Motor Truck Cargo Insurance

Blue truck hauling a yellow dump truck.
White truck hauling metal cargo on a remote road.

What is motor truck cargo insurance?

Our motor truck cargo insurance protects your loads during transport. We offer motor carriers the benefits of our Premier and Custom Cargo insurance coverage forms for truck drivers and businesses that want to protect themselves against liability for loss or damage to covered property in their care, custody and control during transit. Northland’s motor truck cargo insurance covers a wide range of commodity types and values, as well as high-value and specialized freight.

Premier Cargo coverage form 

Northland’s Premier Cargo coverage form is our core product and one of the broadest cargo coverage forms among specialty companies for eligible insureds. Our Premier Cargo insurance coverage includes: 

  • Broad commodity coverage with minimal exclusions
  • Livestock coverage
  • Temperature protection
  • Load shift protection
  • Earned freight reimbursement
  • Towing expenses for spilled loads in a covered loss
  • Debris and/or pollution removal
  • Claim mitigation reimbursement
  • Fire department service charges
  • Reward coverage for stolen property
  • Traffic and security expense charges
  • Defense costs and related supplementary payments

Additional benefits of our premier insurance for cargo include: 

  • Meets typical freight broker requirements
  • Tailored endorsements meet unique named shipper or trip needs
  • No coinsurance clause
  • Various deductible and limit options
  • Hired cargo coverage option available

Custom Cargo coverage form

Our Custom Cargo coverage form is designed to provide flexibility for motor carriers to only pay for what they need by offering a select portion of the benefits contained within our premier form. Our Custom Cargo insurance coverage includes:

  • Load shift protection for secured loads
  • Earned freight reimbursement
  • Towing expenses for spilled loads in a covered loss
  • Debris and pollution removal
  • Claim mitigation reimbursement
  • Defense costs and related supplementary payments

This scheduled vehicle form has several buy-back coverages. These can be added to expand available coverage, based on the commodities hauled, and include:

  • Temperature control unit
  • Electronics
  • Copper and aluminum
  • Hard liquor
  • Pharmaceuticals

Additional specialty coverages

Named shipper and specified trip limit of insurance


Occasionally, a shipper requires a higher limit of insurance for a load than the insured typically carries. The named shipper and specified trip limit of insurance endorsements are designed to provide an increased limit of cargo for those situations as needed and are an optional add-on to our general motor truck cargo insurance. 

Contingent cargo coverage

 
Contingent cargo coverage protects freight brokerage operations against broker liability claims when a motor carrier you hired has damage to the cargo it transported. This coverage is available as an optional add-on to our Premier Cargo coverage form.

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