5 Practical Risk Mitigation Tips Agents Can Provide for Trucking Clients

• By: Olivia Overman
• September 15, 2025

Trucking business operators are continuing to feel the pressure from increasing trucking insurance premiums. Premiums rose 12.5% in 2023 to $0.099 per mile and 40% over the past decade, according to the “Operational Costs of Trucking 2024 Report,” from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI).

While factors like increased repair expenses, more frequent claims and stricter regulatory requirements are responsible for such increases, insurance remains a large cost of doing business.

The trucking industry has made meaningful safety improvements, investing $14 billion annually in technology, training and other expenditures to improve highway safety, according to the American Trucking Association (ATA). Nevertheless, companies are continuing to struggle with increasing operating costs, including insurance rates.  

Here are five practical tips agents can provide to their trucking clients to help them navigate a difficult market:

1) Mitigate legal system abuse with electronic logging devices. Agents must educate trucking business owners on the importance of technology. “Electronic logging devices (ELDs) telematics that are going to monitor your drivers’ location and driver behaviors are key,” says Roman Atkielski, national practice leader for transportation, Jencap. “These are no longer considered a luxury or something we should think about. It’s now becoming the standard requirement for carriers. Many will require access to a company’s ELD telematics information before they will even quote.”

As claims increase in frequency and severity, “companies can counteract claims with technological advances that share telematics,” says Mark Gallagher, transportation practice leader, Risk Placement Services (RPS). “To bring more transparency, cameras—both inward and outward facing— help understand what happens at the time of a loss and mitigates some of the legal system abuse.”

2) Leverage safety technology. “Whether it’s installing cameras in the trucks and safety devices such as lane departure warning systems, all of these different technologies can help potentially lower the amount of a loss and yield a safer organization,” Gallagher says. “It also helps insurance companies understand the investment in safety, loss control and risk control. Keeping the safety scores in check also helps lower insurance costs in general.”

In January 2025, the Partnership for Analytics Research in Traffic Safety (PARTS), a partnership between automakers and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, released results of its second study on the effectiveness of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in passenger vehicles. The study showed automatic emergency braking continues to improve as it cuts rear-end crashes in half. The study also found that vehicles equipped with pedestrian automatic emergency braking systems saw a 9% reduction in single-vehicle frontal crashes with non-motorists.

“Embrace the new technology, the advancements in cameras both forward facing and driver facing, so insurance companies can reconstruct an accident through seeing it on video,” Atkielski says. “In the event of an accident, the footage is available and we can see who was actually liable, shutting down frivolous claims.”

3) Retain drivers. Retaining skilled and trained drivers is essential for a company in keeping costs down. “Driver retention, especially retaining your best drivers, is very important,” Gallagher says. “That helps lower the insurance costs.”

One way to retain drivers is by mitigating the stress of the job. When asked the reason why fleets have a hard time keeping drivers, nearly two-thirds (65%) of commercial truck drivers cited lack of respect for drivers, the job they do and failure to treat them as part of the team, according to Commercial Carrier Journal’s “2024 What Drivers Want” study. This was the second leading cause of driver turnover, behind only low pay (69%). 

4) Work with trusted insurers. “In the trucking industry, working with insurance companies that specialize in trucking insurance is imperative,” says Nick Saeger, assistant vice president of products and pricing for transportation, Sentry Insurance. “They have claims adjusters dedicated to trucking who understand the ins and outs, safety specialists with years of experience in the industry, and forms and policies built for trucking companies.” 

5) Notify the carrier of a claim as soon as possible. “The earlier a claim is reported to the insurance company, the earlier they can get engaged and start working that claim,” Atkielski says. “That’s something that agents need to educate their accounts on.”

“Get the insurance company involved, get the adjusters involved and hopefully we can go out, pay the compensable claim and close it down,” Atkielski continues. “Lingering just invites law firms to get involved, and then the claim can escalate.”

Olivia Overman is IA content editor.