Shipper Guide
How to Read a Certificate of Insurance Like a Claims Adjuster
Most people who receive a Certificate of Insurance from a carrier do the same thing: scan for the dollar figures, confirm they look reasonable, and file it away. A claims adjuster reads the same document very differently — and the gap between those two reading styles is exactly where a lot of shippers get caught off guard later.
Check the Effective and Expiration Dates First, Not the Limits
The coverage limits mean nothing if the policy period doesn't cover your actual shipment date. An adjuster's first check is always the dates — not because the limits don't matter, but because a policy that's expired or not yet effective makes the limits entirely irrelevant. Confirm the current date falls cleanly inside the policy period, with margin, not right up against either edge.
Confirm Who Is Actually Named as the Insured
The named insured on the policy needs to match the actual carrier moving your freight — exactly. This sounds obvious, but it's a common gap with owner-operators working under a different legal entity than the one on their COI, or carriers using a broker-of-record relationship that complicates who's actually covered. A mismatch here can void coverage entirely regardless of the limits shown.
Look for the Additional Insured Endorsement
As covered in our piece on additional insured status, a COI without this specific endorsement leaves the shipper or broker with no direct standing in a claim. An adjuster checking a policy on a shipper's behalf will look specifically for this line — its absence is one of the most common and most consequential gaps in carrier insurance documentation.
Check for Exclusions Tied to Commodity Type or Safety Rating
Many cargo policies carry specific exclusions — certain commodity types, certain operating conditions, or, as covered separately, conditions tied to the carrier's regulatory safety rating. A policy with strong headline limits can still exclude the exact scenario relevant to your shipment. This is the fine print that rarely gets read until a claim is already being disputed.
Why This Level of Scrutiny Matters
Reading a COI properly takes real expertise — enough that most shippers reasonably don't have the time or training to do it on every carrier, every shipment. This is precisely the kind of document review that's built into Bever's ongoing carrier verification process, applied consistently rather than left to chance. Send us a COI you're unsure about — we'll tell you what it actually says, not just what it looks like at a glance.
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