Transportation is the division where wholesale earns its keep. Personal auto and main-street BOP get quoted in minutes anywhere; a for-hire motor carrier with eight power units, a mixed commodity list and fourteen months under authority gets declined in minutes almost everywhere. The desk below exists for exactly that account — and unlike most wholesaler "appetite guides," the catalog is generated live from the same dataset that runs INVO's marketplace search, so what you see here is what the underwriters can actually place today.
Every market in this division — live
What the division actually places
| Line | What it covers | The placement reality |
|---|---|---|
| Trucking liability | Auto liability for for-hire motor carriers | The hardest line — filings, radius and driver quality drive everything |
| Physical damage | Tractors, trailers, APD schedules | Often placed standalone when the liability market won't take the equipment |
| Motor truck cargo | Commodities in transit, per-load or scheduled | Commodity list decides the market — reefer, targeted goods and autos price differently |
| Truckers GL / NTL | Premises-ops exposure; bobtail and deadhead | Cheap to add, expensive to forget at certificate time |
| Excess / umbrella | Layers above the primary tower | Shipper contracts increasingly demand limits the primary alone can't satisfy |
| Fleets not-for-hire | Contractor, service and delivery fleets | Its own program — don't force a service fleet through a trucking market |
The new-authority problem
The single most common transportation declination reads the same everywhere: "minimum three years under current authority." Standard markets treat a first-year DOT number as an unquotable risk regardless of the operator's actual experience — a driver with fifteen years behind the wheel who buys her own truck becomes, on paper, a zero-history startup. That seasoning wall is structural, and it produces a steady stream of well-run new ventures with nowhere to go.
INVO's transportation desk underwrites the operator instead of the anniversary date. For a new authority, the file the underwriter builds replaces the loss history that doesn't exist yet: MVRs and CDL history on every driver, prior employment in the seat, equipment age and maintenance plan, commodities and radius, and the shipper relationships that will feed the loads. Get those elements into the first submission and a year-one authority is a placeable account — leave them out and even a specialty market has nothing to price. Two markets on the desk above run 47 states, so a new authority that crosses state lines doesn't have to be re-placed the first time it takes a longer haul.
Your client's FMCSA profile is the submission
Before any transportation market quotes, someone pulls the DOT number. The FMCSA SAFER system and the Safety Measurement System (SMS) publish the underwriting file the carrier never has to request: roadside inspection results, driver and vehicle out-of-service rates, crash records, and percentile scores across the BASIC categories. Agents who read the profile before submitting control the narrative; agents who don't find out about the vehicle-maintenance percentile from the declination email.
The desk's practical guidance: pull SAFER and SMS on every trucking account before it goes to market. A clean profile is pricing leverage worth real premium dollars — say so in the submission. A rough patch (a bad inspection quarter, a crash that wasn't the driver's fault) needs one paragraph of context attached, because an underwriter who hears the story from you prices it; one who discovers it alone declines it.
The market you're placing into
Trucking is shedding capacity. U.S. truck transportation employment stood at 1,466,600 in June 2026, down from 1,494,800 in December 2024 — roughly 28,200 jobs gone in eighteen months (BLS series CES4348400001 via FRED). A shrinking freight economy squeezes carriers from both directions: rate-per-mile pressure pushes marginal operators out, and the insurers left standing get pickier about who they'll write. For retail agents that means more declinations on renewal — accounts that placed easily in 2023 now need a specialty desk and a properly built file. The full analysis of what a soft freight market does to placement is in the 2026 Hard-to-Place Market Report; the workers' comp side of the same book (drivers are also employees) is covered in the Class Code 7219 trucking WC guide.
Talk to the transportation desk
Frequently asked by transportation agents
Will INVO write a brand-new trucking authority?
Yes — new ventures are a core appetite for the transportation desk, not an exclusion. Standard markets typically want two to three years under authority before they quote; INVO's transportation markets are built for year one. Expect the underwriter to ask for driver MVRs, equipment schedules and the operating plan in place of the loss history a new authority can't have yet.
What lines does the INVO transportation division place?
Trucking liability (auto liability for for-hire carriers), physical damage on tractors and trailers, motor truck cargo, truckers general liability, non-trucking liability, and excess/umbrella over the primary tower. Fleets not-for-hire (contractor, service and delivery fleets) run through their own program.
Why does my client's FMCSA profile matter to underwriters?
Because it is the one underwriting file the carrier can pull without asking you. Inspection results, out-of-service rates, crash records and safety-measurement percentiles from FMCSA's public systems are read on every transportation submission. A clean profile is negotiating leverage; a rough one needs a narrative before the market sees it.
How do I submit a trucking account to INVO?
Send the ACORD applications with the DOT number, driver list with MVR dates, equipment schedule with values, commodities hauled and radius, plus loss runs for established accounts, to submissions@invounderwriting.com. The transportation desk answers direct submissions in 24–48 hours.
Trucking account on your desk?
One appointment opens the whole transportation desk — new authorities included. Appointments approve in 1–2 business days.
Get Appointed with INVO →