What Is a Downtime Claim?

If you are a truck driver for a large transportation company in Texas, you put yourself at risk for injury even when you are not on the clock. You may even use your own truck to perform work for your company. If you are in an accident when you are not working, but you are in your work truck, you may wonder how you can pay for these damages without employer coverage. However, you could make a downtime claim to recover compensation for your losses.

How to Calculate Your Damages for Your Texas Downtime Claim

When you get into an accident with the truck you use to perform your work, you can lose out on lost wages while you are waiting for your repairs. However, your Texas insurance company must compensate you for all of your lost profits during your repair time as long as you were not at fault for your accident.

To calculate your damages, you will first need to look at your gross income. You can choose any number of days to base your gross income on, as long as it is between 90 days to one year. Take your gross income and subtract all of your expenses from it, such as gas, tolls, and any required maintenance for your vehicle.

Divide this amount by the number of days that you chose to calculate your profit from, and you have your daily net income. Now, you have a figure to present the insurance company for your lost profits. This number will be your daily losses for each day that you cannot use your truck to work.

Proving Your Damages in Your Downtime Claim

After you have calculated your damages for your downtime claim, you will have to provide the insurance company with documentation to prove your claims. Make sure to file and keep track of the following documents for your downtime claim.

• Reports from the scene of the accident to prove that you were not at fault for the accident
• Any insurance settlements you receive from the accident
• Tax returns, invoices, billing statements, and profit and loss reports to help you prove and substantiate your lost income
• Repair estimates and bills for your truck
• Any attempts to mitigate your damages

One major requirement for filing a downtime claim is that you must attempt to mitigate your damages. Simply put, mitigating your damages means that you must minimize your lost wages and profits while you were waiting for repairs for your truck. You must prove that you did not try to delay repairing or replacing your truck, and that replacing and repairing your truck was not possible for you while your truck was in the shop.

For example, say that you tried to contact a rental company to replace your truck after your accident. All of the trucks they had available were out of your budget range and you could not afford to rent one. You can provide documentation listing the prices of the rental trucks and a record of your communications with the rental company to prove that you tried to mitigate your damages.

Why You Need an Attorney for Your Downtime Claim

Receiving a downtime claim is not always an easy process. The insurance company may deny your claim or offer you a lower settlement than you need to recover from your lost profits. They may also claim that you did not do enough to mitigate your damages. In these situations, contact a Texas truckers’ attorney as soon as possible to assist you with this process.

Your attorney can provide numerous benefits to your claim, such as helping you collect the documentation you need to prove that you tried to mitigate your damages. Your lawyer can also help you calculate your profit loss using your documentation so you can provide an accurate number to the insurance company, minimizing your risk of claim rejection.