Stevens Van Lines Hit with Non-Disclosure Suit Over Insurance Coverage

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Trucking and moving company Stevens Van Lines is facing a class action over its allegedly unlawful practice of failing to make required disclosures about its insurance practices. According to the 70-page complaint, Stevens contracts with over-the-road truckers, called owner-operators, to handle its interstate hauling business. Under these agreements, Stevens can purportedly force-place certain insurance coverage on the owner-operators and charge drivers the actual cost of the coverage. The lawsuit claims owner-operators have ended up paying more than the true cost of the defendant’s insurance coverage—and more than what that same insurance would cost if purchased on the open market—because it is not disclosed to them that they can opt out of the force-placed insurance. “These non-disclosures harm owner-operators by denying them information necessary to make an informed choice about whether to opt-out of Stevens’s force-placed insurance regime,” the suit alleges.

Furthermore, the suit notes that the defendant allegedly hides from owner-operators that it collects the money paid for insurance coverage and “deposits a substantial portion of that money in the company’s general operating fund to cover the company’s own future insurance liabilities and/or future payouts under the company’s high-deductible insurance policies.”