Insurance Claims Against Trucking Companies

Holding Trucking Companies Responsible

Trucking companies are legally responsible for accidents caused by their drivers under three distinct negligence scenarios: vicarious liability for acts during employment, negligent hiring or retention of unqualified drivers, and negligent supervision of driver conduct.

It's about who pays.

That difference matters when your medical bills exceed half a million dollars and increases the amount you can potentially recover in a claim.

Vicarious Liability: Employers are strictly liable for employee negligence committed within the scope of employment. If the driver was hauling cargo, operating under the company's Motor Carrier number, or performing any work-related duty when the crash occurred, the trucking company is legally responsible. Period. Companies that control dispatch, routes, equipment specifications, or safety compliance bear operational control. That control creates liability exposure their insurance must cover.

Negligent Hiring and Retention: The trucking companies have a legal duty to screen drivers before hiring and monitor their performance afterward. Did they check the driver's Motor Vehicle Record? Review their Commercial Driver's License history? Verify Drug and Alcohol records? Pull their Pre-Employment Screening Program report? If they hired a driver with multiple DUI convictions, previous at-fault crashes, or failed drug tests, that's negligent hiring. If they kept employing a driver who racked up citations, safety violations, or customer complaints after being hired, that's negligent retention. Both create direct liability against the company separate from vicarious liability. You may be able to pursue both claims simultaneously.

Negligent Supervision and Training: Federal regulations under 49 CFR Part 391 require trucking companies to maintain driver qualification files, conduct periodic reviews, and ensure ongoing compliance with hours of service limits and vehicle inspection requirements. Companies must discipline drivers who violate safety rules. They must terminate drivers who create unacceptable risk. When they don't? When they ignore repeated violations because the driver meets delivery schedules? When they pressure drivers to falsify logs or skip required inspections? That's negligent supervision. It exposes the company to direct liability and potential punitive damages for conscious disregard of safety.

Why Multiple Negligence Claims Matter: Vicarious liability gives you access to the company's primary commercial auto liability policy (typically $1 million minimum for interstate carriers). Negligent hiring, retention, or supervision claims can pierce corporate veils and access umbrella policies, general liability coverage, and even trigger bad faith insurance exposure if the company's conduct was egregious. A pattern of negligence becomes obvious if you know what to look for. More importantly, proving direct negligence by the trucking company defeats their independent contractor defenses and establishes clear liability that forces larger settlements.

Evidence That Proves Company Negligence: Driver qualification files reveal hiring decisions. Safety Management System scores from FMCSA show company-wide compliance failures. Electronic logging device data proves supervision failures. Maintenance records show whether the company cut corners on equipment inspections. Dispatch communications reveal pressure to violate hours of service rules. This evidence exists. But it disappears fast unless you send spoliation notices immediately after the crash. It's not uncommon for trucking companies to cut corners at the cost of safety .

Commercial trucking cases are typically bigger. They involve bigger injuries, bigger insurance, and as a result bigger payouts.

The only question is whether you can prove it before the evidence vanishes and the statute of limitations expires.