Primary Liability Insurance for Texas commercial trucking operators.
Pays for bodily injury and property damage you cause to others while operating under your authority.
Top carriers for primary liability in Texas
| Carrier | Parent group | AM Best | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Progressive Commercial | The Progressive Corporation | A+ (Superior) (verified 2026-04-27) | Largest commercial-auto insurer in the US by direct premium written. Owner-operator and small-fleet focused. |
| Great West Casualty | Old Republic International | A+ (Superior) (verified 2026-04-27) | Long-tenured trucking specialist; conservative underwriting, emphasis on loss-control services. |
| Canal Insurance | Canal Holdings | A- (Excellent) (verified 2026-04-27) | Trucking specialty since 1939; non-standard risks accepted. |
| Northland Insurance | Travelers Companies | A++ (Superior) (verified 2026-04-27) | Travelers' commercial trucking specialty unit. |
| Sentry Insurance | Sentry Insurance Group | A+ (Superior) (verified 2026-04-27) | Mutual carrier with deep trucking specialization; favors larger fleets and established carriers. |
AM Best ratings are populated only when verified against ambest.com. Pending entries reflect that we have not completed verification, not that the carrier's rating is missing or weak.
What drives primary liability premiums in Texas
Texas is one of the larger commercial-trucking premium markets in the country. Two state-specific factors move primary liability rates more than anything else: the post-HB 19 trial environment and the surplus-lines posture for risks that admitted carriers decline.
Texas HB 19, effective September 2021, restructured how negligent-entrustment and direct-negligence claims against motor carriers are tried. The two-phase trial structure — separating the negligence finding from punitive damages — is widely viewed by underwriters as a moderate-to-favorable change for primary liability rates compared to states without comparable reform. The effect is most visible on Class 8 long-haul risks where nuclear-verdict exposure was previously priced into the base rate.
When an admitted Texas carrier declines a risk, the placement moves to surplus lines through the Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas (SLTX). A 4.85% premium tax plus the SLTX stamping fee applies on top of the carrier's base rate. Owner-operators with one or more chargeable losses in 36 months, hot-shot operations under newly-issued MC numbers, and certain hazmat classes are the most common surplus-lines candidates.
Premium ranges on this page are not yet published — we publish a sourced band only after a public Texas Department of Insurance filing has been extracted and reviewed by a Texas-licensed producer. The carrier table below lists the carriers we expect to write Texas commercial trucking primary liability based on their published license footprints; whether a specific carrier currently has an open appetite for your operation is the producer's call at submission.
Sources
- Texas Department of Insurance — commercial auto rate filings (TDI)
- Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas (SLTX) — premium tax and stamping fee schedule
- Texas HB 19 (87th Leg., 2021) — Trial of Certain Actions Involving Commercial Motor Vehicles
- FMCSA 49 CFR Part 387 — Minimum Levels of Financial Responsibility
Reviewer attestation pending. The editorial body above is sourced but has not yet been signed off by a credentialed reviewer.
Texas-specific rules that move premium
Texas caps non-economic damages in healthcare cases under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ch. 74 and has additional commercial-vehicle reform under HB 19 (2021), which raises the bar for direct negligence claims against motor carriers.
Surplus lines placements in Texas are filed through the Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas (SLTX); a 4.85% premium tax applies in addition to the SLTX stamping fee.
FMCSA jurisdiction: FMCSA Southern Service Center (Fort Worth).
State regulator: Texas Department of Insurance.
Primary Liability for specific DOT classes in Texas
Deep pages cover the operator profile, sampling assumptions, and rate band for a single product × state × DOT class. We publish deep pages only after the editorial body and reviewer attestation are complete.
Dispatched is a comparison and matching platform. In Texas, coverage is placed by licensed producers and bound by carriers appointed in TX; Dispatched does not bind coverage. Where we accept your contact information for a quote, that consent will be one-to-one with the named producer partner identified at submission.