Loss Run Requests: Get Your Claims History Right

The Document That Decides Your Renewal

A loss run is a report from an insurance carrier detailing the claims paid and reserved under your policies over a stated period — usually three to five years. When you apply for truck insurance or go through renewal, the application asks you to self-report your claims history. Underwriters do not take that at face value. They request loss runs from every carrier you've been with during the lookback period and check your story against the carrier's records.

That verification is why loss runs decide renewals. A clean loss run backs up a clean application and opens the full market to you. A loss run with open reserves, frequency patterns, or large paid claims tells underwriters you're a bigger risk than your pricing assumes — which shows up as higher premiums, restrictive terms, or declinations. And when loss runs arrive late, the underwriter cannot finish the file, so the quote waits. Slow loss runs are one of the most common reasons renewals that should close at T-30 are still open at T-7.

What Loss Runs Contain (and How Underwriters Read Them)

A standard loss run lists each claim by policy period: date of loss, coverage type (auto liability, cargo, physical damage, general liability), a description, amounts paid, and amounts reserved — the money the carrier has set aside for claims still open. Underwriters read the paid column for history and the reserve column for what might still be coming. Large open reserves are the line items that make underwriters the most cautious, because an open claim can still grow.

Underwriters also read frequency, not just severity. One large loss five years ago with a clean record since tells a different story than a steady drip of small claims every policy year. They compare your loss runs across carriers to make sure nothing is missing from the lookback period, and they look for claims that appear on one carrier's report but were never mentioned on the application. Consistency between your application and your loss runs is one of the simplest trust signals in underwriting.

How to Request Loss Runs: The Template

Loss run requests go to each prior carrier that insured you during the lookback period — or to the broker or agent who placed that policy, who can forward the request. Requests generally need to be in writing and should include the named insured exactly as it appears on the policy, the policy numbers, the years or policy periods requested, where to send the completed reports, and your authorization. Keep the request simple and complete: incomplete requests are the number-one reason a request sits in a queue instead of moving through one.

Send one request per carrier per lookback window, and keep a log: who you asked, when, the policy numbers referenced, and when each report arrived. If you used different entity names over the years — a DBA here, an LLC name there — request under every name a policy was written in, and note that for the underwriter so they do not think you're hiding a carrier. Store the finished loss runs in a running file, so every renewal starts from a folder instead of a scramble.

The Lead-Time Problem: Why T-90 Exists

Loss runs are produced by the prior carrier's processing teams — the company you left — and carriers prioritize current business over ex-customers' paperwork. That is the entire reason loss runs take weeks. A request sent at T-30 frequently returns at T-10 or later, and if it comes back with an error that needs a correction cycle, your renewal is now negotiating against a deadline instead of a market.

The fix is calendar discipline, not persuasion. Send every loss run request ninety days before renewal. Follow up in writing at sixty and thirty days out. If a carrier is non-responsive, loop in the broker or agent of record from that policy year — they often have a faster channel into the carrier. JackRick's renewal playbook treats the T-90 loss run request as the first milestone of the renewal, because everything downstream — marketing, quoting, comparison — depends on underwriters having the verified history in hand.

No-Loss Letters: When You Have No History

If you have never had a claim, you still need documentation — underwriters do not take "we've never had a claim" as evidence. Request a no-loss letter (sometimes called a loss-free letter) from each carrier covering the period: a written confirmation that zero claims were reported under your policies. Clean history documented beats clean history claimed, every time.

No-loss letters matter most for new ventures and operators with short histories, where the lookback period is thin. They also matter when switching carriers mid-term: the new carrier's loss run only covers its own policy period, so the no-loss letters from prior carriers fill the rest of the lookback. Ask for them in the same written request cycle as your loss runs — carriers issue them through the same processing channel, with the same lead times.

Reading Your Own Loss Runs for Errors

Before your loss runs go to any underwriter, read them yourself. Errors are common: reserves that were never updated after a claim settled for less, claims attributed to your policy that belong to another insured with a similar name, duplicate entries from policy rewrites, or claims dated into the wrong policy year. Each one inflates your perceived risk until it is corrected.

Dispute errors with the issuing carrier in writing — describe the specific line item, state the correct facts, and attach whatever supports them. The carrier corrects its own report; your broker cannot edit it. Then keep the corrected version and the correspondence, because the error will reappear every renewal until the carrier's system actually reflects the fix. Catching a wrong reserve before marketing is one of the highest-return activities in the whole renewal process: a single inflated reserve can move a quote more than a year of rate shopping.

Questions carriers ask

More in this series

• Annual Truck Inspection Guide
• Authority Reinstatement Guide
• Blaine Crossing Guide