In this video, Hunter Nelson of Nelson Insurance explains how agricultural trucking insurance differs from standard trucking insurance. He outlines the unique exposures agricultural haulers face—especially pollution risks from livestock, milk, fertilizer, and other farm products—and notes that many conventional trucking policies lack adequate pollution coverage. Nelson describes how regional insurance carriers specialize in agricultural trucking, offering built‑in pollution protection and more affordable rates for local Midwestern haulers. He emphasizes the difficulty of obtaining trucking coverage through general agents, highlighting the need for niche agents with carrier access and the long waitlists many insurers impose. Nelson then details his agency’s capabilities: access to both traditional and regional carriers, deep industry knowledge (personal family background in farming and trucking), and a one‑stop approach that bundles trucking, home/auto, and life/health insurance so clients don’t have to work with multiple agents. He urges viewers to request quotes and ask questions, stressing the financial stakes of missing pollution coverage, such as multi‑million‑dollar milk spill claims.
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Hey guys, I am Hunter Nelson with Nelson Insurance, otherwise agriculturaltruckinginsurance.com. I'm going to talk about how agricultural trucking insurance might be different than just your typical, um, trucking insurance. You guys have different exposures, you guys have different insurance companies that, that, um, come into play. And so I'm going to talk about why these things are different, why pricing is different, why the exposures are different. What you guys are going to run into. So let's get into it. Trucking itself needs to have its own niche, uh, and insurance agents need to be there to understand trucking, have the insurance, um, company access to get you guys good trucking insurance quotes. But even agricultural trucking is even more of a niche, and it has its own even other sets of rules. So first, I'm going to start with just normal trucking. When you guys have normal trucking, a lot of these trucking insurance companies will not work with an agent or won't work with, uh, truckers directly at all. And so how agents can go get access to them is by having tons of clients, showing tons of expertise, and it can take years upon years. One of the big names out there has a 7-year waitlist for insurance agents. And so you can't go to just your local insurance agency or somebody that, um, you know, is a generalist to get trucking insurance. Now, when you even get into agricultural, you have other different variations coming into play here. You've got your main players. I'm not going to go list them all, but you guys know the main players in trucking insurance. They advertise like crazy. A lot of people got them because it's the drive-in guys, it's the reefer guys. Whatever the popular freight types are with these popular insurance companies. When you guys are agricultural haulers, livestock, fertilizer, grain, hay, feed, potatoes, you know, agricultural equipment, produce, etc., etc., right? The agricultural space has differences in how you guys are dealing with claims. For one, Almost everything in the agricultural space is a pollution exposure. And a lot of these typical insurance companies or policies do not include pollution coverage. Um, and to get back to why that's a big deal, the other thing that almost all you guys care about is insurance rates. Rates are not going to be the same. Typically agricultural trucking is going to be a little bit cheaper. You guys are local. You guys are in Midwest. There's less claims. You don't have as many lawyers sticking their, uh, slogans up on billboards to go sue those killing machines, right? That is, that is a favor for you guys. That plays in your guys' favor. The other thing too is you get these regional insurance companies that are not nationwide that want to insure you guys. The thing is, most of these trucking insurance agencies do not have them. Most normal insurance agencies might have one or two just because they're lucky, and they will write other types of business with these insurance companies. But there's actually a lot of regionals out there that people don't realize. And so these guys have the coverages with, with, um, pollution built in. They are going to be much cheaper because— or much more affordable because they only take these agricultural haulers, these local guys, these regional guys which is what they want to ensure. They're a regional insurance company. They have better coverage for cargo. If you guys have any just generic insurance company for your cargo for livestock, you are not covered for, um, crippling. Typically they might give you lower values on those, on those cattle, on the, any of the livestock. And so I hear stories about people having to shoot the cattle in the head, which I do not recommend doing, in the sense of an insurance claim. So having the coverages there, having the service there, these guys understand not just the trucking industry but the agricultural industry is going to play you guys a huge favor. And it's got— and it's going to be able to get you guys cheaper insurance rates. So with agriculturaltruckinginsurance.com, we are here with those, those regional insurance companies. We have your normal trucking insurance companies because we've been doing that for years as well. We understand the industry. I myself, I'm the only guy in my family who is in insurance. Everybody else is either farming. My father owned a trucking company. I understand the industry. The people who work here at this agency are the exact same way. We understand this industry. We're in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Everybody around us is farming and trucking, right? We understand the industry. We have access to those insurance companies who will provide the coverage give you guys more competitive rates on the agricultural trucking side. Everything is tailored for you guys. And on top of that, our agency knows that nobody wants to call 5 agents for their life, their health, their home and auto, and then their trucking, because y'all got to have specialists, right? We have trucking insurance agents who understand that side. We have home and auto agents. We have life and health agents. We keep it simple for you guys. Everything is tailored around you. Our whole specialty is the trucking and agricultural trucking side. And then we keep it easy by having a team that understands the whole industry and, uh, makes you guys don't have to have a million different agents. So I wanted to give you guys kind of an overview of agricultural trucking, why it is different, some things that are going to come into play, why it's so important to have coverage lists like this. Because if you were hauling milk and that thing gets out and you don't have pollution coverage, I've talked to my underwriters and there's been millions of dollars in a single claim, multiple claims where milk gets out and people don't have pollution coverage because they don't realize it's a pollutant. So feel free to reach out, request a quote, ask any questions you guys have. We are here and we're happy to help. I appreciate you guys watching. I look forward to hearing from y'all.
