Tractor Insurance: Cost, Best Companies & Quotes From $15

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If you own a small business that utilizes one or more tractors, then you would be smart to have it covered with a tractor insurance policy. These are essentially comprehensive commercial auto insurance policies that are specifically designed to cover various types of tractors.

Whether you own a simple farm tractor, a large truck, or you own a whole fleet of semi-trailers, all states require drivers to maintain active insurance policies to drive on all roads. Even if you just own a small agricultural tractor for farm use, it’s still important to get it insured to protect yourself financially from theft or physical damage as well as other common risks.

In this article, we’re going to explain everything that you ever wanted to know about tractor insurance, mainly commercial tractor insurance but we will also touch personal tractor insurance. We’ll go over the common risks and coverage tractors need, provide you the average tractor insurance cost per month and year for small tractor to larger tractor trucks, answer some frequently asked questions, list and review the best tractor insurance carriers in the American market and most importantly allow you to compare cheap tractor insurance quotes online by clicking the 'Get Quotes' button at this page. Let's get started!

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Tractor Insurance Coverage: Why You Need It

Tractors are self-propelled machines categorized as heavy trucks. Their purpose is to operate agricultural or industrial implements such as plows, morrows, harrows, buckets, and trailers.

Though a bit similar to automobiles in navigation, tractors are nevertheless harder to operate. Government agencies recommend operators undergo training before using a tractor. The core reason for this is that tractors are dangerous machines. Proving this point is a study that analyzed tractor accidents in Wisconsin from 1961 - 1975 , which tallied more than 100 tractor-related deaths within the study year.

We can safely assume that tractors are more dangerous than automobiles. One good reason for this is that a lot of research papers have shown that tractor-related accidents don’t only involve adults but children too. There's research conducted in Turkey on tractor accidents killing or injuring children as young as 9-years old. A study in Ireland also discovered 62 cases of child deaths wherein the deceased were as young as 15-years old.

The United States joins the quests to figure out how likely tractors are to kill children. One report we found credible is the one from National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety. Accordingly, 47% of all youth fatalities in US farm accidents are caused by transportation equipment such as tractors, and it’s assumed that a child dies because of an accident every three days. In connection, here are some real-life examples of tractors killing children:

• Manitoba - A 2-year-old boy dies after falling from a tractor. The report adds that the tractor, which the boy was riding on, had no safety harness to keep passengers, aside from the driver, in place.

• Lewis County - A five-year-old bay died after a reversing tractor, which was pulling a skid steer, hit him with its rear tire

• Brandon Township, Michigan - A 2-year-old boy falls from a tractor and dies from blunt force trauma. The boy’s cousin was driving the tractor and admitted to the police of drinking liquor before operating the machine

• Quebec - Three 5-year-old kids died during Canada day after getting ejected from the tractor’s front loader.

• Brazos County, Texas - A 5-year-old boy died after an accident involving a tractor happened. Authorities didn’t disclose any information on how the tragedy took place

• Austria - A tractor ran over and killed an infant. The driver of the tractor in question was a 17-year-old teen who failed to machine to a halt when the infant suddenly appeared

• Delano - An 8-year-old boy driving a mini-ATV collided with a tractor and died

Research published in the American Journal of Medicine provides a comprehensive outlook on the likelihood of tractors causing injuries. It explored accidents that happened in the US Midwest, and here are its highlights.

• The injury rate of tractor accidents is 9.6 per 1,000 individuals

• The majority of reported injuries were caused by tractors with more than 20 horsepower

• North Dakota has the highest number of tractor-related accidents, while Wisconsin has the lowest count

• Injuries happened while:

Mounting/dismounting the tractor

Conducting general repairs

Driving the tractor

Riding/hitching a ride on the tractor

Doing adjustments

Loading/adjusting load of the tractor

Using the tractor to transport equipment, animal feed, or grain

Tractors are not only hazardous to people but also to cars when on public roads. Year after year, surveys are conducted to gain insights into the number of police-reported motor vehicle crashes involving tractors and other heavy trucks. The National Traffic Highway and Safety Administration provide the most credible figures , as shown in the tables below:

Collision with Motor Vehicle in Transport

Collision with Fixed Object

Collision with Non-Fixed Object

All in all, tractors are dangerous machines. Since they’re risky and may cause injuries or even death, it’s best to enroll them on some type of tractor insurance policy that will protect from claims and lawsuits. Plaintiffs will always demand a settlement equal or greater to what they spent for medicare. With said, settlement can reach up to 1 million or more depending on the effects and severity of the injury.

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Different Types of Commercial Tractor Insurance

A tailored tractor insurance isn’t a single insurance product. It is actually an insurance plan where different types of commercial tractor insurance policies can be added or removed such as general liability insurance, commercial auto insurance, inland marine insurance, and more. Let’s go to the next sections to discuss the different types of business insurance tractor in more detail

Tractor General Liability Insurance

General liability insurance for tractors kicks in when third parties file a claim after sustaining injuries or property damage due to the use of your tractor. Specifically, the language of general liability insurance provides coverage for:

• Medical expenses-General liability insurance will reimburse or cover the medical expenses of persons who your tractor injured while it’s being used

• Property damage-General liability insurance will provide refunds to the owner of a property that your tractor damaged or destroyed

• Legal expenses-You can use general liability insurance to cover legal defense expenses such as attorney fees, settlements, administrative costs, etc.

Note that “third parties” as used in the language of general liability insurance for a tractor pertains to the following:

• Clients

• General public

• Visitors

• Other entities who have no direct connection to your business

Another thing you need to remember is that general liability insurance only caters to personal injuries or property damage not resulting from road accidents. In other words, the policy can’t help if your tractor rammed someone’s car or hit someone while running on a highway.

Commercial Auto Insurance for Tractors

Commercial auto insurance is required when driving a tractor on public highways. Therefore, this acts as a tractor insurance for road use. A typical tractor commercial auto insurance offers you with:

• Auto liability coverage-Auto liability coverage takes care of your liability if the commercial tractor caused a vehicular accident that injured third parties or damaged properties. This will reimburse or cover the medical expenses of individuals who got injured. Refunds to the owners of the damaged properties are provided too. Also, auto liability coverage will take care of attorney fees, administrative costs, and other legal expenses on your behalf

• Medical payments coverage-Medical payments coverage will cover the funeral or medical expenses if the driver of your tractor gets involved in an accident or causes an accident

• Personal injury protection-Personal injury protection is a more comprehensive version of medical payments coverage. Aside from medical and funeral expenses, it will also take care of your tractor driver’s after-hospital visits, rehabilitation, lost income compensation, and medication

Physical Damage Insurance for Tractor

Physical damage insurance for tractor can be added to commercial auto insurance so that your tractor is covered against damage caused by specific exposures. Insurance companies underwrite this as a:

• Comprehensive policy-This will cover parts repair or replacement if your tractor sustains damage due to fire, vandalism, and other covered perils

• Collision policy-This will take care of repairing or replacing the parts that got damaged after your tractor crashed into an object or a vehicle while traversing the highway

Note that once you add physical damage insurance to commercial auto insurance, carriers will allow you to get rental reimbursement coverage. Rental reimbursement coverage will recoup expenses if you need to hire another tractor while yours is being repaired.

Tractor Theft Insurance

Tractor theft insurance, also called tractor theft coverage, will take care of costs if your tractor got lost or damaged due to theft. If thieves stole a part of your tractor or damaged it, theft coverage will cover repair or replacement expenses. What if the entire tractor has been stolen? In this case, theft coverage will reimburse the value of your tractor that the thieves ran off with.

Note that there are tractor insurance companies selling a theft coverage that provides a replacement unit if a tractor is stolen. However, this only applies if the covered tractor is less than three years old.

Another thing we need to mention is that the language of theft coverage for tractors is included in the terms of comprehensive physical damage insurance policy for tractor. Also, this can be offered as an optional coverage in a tractor insurance policy.

So how much insurance money can you get for theft coverage? This insurance provides $5,000 - $15,000 as coverage for the repair or replacement of your tractor’s parts. On the other hand, reimbursement you’ll receive for the loss of a tractor due to theft will be equal to the covered units' depreciated or non-depreciated value.

Tractor Equipment Breakdown Insurance

Equipment breakdown insurance provides funds if your tractor incurred damage on-site or off-site due to usage, acts of God, and other covered perils. This can also act as a tractor trolley insurance because protection doesn’t only apply to the tractor but also the trolley and other attachments. But note that the equipment breakdown insurance of tractor can only do so if trolleys and other attachments are named on its terms. Also, coverage only applies if the trolley and other attachments get damaged while they’re equipped to the tractor.

Maintenance is expensive, and this is why equipment breakdown insurance is essential. Here’s a table that shows the close estimates. Before we proceed, all these figures are calculated from assuming a tractor has 6,000 hours of use.

Umbrella Liability Insurance for Tractors

Umbrella liability insurance will supplement the liability coverage you bought for your tractor. For example, if you need to pay $1.5 million for the injuries a third party sustained due to your tractor and your general liability insurance policy only provides $1 million, commercial umbrella liability insurance will pay for the excess $500,000.

Tractor Cargo Insurance

Cargo insurance is useful for tractors used to deliver goods and materials. Cargo insurance will refund the owners if the goods or materials your tractor is hauling on behalf of clients become damaged or lost due to a vehicular accident, malicious mischief, and other covered perils.

Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage

This insurance for tractor trailers provides protection in the event that the other driver does not have an auto insurance policy or does not have enough insurance coverage to cover the damage sustained by your tractor. Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage will “fill in” and pay the extra amount required to repair your tractor or even pay for personal injury.

Personal Injury Protection

This provides additional coverage to pay for the tractor driver’s injuries if they’re sustained during an at-fault accident or due to a comprehensive accident such as losing control of the vehicle or hitting an object in the road. Coverage extends to hospital bills, medical procedures, and medicines.

Also read: Commercial Trailer Insurance: Cost & Quotes From $11

Tractor Trailer Insurance

A tractor-trailer pertains to a semi-tractor or truck attached to a trailer and is usually used to deliver cargo. Insurance companies cover these machines through tractor trailer insurance. A tailored tractor-trailer insurance coverage will offer the following:

• Commercial auto insurance

• Non-trucking liability insurance

• Bobtail insurance

• Trailer interchange insurance

Commercial auto insurance for tractor-trailers has auto liability coverage and physical damage coverage. Auto liability coverage is a primary inclusion, meaning that it’s impossible to not have it. On the other hand, physical damage coverage is optional. However, it’s best to purchase and add it to commercial auto insurance for tractor trailer. Once you get physical damage coverage, tractor trailer insurance companies allow you to purchase rental reimbursement coverage for additional protection.

Getting commercial auto insurance for a tractor trailer is very important as it greatly prevents major losses as caused by vehicular accidents. The following tables will make you understand why this is the case:

Cost of Injuries/Accidents a 1-Trailer Tractor Cause

Cost of Injuries/Accidents a 1or 3-Trailer Tractor Cause

Bobtail insurance is a type of policy that covers expenses if a tractor trailer causes an accident while deadheading. As for non-trucking liability insurance, it covers expenses if a tractor-trailer causes an accident while being used for non-commercial purposes.

Last but not least is trailer interchange insurance. This type of commercial tractor trailer insurance will reimburse the owner if a trailer attached to the tractor - borrowed, leased, or rented under a trailer interchange agreement - incurs damage due to fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils.

Semi Tractor Insurance

A semi tractor or a tractor truck is the term for a tractor not pulling a trailer. In connection, carriers underwrite semi tractor insurance for businesses that provide semi-tractor rental services. Policies included are:

• General liability insurance-General liability insurance provides protection if the renter files a personal injury claim or property damage claim because a rented semi tractor is defective and caused personal injuries or property damage

• Contingent auto liability insurance-This type of tractor truck insurance will cover expenses if the rented semi tractor causes damage while being used by the renter and the owner is also held liable by aggrieved third parties

• Equipment insurance-This covers the resulting expenses if the renter causes damage to the semi tractor and he or she can’t cover the cost of parts repair or replacement

Comprehensive Tractor Insurance

A comprehensive tractor insurance is a specialty coverage, which already contains numerous insurance policies. Common inclusions are general liability insurance, equipment breakdown insurance, and tractor theft insurance. Note that this is available as a fleet or single tractor insurance policy. Here’s the difference between the two:

• Comprehensive tractor insurance bought as a single unit policy can only cover one tractor that you own. You need to purchase another coverage to insure other tractors

• Comprehensive tractor insurance bought as a fleet coverage can cover 1 or more tractors that you own

Agriculture Tractor Insurance

Agriculture tractor insurance is a tailored coverage for row crop tractors, implement carrier tractors, and other types of farm tractors. Inclusions in this specialized insurance policy are:

• General liability insurance-This will cover personal injuries or property damage resulting from the use of an agriculture tractor. You can use this type of agricultural tractor insurance when:

• Your agriculture tractor ran someone over

• Your agriculture tractor rammed a property owned by someone

• Professional liability insurance-Professional liability insurance will cover expenses if you caused economic or financial losses due to being negligent while using an agricultural tractor to provide a service. This type of farm tractor insurance policy is written as a claims made policy or occurrence policy

• Commercial auto insurance-Authorities will require you to get commercial auto insurance from farm tractor insurance companies such as Nationwide, Progressive, and USAA before driving a farm tractor on the highway. Commercial auto insurance covers legal and financial liabilities if your agriculture tractor causes a traffic accident.

Why is Insurance Important for Agricultural Tractors?

Farm tractors may cause accidents and deaths. Research investigating farm tractor accidents in Georgia from 1971-1981 states that the most common accidents which are:

• Overturning of the farm tractor ( 153 fatalities)

• Farm tractor ran someone over (28 fatalities)

• The tractor fell into a stream or lake (6 fatalities)

In addition, fatal injuries such accidents caused are:

• Crushed chest

• Exsanguination

• Strangulation

• Drowning

More recent papers suggest that overturning is one of the leading causes of tractor-related fatalities. Research published in the Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health looked into the number and cost of tractor overturn accidents from 1997 - 2021. Results showed that there are 2,412 tractor overturns (comprising farm tractors and non-farm tractors), and these overturns were associated with 125 deaths and 573 nonfatal injuries requiring at least outpatient treatment. In addition, the average cost tallied at $1.5 billion in 2006 dollars. Here’s a table that shows the specific cost of farm tractor-related injuries

Cost of Farm Tractor Related Accidents/Injuries in 2006 Million (Figures are a Combination of Accidents/Injuries With or Without Rollover Protective Structure)

Lawn Tractor Insurance

While you can insure your lawn tractor under agricultural tractor insurance or a homeowner’s insurance policy, the best coverage is through a tailored lawn tractor insurance. Policies commonly included are the following:

• Public liability insurance-Just like general liability insurance, public liability insurance covers claims filed by persons who sustained injuries or property damage because of your lawn tractor

• Equipment breakdown insurance-Equipment breakdown insurance covers repair and replacement expenses. For lawn tractors, this is available as an open perils and named perils coverage

Inland Marine Insurance for Tractors

You can use inland marine policy as an insurance for a tractor that’s being delivered. This is useful if you're running a business that sells or rents out tractors to customers.

So how does inland marine insurance for tractors work? Inland marine insurance will reimburse losses if the tractor you’re delivering to a client becomes damaged or lost during the trip because of malicious mischief, an accident, or other covered perils.

Understand that inland marine insurance for tractor only works if the tractor incurred damage while being delivered through dry land. If you plan to haul a tractor overseas with the help of a shipping carrier, then add or endorse ocean marine insurance to your tractor insurance quote.

How Much Does It Cost to Transport a Tractor?

Motor carriers determine the price to transport a tractor from point a to point b using variables such as:

• Miles to be traveled

• Tractor weight

• Type of vehicle to use for shipping

• Whether or not the tractor to be shipped comes with attachments

Let’s use miles to be traveled to determine tractor transport cost as it’s the easiest. The average cost of shipping a tractor is $3.16 per mile and carriers charge the customer 50% - 60% of the total line haul. Therefore, if you’re planning to ship a tractor from Colorado to Arizona, then the total miles to be traveled will be 644.81 miles. Taking this into account, then you’ll have to pay $1,018 - $1,222 for transporting a tractor.

Compact Tractor Insurance

A homeowner’s policy can serve as a compact tractor insurance. But understand that this is only possible if a compact tractor is not used for commercial purposes. If your business has compact tractors that need to be insured, one thing that you can do is to schedule the machines to your business’s equipment coverage.

However, your best option is to find insurance companies that provide small tractor insurance. Inclusions in small tractor insurance plans are public liability insurance, stand-alone rental reimbursement with downtime coverage, and theft insurance.

Sub Compact Tractor Insurance

You can use your homeowner’s policy as a sub compact tractor insurance. Many insurance companies allow this since there’s a lesser risk of using sub compacts than compact tractors. The amount of coverage you’ll get is $3,000 - $10,000 depending how your homeowner’s insurance was underwritten.

Temporary Tractor Insurance

Suppose you’re just renting a tractor or tractor-trailer for a short-term job. In that case, most tractor insurance providers are more than willing to provide you with temporary tractor insurance or 1-day tractor insurance. This is commonly referred to as “on-demand insurance” and is designed to cover your tractor for a specific time range.

Generally speaking, it’s more expensive per day than a regular full-term tractor policy. However, if you’re just using the tractor for a quick job, it will save you a lot of money compared to purchasing a full-term policy. Take a look at this table that shows the different pricing of short term tractor insurance coverage:

How Much is Insurance On A Tractor?

So how much is insurance on a tractor? Each individual pays different rates. How much is tractor insurance is a question that’s open to many answers. The following sections provide relevant information considering different angles.

Tractor Insurance 1 Year Price

If you’re new to having a tractor, then you’re probably wondering about the average amount you’ll be required to pay for a full-term 1 year insurance policy. Generally speaking, tractor insurance companies charge about $8,350 per year on average for a comprehensive tractor insurance plan bundling 4 or more coverages. However, general liability insurance for tractors will cost $54.16 per month or $650 for a 1 year period on average. Here’s a table showing the individual pricing of some of the policies we mentioned above:

Ultimately, the tractor insurance 1 year price you’ll pay depends heavily on the age and brand of the tractor to be insured. In line with this, we’ve made a table showing new tractor insurance rates by model and brand. Note that this table of new tractor insurance premiums assumes that the policyholder only wants to get $1 million liability coverage.

Each carrier has a different average tractor insurance cost. That said, here's a table showing the respective tractor insurance rates of the best carriers:

Location is also a determinant of tractor insurance cost. For example, if you’re in a state where insurance is usually expensive like New York for example, then expect hefty premiums. Other determinants of tractor insurance price are claims history, deductibles, and policyholder’s age.

Farm Tractor Insurance Cost

The average farm tractor insurance cost is $8,500 per year or about $708.33 per month for a $1 million general liability coverage. Factors that affect farm tractor insurance cost are the square footage of the farm, type of work done with the tractor, location, claims history, and more.

You will be smart, however, to compare quotes online in order to get the best deals from farm tractor insurance companies.

Understand that farm tractor insurance rates aren't the same for all customers. And so, your premiums will be more expensive or cheaper than the estimate we provided above.

Compact Trailer Insurance Cost

A compact trailer is a trailer that is considerably smaller than what you’d see on a typically semi-tractor-trailer setup. Common examples of compact trailers could include:

• Box trailers.

• Open equipment trailers.

• Dump trailers.

• Tow-behind campers.

Most of the time, your compact trailer should be covered by your personal or commercial auto insurance policy. However, this only protects it while it’s attached to your truck or tractor and you’re driving on the road. It’s never a bad idea to purchase additional coverage for your trailer to cover it in the event of theft, weather damage, or vandalism.

On average, compact trailer insurance cost is $375 per year for a $1 million general liability coverage, making it quite affordable for the coverage you’ll get.

Sub-Compact Trailer Insurance Cost

While we’re on the topic of compact trailers, then we might as well mention what you can expect to shell out to insure a sub-compact trailer. These are typically ultra-small trailers that can be used to tow around small equipment or haul junk. Sub-compact trailers are often towed by small sedans, farm tractors, or even contractors who need to carry extra equipment to and from their job site.

Sub-compact trailer insurance costs typically range between $98 and $145 per year for a $1 million general liability coverage, making them incredibly affordable to insure.