Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/698304
Voices 6 | Overdrive | July 2016 Shopping for the necessary evil of commercial liability insurance is as tedious and painful as plucking out every hair on your body with a pair of bamboo tweezers. I feel like George will likely have PTSD from his recent experience, and I will suffer residual effects from having to listen to the multitude of ridiculous conversations he's had to have. After 18 minutes of wait time, suffering through a Muzak rendition of "Cold as Ice" and 18 fake pick-ups (a recorded voice says, "Hello, thank you for calling," and just as you go to speak, it says, "A customer service agent will be with you soon"), "Cold as Ice" returns to remind you of the caring customer service you're getting. Just as you lose the will to live, a real live person answers: "Hello, thank you for calling this day, my name is Melin- da, and how can I assist you?" "Yes, Melinda, I need a quote for commercial truck insurance." "Thank you, please. A few questions are necessary. Will you be driving the truck more than 15 miles a day?" "Lord, I hope so." "Thank you, Mr. Lord. Will you be driving the truck more than 15 miles a day?" "Yes, my name isn't Lord." "Ha-ha, you're welcome, Mr. Lord. Does the truck require high- way usage?" "Yes. It's a commercial vehicle. I need commercial vehicle insurance." "Hello, thank you for calling this day, Mr. Lord. A few questions are necessary." "Do you have a website or some- thing I can just fill a form out on to get a quote?" "Yes. I can assist you this day. Will you be hauling commercial freight?" "Yes." "Are you epileptic, or have you ever been tazed by a rabid gnome in the Forest of Doom?" "What?" "Oh, ha-ha, sorry, Mr. Lord, I was reading from my Xbox live script this day." "So this is a call center, and you're going to feed my information into the computer to give every insurance agent in the state of Ohio my contact, so I can get spam and unsolicited phone calls for the next six months about truck insurance?" "I can assist you with an insurance quote, Mr. Lord. A few questions are necessary …" Clearly, this is where membership in the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is beneficial. After a couple of calls to them, George got the information he needed to at least avoid the Melindas of the world, and carry on with our law-abiding money hemorrhage in an orderly fashion. Wendy Parker chronicles her journey on the road with her owner-operator husband, George, in the George and Wendy Show blog on OverdriveOnline.com. Scan the QR to read more from her on your phone or tablet. The black hole of insurance call centers My broker suggested when I first started that I may want to get a $5,000 physical protection plan added to my insurance in case I get hurt on the job. It costs $50 per year, so I did. Boy, was I glad I did! About seven years ago, I was tarping a load of hay while it was snowing, and I fell off the load and broke my right arm in two places. Once Northland Insurance received proof of my accident (X-rays of my arm), I received my $5,000 in 24 hours. Most generally, this type of issue causes your rates to go up, which they did, slightly, the next year. The great thing is they have gone down every year since. … Insurance is evil, but necessary. There are good companies out there. — Western2017, via Overdriveonline.com "Are you epileptic, or have you ever been tazed by a rabid gnome in the Forest of Doom?"