Class code 7228: the mileage radius that defines local hauling

The classification depends on where the trucks actually go. All hauling conducted within a 200-mile radius of the vehicle's garaging location falls in the local class, together with drivers, helpers and garage staff. Extend the routes beyond that radius and the operation is described by a different class carrying a different rate. Fleets rarely announce this change; a new customer in a neighbouring state is added, the dispatcher builds a route, and the classification on the policy is now describing a business the carrier is no longer insuring.

Telematics has made this straightforward to evidence and equally straightforward to disprove, so the practical advice is to reconcile the radius test against the route data quarterly rather than annually. Where a genuinely mixed operation exists, discuss the treatment with the carrier before the audit rather than after it. The second recurring issue is owner-operators: arrangements that look like independent contracting on paper are frequently treated as covered payroll at audit, particularly where the operator drives a leased vehicle in the hiring firm's livery under its dispatch, so obtain proof of the operator's own coverage and keep it with the contract.

Transport payroll inside co-employment raises a question that does not arise in office work: who is the employer of record for the driver on a specific run, and how does that interact with motor carrier obligations and vehicle liability. Workers' compensation may be bundled or placed with a specialist carrier, and the answer determines both the deposit and the audit exposure. Ask explicitly whether drivers are accepted, which carrier writes the class, and how the arrangement interacts with the operating authority under which the loads move.

What decides the rate, and what does not

Trucking rates are omitted here because the class assignment has to be settled first. Loss costs are filed by state and modified by experience, but a fleet whose routes have quietly crossed the radius threshold is being quoted on the wrong class entirely, and no rate comparison fixes that. Establish the geography, then price it.

Where to go next

Run the numbers in the estimate the annual premium, browse all published class codes, and start the category at the PEO overview. How we source and date every claim is set out in our methodology, the contractual duty split is explained at co-employment, in plain terms, and adjacent classifications include clerical office employees, code 8810, outside sales and collectors, code 8742, retail store, code 8017.

What this doesn't cover

This is a classification explainer, not motor-carrier compliance advice and not a rate. Radius tests are applied to actual route data, owner-operator status is decided on the facts of the arrangement rather than on the contract label, and workers' compensation obligations sit alongside separate obligations attached to the operating authority. Confirm 7228, and any mixed-class treatment, with the carrier in writing.