after that guy and who ever hired him? this is what I understand here.

so the slip & fall policy must be in place or else you aren't insured for the once in a lifetime problem that will cost you more than you can offerd if you get sued.
 
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