OTR Capital joins OOIDA to fight minimum insurance increase

July 28, 2021

Land Line Staff

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OTR Capital, a factoring company headquartered in Roswell, Ga., has joined the Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association’s fight against proposals to increase motor carriers’ minimum insurance requirements.

On Tuesday, July 27, OTR Capital posted a video on its LinkedIn page in support of OOIDA and in opposition to a bill that would increase truckers’ minimum liability insurance requirement by 556%. Rep. Chuy Garcia, D-Ill., is sponsoring HR2687, which would increase the current requirement of $750,000 to $4.923 million. As part of the proposal, the minimum insurance would then be adjusted every five years for inflation.

OTR Capital video

“It’s nearly impossible that a smaller trucking company – midsize even – would be able to afford this kind of coverage,” the video stated. “This would be devastating for small-business truckers. It would line the pockets of trial lawyers at the expense of hard-working truckers, and it would do nothing to improve highway safety.”

OOIDA has led the charge against any increases to the minimum insurance, noting that 99.4% of crashes are adequately covered under the current minimum insurance requirement and that most motor carriers already choose to carry $1 million in insurance.

“Small-business truckers are under attack,” Collin Long, OOIDA’s director of government affairs, said when the text of HR2687 was released to Land Line in May. “Rep. Garcia and anyone else who supports this bill have made it clear they don’t care how hard you’ve worked to keep the country safe and healthy during COVID. They don’t care about improving highway safety, or they wouldn’t be promoting policies that will push the safest and most experienced drivers out of the industry.”

On May 24, OOIDA asked its more than 150,000 members to call Garcia’s office and let him know they oppose the bill. The Association’s members heeded the call as OOIDA received reports about 20 minutes after sending the notice that Garcia’s office had stopped answering its phone and that their voicemail was full.

Go to the FightingForTruckers website to learn more about how to oppose HR2687.

House bill

As of July 28, Garcia’s bill had only eight co-sponsors. However, the House highway bill included a measure that would increase the minimum requirement by 167% from $750,000 to $2 million.

OOIDA also opposes this increase and is working to make sure that a highway bill with a minimum insurance hike doesn’t pass the Senate.

Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., called the proposal a “punishment to truckers.”

OOIDA also started a coalition of more than 60 organizations to fight any minimum insurance increase. LL