One work truck, van, or employee-driven car can create a business exposure. We cover the vehicles, drivers, and uses a personal policy may exclude.
Commercial auto is built around who owns the vehicle and who is driving it. Most gaps live in the categories a company does not realize apply to it.
Trucks, vans, and cars titled to the business. Liability, physical damage, and — depending on the work — coverage for permanently attached equipment. Vehicle weight, radius of operation, and cargo all affect how the policy is rated and which carriers will write it.
The coverage that responds when an employee drives their own car for work, or when the company rents a vehicle. Their personal policy pays first, and when it runs out the injured party looks at the business. This is the most commonly missing coverage on small-business programs, and it is usually inexpensive to add.
Carriers underwrite the driver list, not just the vehicle list. Motor vehicle records, a written driving policy, and a process for adding and removing drivers all affect eligibility, pricing, and whether a claim is contested. Personal use of a company vehicle needs to be addressed explicitly.
Commercial auto liability is one of the primary layers a commercial umbrella attaches to. If the underlying limit is thin, the umbrella attaches higher than you expect and the gap belongs to the business. Auto is frequently the largest single liability exposure a small company has.
The specifics depend on the work, but these questions come up every time.
Almost all of them trace back to a vehicle nobody thought of as a business vehicle.
An owner using a personal truck for jobs, or a contractor carrying tools and materials, on a policy that excludes business use. The exclusion is discovered at the claim, not at the renewal.
Any company whose employees run errands, make deliveries, or drive to client sites in their own cars has this exposure. The absence of a company-owned vehicle does not remove the company's liability.
A new hire begins driving before anyone tells the agent. Carriers vary in how they treat an unlisted driver, and none of the outcomes are good.
An auto accident is the most likely route to a very large claim for many small businesses. Underlying limits set years ago frequently no longer support the umbrella sitting above them.
The ones that decide whether a company is actually covered.
You need hired and non-owned auto liability, which is the part of commercial auto that addresses exactly this. Their personal insurance is primary, but a serious injury claim will reach past it to the business that directed the trip. It is one of the least expensive coverages relative to the exposure it removes.
Generally no. Personal auto policies exclude business use, and adding a business name as an additional insured does not convert a personal policy into a commercial one. Once a vehicle is titled to the business or used regularly for it, the exposure belongs on a commercial policy.
Usually not on its own. Permanently attached equipment can be covered by the auto policy, but loose tools and materials generally belong on an inland marine or contractors equipment policy. This split surprises contractors regularly.
Significantly, and sometimes they affect eligibility rather than just price. Carriers pull motor vehicle records at binding and often at renewal. Having a written driver-eligibility standard and checking records before someone drives is one of the few things a small business can do that measurably improves its insurance terms.
Tell us who drives and what they drive, and we will tell you where the exposure sits.
