Waiver of Subrogation on a Trucking COI

What subrogation is, in one claim story

You are backed into at a shipper's dock. The shipper's yard hostler caused it. Your auto insurer pays to fix the tractor, minus your deductible. Subrogation is the insurer's right to go after the shipper, or the hostler's employer, to get that money back. You signed a packet last month that waived subrogation in favor of the shipper. The insurer pays you and stops. The shipper keeps the money the insurer would have asked for. That is the waiver working as written.

The story only runs if the auto policy is the one that paid and the waiver is on that policy, in favor of that shipper. If the loss was cargo, the auto story is the wrong policy. If the injured person was your driver, you may be on a workers' comp policy with its own waiver rules, including state rules this page will not generalize into a fake national statute.

Nothing in the story changes who was negligent. The waiver does not admit fault. It turns off a recovery. Know that before you treat the line as boilerplate.

What a waiver gives away

A waiver gives that recovery right up as to the named party. Sometimes the named party is the broker, sometimes the shipper, sometimes any party you have a contract with. The broader the named party, the more recoveries you have given up. On a small loss you will never notice. On a six-figure loss your insurer notices, and the premium at renewal notices.

You are also often giving up your own right to sue the waived party for the deductible, depending on the contract, not only the insurer's right. Read the packet sentence next to the endorsement. They are supposed to match. A contract that waives all claims and an endorsement that only waives the insurer's rights are not the same giveaway.

It does not increase the FMCSA filed limit and it does not satisfy cargo insurance by itself. A waiver on a policy you do not have is a sentence. A waiver on a $750,000 liability policy does not become $1,000,000 of protection for the broker. They are still a certificate holder or an additional insured only if those separate grants exist.

Blanket waiver versus scheduled waiver

Brokers often ask for a blanket waiver. A blanket form waives subrogation in favor of anyone for whom you agreed to waive it in a written contract, or in favor of a class the form names. A scheduled waiver names one company. Some policies sell the blanket. Some only schedule a name and charge for each one. The agent has to say which. You cannot tell from the broker's PDF.

A blanket sounds easier and can be the right buy if you sign many packets that all demand it. It can also be a standing giveaway you forget you sold. A scheduled waiver is slower and more precise. If you only need it for one shipper, do not buy a broader form because the checkbox looked standard.

Get the answer in writing from the agent: blanket or scheduled, which policy, what premium, what effective date. Then look at the certificate. The certificate should not say blanket if the endorsement is a single name.

Cargo, auto, and workers' comp are different policies

The waiver has to be on the policy that would have paid. A waiver on auto does not waive a cargo claim. A waiver on cargo does not waive auto. Workers' compensation is a third policy, and in many states the waiver is a statutory or assigned-risk question your agent has to clear. Do not let a broker's one-line demand cause you to type waiver across all three certificate sections when only one policy has the form.

Cargo is the one carriers forget. The loss in the claim story that actually hurts a shipper relationship is often damaged freight, paid by the cargo insurer, who then wants to subrogate against the warehouse that dropped the pallet. If you waived cargo subrogation, that insurer stops. If you only waived auto, the cargo insurer does not stop. Know which fight you sold away.

General liability, if you even carry it for a yard or a brokerage, is a fourth form. A trucking COI that only shows auto and cargo cannot waive a policy that is not on the page. Do not invent a GL waiver to complete a template.

When the agent says the form cannot do it

Some admitted forms and some new-venture markets will not waive subrogation, or will not waive it in favor of a broker as opposed to a shipper. The agent is not being difficult. The form is the form. If the endorsement is unavailable, the honest answer to the broker is not available, not a COI that pretends.

Pretending is how certificates get forged in small ways. The agent who will type it without the endorsement is handing you a document that misrepresents the policy. When the loss happens, the insurer points at the form and the broker points at the certificate. You are in the middle with a false packet.

Ask whether a different endorsement, a scheduled name, or a higher premium solves it. If the answer remains no, decide whether the load is worth refusing. A waived requirement, in an email from the broker, is a real waiver of their demand. A silent checkbox is not.

A yes or no before you sign the rate con

Before you sign, answer four questions. Which policy are they asking you to waive? Do you have the endorsement on that policy today? Is it blanket or is their exact name scheduled? What did it cost? If any answer is I think so, you are not ready to warrant the insurance in the rate confirmation.

Yes means the endorsement is in force for that party on that policy, and the certificate says only that. No means you tell them it is not available and you do not initial the insurance warranty. There is no third box called we will figure it out after the claim.

Keep this decision separate from additional insured status. Additional insured versus certificate holder is the other ask. Primary liability is the policy the auto waiver would attach to. Do not merge the pages into one vague COI wording speech. The packet used one sentence because the broker's lawyer was in a hurry. You do not have to be.

What to verify before you act

On the rate confirmation, underline the waiver sentence and write the policy it has to live on. If the sentence says all policies, you need an answer for auto, for cargo, and for workers' comp separately. An auto-only endorsement does not satisfy a sentence that broad. Tell the broker which policies waived and which did not. Let them accept that split or release the load.

Ask whether the waiver is blanket or a scheduled name, and put their legal name next to the answer. A blanket form you bought last year may already cover a contract that requires it. A scheduled form does not cover a new shipper until the endorsement is issued. Do not initial today's load against last year's assumption without looking.

If the agent refuses the endorsement, send the broker the refusal, not a certificate that types the waiver anyway. Not available is a complete sentence. It does not raise the BMC-91 limit and it does not create cargo coverage. Additional insured status, if they also asked for it, is still a different form. Decide it on its own page, then sign or do not sign.

Frequently Asked Questions