The Employee Exclusion in Commercial Auto Policies: Who Pays When a Truck Driver is Hurt on the Job?

This session will address the employee exclusion found in the standard business auto, truckers and motor carrier liability forms and the related questions of workers' compensation for owner-operators, whether the definition of "employee" in the USDOT regulations is, or ought to be, incorporated into the trucker's policy and how statutory employees are to be treated. The panel will look at the issue from different perspectives: those of the claims director of a large trucking company, an insurance claims executive, a third party administrator, and outside counsel. The discussion will review statutory, regulatory and case law and will also suggest best practices for protecting the trucker, its drivers and the respective insurers. The panel will also explore the occasional asymmetry between a motor carrier's vicarious responsibility for owner/operators and its responsibility under the worker's compensation laws.