Truck Insurance in New Jersey: Who Pays

The hard part is not the numbers. It is finding out which company was actually the carrier, which of its layered policies apply, and making the insurer prove its coverage. This page lays out the minimums, who pays in what order, and where the records are.

P.L.2023, c.276 took effect for policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2024. It requires $1.5 million in liability coverage for commercial motor vehicles, which the statute defines to include vehicles of 26,001 pounds or more, vehicles built for 16 or more passengers, and vehicles placarded for hazardous materials. Commercially registered vehicles of 10,001 to under 26,001 pounds must carry $300,000. The coverage can be met through any combination of commercial auto, fleet, umbrella or excess policies.

Whether the $1.5 million floor reaches New Jersey-based trucks that run interstate is not fully settled. The statute's text has no intrastate limitation, a 2024 Department of Banking and Insurance bulletin described the law in terms of intrastate commerce, and a later DOBI statement said only that it does not apply to vehicles registered or IRP-based in another state. Trucks registered elsewhere are governed by the federal floor and their home state's rules.

If you were in a car, your own auto policy's personal injury protection pays your medical bills first, regardless of fault, up to $250,000 per person on a standard policy (N.J.S.A. 39:6A-4). You can have chosen health insurance as primary instead; your declarations page says which. Trucks and buses do not carry PIP for their own occupants.

If you were on foot or on a bike, New Jersey requires every liability policy issued in the state on a motor vehicle other than a private car to provide PIP benefits to pedestrians injured by that vehicle (N.J.S.A. 17:28-1.3). So a pedestrian or cyclist hit by a New Jersey-insured truck has a PIP claim against the truck's policy. How that coordinates with the victim's own auto PIP is a question we work through with you case by case.

The truck's liability policy pays for your injuries once fault is established, up to its limits, and larger carriers often have umbrella or excess policies above the primary one. When a tractor is leased, federal leasing rules make the carrier-lessee responsible for the equipment during the lease (49 CFR 376.12), so the lessor's and lessee's policies may both be in play.

Your own UIM coverage comes last and is measured limits against limits: a vehicle is "underinsured" only if its liability limits are less than your UIM limits (N.J.S.A. 17:28-1.1). A truck insured for $750,000 or $1.5 million will rarely be underinsured against a personal policy.

Brokers. A freight broker that arranged the load carries only a $75,000 bond. After the U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II (May 14, 2026), a claim that a broker negligently selected an unsafe carrier is not preempted by federal law and can proceed under state law. Whether a particular broker carries its own liability insurance is a case-specific question.