Amazon Relay Insurance
Getting onto Amazon Relay — and staying on it — runs through your insurance. Amazon verifies coverage through its insurance vendor, your certificate has to come from your agent, and a lapse means no loads until it’s fixed. Coast structures Relay-ready policies and handles the certificate side so verification doesn’t stall your setup. Truck insurance specialists since 1976.
- Same-day certificates, most within 2 hours
- Salaried, non-commissioned agents
- No broker fees
This page provides general information only and is not a quote, binder, or offer of coverage. Talk to a licensed agent about your specific situation.
What is Amazon Relay insurance?
Amazon Relay insurance isn’t a special policy Amazon sells — it’s a commercial trucking program built to satisfy the insurance requirements Amazon sets for carriers on its Relay freight platform. Relay connects motor carriers with Amazon freight through a load board and app, and participation is conditioned on your operation meeting Amazon’s standards: active operating authority, an acceptable safety profile, and insurance coverage that Amazon verifies and monitors on an ongoing basis.
The important word is ongoing. Relay isn’t a one-time insurance checkpoint — Amazon tracks your coverage through its insurance verification vendor for as long as you haul its freight. That makes the structure of your policy, and the reliability of your agent’s certificate work, a permanent part of your Relay business rather than a signup formality.
What drives the price of a Relay carrier’s insurance?
Relay work gets rated like the trucking operation it is:
New-authority operators often start with Relay in the business plan — tell us that up front. Structuring the policy to Relay’s requirements from day one costs nothing extra and saves the re-write later.
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What coverage does Amazon Relay require?
Relay’s insurance requirements involve the core commercial trucking coverages: auto liability at commercial limits, motor truck cargo for the freight, general liability, and — depending on how your operation is set up — workers’ compensation for employee drivers (with occupational accident coverage sometimes accepted for independent contractors, subject to state rules). Power-only carriers pulling Amazon-owned trailers also need non-owned trailer physical damage coverage — the line that pays for damage to a trailer in your possession that you don’t own.
We deliberately don’t print exact limit numbers here, for a reason that matters to you: Amazon sets the specific limits inside the Relay platform and can update them. The authoritative version of the requirements is the one in your Relay application or your account’s Insurance tab — not a number on anyone’s website. What we do is read your Relay requirements with you and structure the policy so every line matches before the certificate goes in.
Your agent submits the proof, not you. When you apply to Relay, you submit your insurance details — and then Amazon’s third-party insurance vendor obtains the certificate of insurance from your agent, broker, or insurance company. That handoff is where setups commonly stall: a certificate with a wrong limit, a missing coverage line, or slow turnaround from the agent’s office leaves your application sitting in verification. An agency that answers certificate requests the same day — most within two hours — takes that failure point off the table.
Renewals are a deadline, not a formality. Relay expects updated insurance details in your account before your policy expires — Amazon recommends adding them at least five days before the policy ends, and planning your renewal two to three weeks ahead of expiration so verification completes in time. If coverage lapses, your company can’t book or haul Relay loads until it’s reinstated. Build the renewal calendar into how you run the business, and use an agent who treats your renewal date as their deadline too.
Power-only: the trailer isn’t yours. A large share of Relay work is power-only — your tractor, Amazon’s trailer. Damage to a trailer in your possession is your responsibility, and the coverage line built for it is non-owned trailer physical damage. If you’re moving into power-only work from an owned-trailer operation, this is the coverage conversation to have before your first Relay load, because it’s often not on the policy you already have. Our non-owned trailer physical damage page explains the coverage in depth.
Your safety record follows you into the quote. Amazon monitors carrier safety — including inspection violation rates — and gives carriers a safety scorecard, while insurance underwriters price your policy on much of the same record. A clean inspection history and claim-free years work for you twice: they keep your Relay standing healthy and they’re the most reliable way to earn better insurance pricing over time.
The rest of the Relay eligibility picture
Insurance is one gate of several. Relay carriers operate under active federal operating authority with a DOT and MC number, and Amazon screens safety credentials as part of the application. Those standards — like the insurance requirements — are Amazon’s to set and adjust, so treat your Relay application and account as the source of truth for what’s currently required, and confirm details there before making business decisions around them.
Where Coast fits: we make sure the insurance leg of your application is airtight — a policy structured to your Relay requirements, certificates delivered fast, filings handled, and renewals managed so a paperwork gap never takes your trucks off the board.
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Verify current requirements at the source
Insurance, registration, and filing rules change. These official and authoritative sources carry the current requirements and research cited on this page.
Amazon Relay insurance FAQs
What insurance do I need to haul for Amazon Relay?
Expect the core commercial trucking coverages — auto liability, motor truck cargo, general liability, workers’ compensation where applicable — plus non-owned trailer physical damage if you run power-only. The exact limits are set by Amazon inside the Relay platform and can change, so confirm them in your Relay application or account, and bring that list to your agent. We’ll structure the policy line-for-line against it.
How does Amazon verify my insurance?
Through a third-party insurance verification vendor that obtains your certificate of insurance directly from your agent, broker, or insurance company. You don’t hand Amazon a certificate yourself — which means your agent’s speed and accuracy on certificate requests directly controls how fast your verification clears.
What happens if my policy lapses while I’m on Relay?
You can’t book or haul Relay loads until coverage is reinstated and re-verified. Amazon recommends updating your insurance details in your Relay account at least five days before your policy expires and planning renewals two to three weeks ahead. Treat the renewal date as a hard operational deadline — a lapse isn’t just an insurance problem, it’s parked trucks.
I run power-only with Amazon’s trailers. What covers the trailer?
Damage to a trailer in your possession that you don’t own is your exposure, and it’s addressed by non-owned trailer physical damage coverage — a specific line that isn’t automatic on every trucking policy. If power-only Relay work is in your plan, raise it at quoting so the coverage exists before the first hook.
Does my safety record affect my Relay insurance?
Twice over. Amazon monitors carrier safety performance, including inspection violation rates, and insurers price your policy on largely the same history. Clean inspections and claim-free years are the slow-but-certain path to both a healthy Relay standing and better renewal pricing — there’s no shortcut that substitutes for them.
Reviewed by Scott W. Powers, Licensed Insurance Agent (NPN 9719382). Last reviewed August 2026.
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