Commercial Truck Insurance

A truck policy is an auto policy built for heavier equipment and higher stakes. The parts are familiar, but the limits, the equipment schedule and the conditions are written for trucking.

Who buys it: for-hire carriers hauling for others, owner-operators leased to a carrier or running under their own authority, and private carriers such as distributors, builders and manufacturers running their own heavy trucks. Lighter vans and pickups belong on commercial auto, and groups of mixed vehicles on a fleet program. For the full picture of the trucking sector, including freight brokers and couriers, see our transportation and logistics guide.

Business owners often ask why a truck policy costs and reads so differently from the policy on their van. The answer is weight, distance, freight and regulation.

Every Canadian province sets a minimum. In Ontario, section 251 of the Insurance Act requires at least $200,000 of third-party liability for any one accident, for a cargo van and a loaded tractor-trailer alike. Two other regimes raise the floor for trucks, and the market raises it further.

Statutory figures are floors, not targets. Shipper and broker contracts usually name the auto liability limit they need before they will tender freight, and a serious highway collision can produce claims far beyond any of these minimums. Most carriers buy a primary auto limit and an umbrella above it, and match both to the contracts they sign. Check what each contract requires before you bid on the freight, not after.

In Ontario, a Commercial Vehicle Operator's Registration certificate is required for trucks with a registered gross weight or actual weight over 4,500 kg, including trucks with farm plates, as well as buses with 10 or more seats and tow trucks. A trailer and its load count toward gross weight if the trailer weighs more than 2,800 kg, which is how a heavy pickup towing equipment can cross the line. Trucks plated in other provinces need a safety certificate from their home jurisdiction instead.

The Ministry of Transportation gives every operator one of four safety ratings: Satisfactory, Satisfactory-Unaudited, Conditional or Unsatisfactory. An Unsatisfactory rating suspends or cancels operating privileges throughout Canada. The operator is also responsible for making sure each vehicle is insured under a commercial vehicle auto liability policy with the appropriate minimum coverages.

Underwriters read the CVOR abstract early, because it records collisions, convictions and inspections in a standard format. Our post on trucking insurance and your CVOR explains how carriers manage the file deliberately, and the transportation guide covers driver abstracts and maintenance records.

The truck policy and the cargo policy answer different questions. Auto liability and physical damage cover the vehicle and what it does to others. Cargo covers the freight inside it. A rollover can trigger all three, and the claim only goes smoothly if the limits, deductibles and conditions line up.

In Ontario, Regulation 643/05 under the Highway Traffic Act requires every carrier carrying goods for compensation to insure each vehicle for loss of or damage to the goods, in an amount sufficient to cover the goods carried, with an insurer licensed in Ontario, and to carry evidence of that insurance in the vehicle. The uniform conditions of carriage cap a carrier's liability for general freight at the lesser of the goods' value and $4.41 per kilogram, unless the shipper declares a higher value.

Our cargo insurance page covers cargo wording in detail, and the transportation guide explains the uniform conditions of carriage, including claim deadlines.

An owner-operator leased to a carrier sits between two insurance programs. The lease agreement decides where the line falls, and gaps appear wherever the lease is silent. Read the insurance clauses with your broker before you sign, and again whenever the carrier changes its program.

An owner-operator who hauls under their own operating authority is a carrier, and needs the full carrier program: primary liability, physical damage, cargo, general liability and any U.S. filings.

A Canadian carrier operating in the United States must meet U.S. federal financial responsibility rules before the first load. Under 49 CFR 387.7, a motor carrier may not operate a vehicle until it has the minimum coverage required by 387.9 in effect. Proof usually takes the form of an MCS-90 endorsement issued by the insurer, and carriers domiciled in Canada must carry a legible English copy of that proof on board each vehicle operating in the U.S.

Not every Canadian insurer writes U.S. exposure or files the required proof, and those that do price U.S. lanes against the U.S. claims environment. Choose your insurer with the authority you hold in mind, and confirm filings are in place before dispatch. Our cross-border insurance service coordinates the filings, and the transportation guide covers USDOT numbers, operating authority and process agents.

Theft deserves particular attention. Équité Association recorded about 1,601 thefts of tractors, trailers and cargo in Ontario in 2025, against roughly 240 in Alberta, as reported by Truck News. Nationally, trailer thefts rose to about 970 in 2025 from about 570 in 2024, and the cargo recovery rate fell from 13% to 9%.

Hypothetical. An owner-operator leased to an Ontario carrier delivers a load on Friday, then drives the tractor home without a trailer. On the way, he runs a red light and injures a cyclist.

The carrier's auto policy covers leased units while they are operating in the carrier's business. This trip wasn't dispatched, so the carrier's insurer may decline. If the owner-operator carries non-trucking liability, his own insurer responds. Without it, he faces the claim personally, and the carrier may be drawn in as well.

Change one fact: he was driving to pick up the next load the carrier had dispatched. Now the carrier's policy is the natural fit, and a non-trucking policy will usually exclude the trip because it was in the carrier's business. The only reliable way through is a lease that defines dispatch clearly and two policies written to match it.

Truck premiums are rated per power unit and trailer, then adjusted for the operation. The same factors appear on almost every submission. Our post on why commercial auto costs what it costs covers pricing logic across vehicle lines.

Clean CVOR data, current abstracts and documented maintenance and safety programs reach more of the market. Our risk management services help build that file before it goes to underwriters.

Our claims team works with you and the adjuster from first notice to settlement, and our post on cargo coverage in peak shipping season covers cargo claim preparation.