Hunter NelsonOwner of Nelson Insurance Agency

Insurance for Owner Operators NEW Payment Strategies! #truckinginsurance #truckingindustry

22 Jul 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:45

In this segment, Hunter Nelson advises trucking companies on how to structure compensation and insurance billing for owner‑operators. He emphasizes the need for a clear pay structure when the company covers insurance, outlining two common approaches: (1) embed the insurance cost into a higher pay percentage (e.g., 20% of revenue) with no separate bill, or (2) use a lower percentage (e.g., 15%) and bill the owner‑operator separately for insurance. Nelson notes that insurance premiums vary widely based on the driver’s safety record, making it risky to adopt a one‑size‑fits‑all billing method because costs can double or halve depending on the operator’s history.

Chapters

How can you guys use this to now leverage owner-operators coming on your guys' insurance? For one, you guys got to make sure you guys got a pay structure in place. I mean, you're going to be paying insurance for them. You guys can just take out of their check. You guys can just charge a little bit higher percentage. Whatever you guys do there, I've seen multiple different ways. Some will charge 20%, not bill them for insurance. Some will charge 15%, maybe a little bit less. And then bill them for insurance because ultimately, you know, what they cost for insurance is going to kind of vary based off of them. If they got a horrible record versus a really good record, it's kind of tough to go in there and not bill them for insurance because it could be double or half depending on the owner-operator.