There is more than one way to insure a business vehicle. Your personal lines insurance agent may have a program whereby a vehicle can be insured on a personal lines policy. This may work fine for a salesman who goes to see clients in his personal vehicle. His policy will be rated for business use and covered for such usage. Beware of using your personal vehicle for sales calls and not advising your insurer that you are doing that, as your policy may specifically exclude such use unless endorsed for business. you don’t want any rude surprises in case of an accident.
Your insurer may also allow you to place coverage for a service vehicle on a personal lines policy. An example of this might be a contractor who operates as an individual. He may be able to insure his truck for being at one or two jobs per day.
Make sure that if you are driving for work, that you have adequate insurance coverage. $30,000/$60,000 will not do if you are in business. An accident in your truck will likely exceed that limit. Get the highest limits you can.
If you are a company (LLC or Corporation,) and your company registers the vehicle, you can have many advantages. Here are some:
- You can obtain $1,000,000 of liability coverage for about as cheaply as you can get personal insurance
- You can be insured for towing a commercial trailer—one that carries a piece of commercial equipment, for example.
- You can insure your employees for the incidental use of their own vehicle while on company business or company time (even running to the store for stamps or to get lunch for the crew,) in case your company gets sued for their accident.
- You can get broader coverage for an incidentally operated commercial vehicle.
If you are in business, the best protection for you is to operate under an entity such as an LLC or a corporation, and insure your vehicles under that entity.
If you have questions, give us a call. 888-885-3388
