What Does Commercial Car Insurance Cover You and Your Employees For?

Commercial car insurance policies vary depending on the provider and to be 100% sure on exactly what is and are not covered in your specific policy, you will have to trawl through the fine print.

Broadly speaking, your commercial car insurance coverage will pay for damages to business vehicles caused by collisions, adverse weather, or criminal activity. It also ensures medical costs and legal fees are covered after a wreck.

Here is a breakdown of what most commercial car insurance policies cover, and where you can find the specific details of your policy.

What Does Commercial Car Insurance Cover You and Your Employees For?

What’s included?

 A standard commercial car insurance policy usually offers four main forms of protection.

  •         Automobile liability coverage

This coverage helps pay for any property damage or medical expenses incurred by yourself or your employees in a company registered automobile. Some policies also extend to providing assistance for legal fees and settlement costs caused as a result of an accident.

  •         Medical coverage

Your commercial car insurance policy will also cover medical expenses should you, your employees, or any passengers travelling in the vehicle require medical assistance following a collision.

  •         Physical damage

This coverage extends to your vehicle. If your vehicle is damaged, either in a collision, a natural disaster, adverse weather event, vandalism incident or theft, your insurance provider will pay for the repair or replacement of your vehicle.

  •         Uninsured motorist coverage

While not every insurance policy covers against uninsured motorists, there is often a clause which protects you, your employees and your vehicles in the event of a collision with an uninsured driver.

Who is Covered?

There are three categories of users under any commercial car insurance policy.

  •     You

As the business owner, you are covered under any policy. Your name should appear on the policy documents in addition to your business name.

  •         Permissive users

If you give an employee permission to use your vehicle, they are insured under the policy.

  •         Omnibus insured

Anyone who is liable for your conduct, or the conduct of other permissive users, is also insured under the omnibus insured.

Owned or Hired?

Your commercial car insurance policy will extend coverage to any vehicle you are driving that you or your business owns, and any that it might hire. However, your employees will not be covered in hired vehicles unless you have explicitly purchased liability coverage for hired vehicles.

The auto insurance coverage does not extend to vehicles that are owned by employees, even if they are using these vehicles for work-related purposes. It is possible to amend this if your employees are frequently required to use their own vehicles for professional use. Policyholders can purchase the Entitled Employees as Insured coverage, which extends to vehicles named by endorsed employees. However, this coverage only extends to excess coverage. The employee’s personal coverage would first be utilized in the event of an accident. The commercial car insurance policy would only plug the gaps left by their own policy.

Many commercial car insurance policies are flexible. If you have specific insurance needs, ensure you convey them to your policy provider to ensure there are no gaps in coverage and you, your employees, and your vehicles are fully protected.