Your business is your livelihood, and if part of your business is a vehicle, that’s part of your livelihood too. While you’re insuring your business using commercial insurance, are you doing the same for your vehicle? If you are not, not only are you failing to protect a company asset, you’re also underinsuring your vehicle with your personal insurance. Find out if you’re vehicle needs commercial insurance, and what kinds of commercial insurance you should get for it.
Types of Commercial Vehicles
If you use a vehicle for business purposes, it is technically a commercial vehicle. While a car you use on your daily commute is not a work vehicle (it’s a personal vehicle), however if you use this car to deliver your business’s goods (food delivery) or transport clients (taxi service) you’re operating a commercial vehicle. Below is a listing of some common (and not so common) types of vehicles that should be insured.
- Limousine
- Catering Truck
- Cargo Van
- Passenger Van
- Hearse
- Ice Cream Truck
- Step Van
- Tow Truck
- Refrigerated Truck
- Front Loader
- Ride-share Vehicle (Lyft, Uber)
- Delivery Car
- Food Truck
- Tanker Truck
- Box or Straight Truck
- Agricultural Vehicle
- Courier Vehicle
If you work from home, but keep a lot of your merchandise or make frequent services calls to clients, you should look at insuring your vehicle commercially, just like insuring your business commercially.
Why You Need Commercial Auto Insurance
If any of the above vehicles or scenarios sounds like your situation, you must get your vehicle commercially insured. Personal insurance will not cover accidents that are deemed to be done during a commercial enterprise, and your claims can be denied and your coverage removed. This is because the risk for an insurance company is generally higher with a commercial vehicle than a personal one, due to the amount of time it will be driven and the number of drivers who may use it. Certain larger vehicles, such as specialty trucks have additional risks due to their size and operation.
Types of Commercial Vehicle Insurance
Most kinds of personal vehicle insurance are the same for commercial insurance, including the insurance requirements by the state. These include:
- Collision
- Bodily Injury Liability
- Comprehensive
- Property Damage
- Personal Injury Protection
- Un/Underinsured Motorists
However, commercial insurance isn’t just a more expensive version of personal insurance: these commercial insurances are better suited to cover your business and your assets, your employees and third-party drivers of your vehicles, and the higher risk that comes from certain types of commercial vehicles.
It’s important to insure all of your assets against risk, be they your personal assets or those of your company. Properly insuring your company and its vehicles is a key part of any successful business. If you’re interested in commercial vehicle insurance or any other kind of insurance, personal or commercial please contact TJ Woods Insurance Agency.
