If you have a small business with one car for business, or if you are in the transport, service, or delivery line and have a fleet, you need to be adequately covered by commercial auto insurance.
There are policies available that cover any vehicle you use in your business. And whatever you use it for, you need to get it insured.
What It Covers
Commercial auto insurance protects vehicles you use in a business capacity. That means one small truck to get around or a fleet of 18-wheeled trucks that carry your goods across the country.
The basic parts of a commercial auto policy are:
- Liability
- Collision and repair
- Personal injury
- Uninsured motorist coverage
The Advantages of Commercial Auto Insurance
One little understood benefit of having commercial auto coverage is that even if you have an entire fleet of vehicles, in many cases you pay just a single deductible. That can mean major savings if you have more than one accident a year, a not unreasonable assumption if you transport goods regularly.
With commercial coverage, if you own many different pieces of work equipment that you use your vehicles to haul, the coverage can help insure that equipment, as well as the truck.
Do You Need It?
The danger for a small businessperson or if you are self-employed is to assume that personal policy covers the vehicle when it is uses for work. Often it doesn’t.
You might find that out after you have an accident. That’s too late. It’s much cheaper to check with your insurance agent right away, before the vehicle has been damaged, another car has been hit, you have been injured or someone else has been hurt.
Don’t Take Chances
If you use your vehicle strictly for work, you need it. If you routinely use your personal vehicle for business activities, you probably need it. If you use it very occasionally, you may not need it.
Did you realize that if your teen decides to earn some extra money by delivering pizza for a food chain, he needs commercial auto insurance? He probably never thinks in terms of insurance.
You as the parent might think of his job as just the next step from his lemonade stand when he was seven. And his car is a clunker.
But in the eyes of the insurance company, if he doesn’t have commercial insurance on the car he uses to pick up and deliver the pizza, he would be liable if he were in an accident.
But why guess? Call your small business insurance agent, who specializes in commercial auto insurance. Describe your typical use of the car or truck and get a professional opinion.
