Insurance Is Rising, and the Paper Trail Is Yours to Fix

The Situation

*From the publisher. Propane Insider is published by Bill Stomp, who also owns Tank Spotter. Links to Tank Spotter below carry tracking tags.*

In the second quarter of 2026, commercial auto premiums rose 4.5% and umbrella premiums rose 5.3%, according to the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB) Q2 2026 survey. Umbrella has now risen 35 quarters in a row.

The same survey has a twist. Overall commercial premiums fell 2% in the quarter, CIAB reports. Property pricing fell. The lines that kept climbing were auto and umbrella, the two a propane company leans on hardest, because the truck is the exposure.

The Facts

Where the money goes

Insurers price what they pay out. A study from the Casualty Actuarial Society and the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I), dated Oct. 31, 2025, found that legal system abuse and related litigation trends contributed to $231.6 billion to $281.2 billion in increased liability insurance losses over a decade. Of that, commercial auto liability accounts for $52.0 billion to $70.8 billion. The study covers all industries, not propane alone.

Courtrooms are part of the same story. Marathon Strategies counted about 190 jury verdicts of $10 million or more against corporate defendants in 2025, up 40.7% from 135 in 2024, spread across 68 industries. That is a count of verdicts. Marathon is a communications firm and its tally is its own, so read it as a signal about direction.

One propane insurer put the local version in plain words. Crum & Forster told LP Gas magazine (Sept. 18, 2025) that commercial auto is under pressure and that general liability is increasingly affected by "service and driver errors, inadequate documentation and a more litigious environment." JMcLean Energy Insurance, in the same roundup, said "carriers are showing greater flexibility". Opinions differ. Still, read the documentation line twice. Documentation is the one item on the list that sits entirely inside the dealer's control.

What a record is worth

Bill Stomp, who ran 87 offices in 12 states, puts his view this way: costs are rising, and a lot of the paperwork behind them can be automated and simplified. A company that keeps clean, dated, signed records of its safety work is better placed when an insurer, an inspector or a lawyer asks what was done.

The records that matter are ordinary ones. Inspection forms. Training records. Delivery tickets. Who was told what, and when. On paper they live in truck cabs, desk drawers and one person's memory. In an app on the phones the crew already carries, they are searchable the day somebody asks.

That is what Tank Spotter does. It puts service, safety forms, sales forms and training records in one app, runs on Apple and Android phones and tablets, works offline in no-signal areas and syncs when the crew gets coverage. Every capability is standard and the monthly price stays flat as seats are added. The Tank Spotter overview page lays out the four pillars. List prices are published at fuelsite.pro/en/pricing.

No software changes what an insurer charges. Nobody can promise a lower premium or a won case. What a clean record changes is the conversation, because the answer to "show me" arrives in minutes.

If you would like to see it on your own tanks and forms, Bill walks owners through it: book a demo.