Owned trailers
Damage to trailers you own, generally scheduled individually by value.
Semi Trailer Insurance
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Semi Trailer Insurance
Cover for flat tops, curtainsiders, drop decks and B-double sets.
Trailers are often insured as an afterthought behind the prime mover, which is how operators end up with a non-owned trailer they are contractually responsible for and no cover for it.
What is it?
Semi-trailers include flat tops, drop decks, curtainsiders or tautliners, skels, tippers and tankers, run singly or as B-double and road train sets. Many operators tow trailers they do not own under hire or subcontract arrangements, which changes how they must be insured.
What does semi trailer insurance cover?
Non-owned trailers
Trailers you tow under hire or contract, which need specific wording to respond.
Load restraint liability
Damage caused by shifting or falling loads, which is a common and serious trailer exposure.
What affects the cost?
- Trailer type and value
- Whether trailers are owned, hired or subcontracted
- Commodity carried
- Where trailers are parked when not in use
- Load restraint equipment and practices
Worth raising on the call
- Non-owned trailers are the most common gap in transport programmes.
- Trailers detached and parked in a yard are often subject to different conditions.
- Load restraint failures can create liability well beyond the trailer's value.
Claims we are commonly asked about
Load shifts through a curtain
Pallets move on a roundabout and push out through the curtain and gates, spilling freight onto the road. The trailer repair is one part, the damaged freight is another, and following vehicles can add a liability claim.
Loaded trailer taken overnight
A loaded trailer is dropped at a depot fence or a truck stop overnight and the curtains are slashed and freight removed, or the whole trailer is taken. Recovery is rare without a kingpin lock or telematics, and the freight loss usually exceeds the trailer's value.
Landing legs punch in
A trailer is parked loaded on soft ground or hot bitumen and the legs sink or fold, dropping the nose. Damage typically runs through the front bulkhead, the chassis rails and whatever was stacked at the front of the load.
Worth confirming in the wording
- Worth confirming whether a trailer left detached and unattended, particularly away from your own depot, carries different theft conditions or requires a kingpin lock or immobiliser.
- Worth confirming exactly how a non-owned trailer is defined, including whether long-term hire or a subcontract arrangement falls inside that definition.
- Worth confirming whether tarps, curtains, gates, straps and other load restraint equipment are included or need to be scheduled separately.
Common questions
Do I need to insure a trailer separately from the prime mover?
Trailers are generally scheduled as individual items with their own values, even where they sit on the same policy as the prime mover. That is what lets a claim respond when a trailer is damaged while detached or while being towed by a different unit. It is worth checking every trailer, including spares and old units kept for parts, appears on the schedule.
Am I responsible for a trailer I tow for someone else?
Usually your responsibility comes from the hire or subcontract agreement rather than from the insurance policy, and those agreements often make you liable for the trailer while it is in your possession. Non-owned trailer cover is what responds to that liability, and it needs specific wording. Reading the hire agreement and the policy side by side is the practical check.
Does trailer insurance cover the freight on board?
Generally not. The trailer schedule responds to the trailer itself, while the goods are addressed by carriers liability or goods in transit cover with its own limit. Where a load shift damages both the trailer and the freight, two different sections are typically engaged.
What does semi trailer insurance cost?
It depends on the trailer type and value, whether trailers are owned, hired or subcontracted, the commodity carried, where trailers are parked when not in use, load restraint equipment and practices, the excess and claims history. A flat top and a refrigerated tautliner of the same age can price very differently.
General information only. Cover, limits and exclusions depend on the PDS, TMD, eligibility, underwriting and the policy terms. See truck insurance for the wider picture.
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