What Fleets Can Do About Rising Insurance Costs in 2026

"The cost to repair vehicles is more significant now than it used to be," Anderson said. (vitpho/Getty Images)

Insurance costs are set to increase yet again in 2026, further crimping carriers’ margins, but insurers say there are tools available to fleets to minimize the pain.

The industrywide cost of insurance rose 3% in 2024 to 10.2 cents per mile after jumping 12.5% in 2023, according to the latest American Transportation Research Institute data. ATRI said 2025’s cost hike was expected to outpace the previous year’s rate.

Insurance cost and availability ranked No. 3 in ATRI’s list of the top trucking industry concerns in 2025, a rise of one spot compared with a year earlier.

ATRI launched its 2026 operational costs survey on Feb. 23. The deadline for participation is April 24.

Nathan Meisgeier, chief legal officer at Werner Enterprises, told the American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition in October that the number of insurers serving the trucking industry is waning and that those insurers that remain have begun to shrink the number of policies they are willing to write.

Werner ranks No. 18 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America and No. 30 on the TT Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies.

Costs are increasing, insurers say, because there are more accidents, truck and repair prices are rising, lawsuit abuse continues and a smaller percentage of carriers are making a profit.

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Anderson 

“There is a lot of upward pressure on insurance costs with the frequency of accidents. The cost to repair vehicles is more significant now than it used to be. A lot of our vehicles have more technology in them, so that increases repair costs. Lead times for repairs are increasing. And that creates more downtime for motor carriers,” said Ken Anderson, Nationwide’s risk management technical director for business auto.

In addition, Anderson told TT in an interview that 74% of commercial drivers report an increase in unsafe driving around trucks.

Drivers are also more distracted than ever. Nationwide data shows about one in four professional drivers feels distracted while behind the wheel, mostly as a result of the use of GPS or navigation systems or responding to work-related calls.

Not only that, said Sanjay Vyas, Progressive Insurance general manager of product and pricing for commercial lines, the commercial automotive industry has made money in only one of the past 10 years, pointing to a cost issue.

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Vyas 

“By statute, our industry is supposed to take the observed costs and make some projections. And then that’s how we set rates,” Vyas said.

Rates are also rising because of increased cargo theft, according to Valorie Steinbeck, head of the inland marine and commercial transportation unit at claims adjuster Crawford & Co.

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Steinbeck 

Theft is becoming more sophisticated, and members of Congress are trying to help carriers, but fleets can protect themselves and their customers, Steinbeck said in an interview.

Improved vetting of loads and MC numbers, better training for employees, accurate documentation plus bioluminescent trackers can all help, she said.

Another aid in minimizing insurance costs is the use of technology to document blame in accidents, according to Vyas.

“When there’s an accident, it’s possible a jury member might assume that the trucking company was a profiteer enterprise and might have asked their drivers to drive more,” he said. “Our jury members don’t know about regulations about hours of service. Maybe they think there’s less maintenance. We know that’s not often true, but that might be in the minds of the jurors. And having a video which shows here’s how the claim happened. And it wasn’t the truck driver’s negligence.”

On the other side of the coin, April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month.

Nationwide’s 2026 survey on driver behavior — released in February — saw 57% of respondents indicate that their employer has policies in place that prohibit or minimize contact with drivers while they are working.

But 51% said their employer or supervisor often contacts them while they are on the job and 48% said that contact distracts the driver while behind the wheel.

Clear policies and training for drivers on distracted driving are key to minimizing accidents, observers whom TT spoke with say.

Underwriters often look at a fleet’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration scores.

Artificial intelligence-enabled dashcams and advanced driver assistance systems can also help fleets manage their insurance costs, said Nationwide’s Anderson.

“AI-enabled dashcams can warn drivers for following too closely, monitor things like speeding, harsh braking, hard acceleration. Those are all unsafe driving behaviors that, you know, these systems can identify, and then their fleet, their management can give them coaching around those behaviors to reduce that,” he said.

Fleets that share their telematics data with insurance companies — illustrating better driving habits — can trigger a discount, Vyas said.

Meanwhile, Daimler Truck Financial Services USA and Geico in October launched an insurance program that uses real-time driving data to lower premiums for Freightliner and Western Star truck owners. The program targets owner-operators and small fleets seeking lower insurance costs.