Do you need Cargo Insurance?
Cargo insurance covers freight in transit, and the form you need depends on your role. Motor truck cargo covers a carrier’s legal liability for freight it hauls for others, while shipper’s interest cargo covers a business’s own goods directly, regardless of fault. It may respond to perils such as collision, theft, fire, and water damage.
When goods move by truck, a lot can happen between pickup and delivery: an accident, theft, fire, or cargo shifting and being damaged. We help California carriers and shippers put the right cargo coverage in place.
What does cargo insurance cover?
- Motor truck cargo (for carriers): a trucker’s legal liability for loss or damage to the freight they are hauling for others, typically required by contracts and brokers.
- Shipper’s interest cargo (for businesses): direct coverage for your own goods in transit, regardless of who is at fault.
- Common perils such as collision, overturn, fire, theft, and water damage, subject to policy terms.
- Loading and unloading, and often goods at a terminal or in temporary storage in transit, subject to terms.
Who needs it? Trucking companies and owner-operators (motor truck cargo), and manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers who ship their own products (shipper’s interest). If you rely on a carrier’s coverage alone, a limitation-of-liability clause or a non-negligence loss can leave your goods unprotected.
How we help: we determine whether you need carrier liability, shipper’s interest, or both, review your contracts and commodity types, and set limits that reflect what you actually move. We coordinate with trucking, inland marine, and stock throughput so there are no gaps between transit and storage.
