Commercial Vehicle Insurance
What You Need to Know About
Commercial Auto Insurance
Since 1956, RJ Ahmann Company has been a premier provider of commercial auto insurance nationwide.
Should your business be protected by commercial auto insurance?
In all 50 states, businesses that own vehicles are legally required to carry commercial auto insurance. All businesses have work-related driving exposures and these exposures carry the potential for severe, catastrophic damages. Once you or an employee steps into a vehicle to conduct work related business, there is the potential to cause a multi-million dollar loss. Whether you work from home and use a personal vehicle to call on clients, or you have a fleet of company vehicles, commercial auto insurance is essential.
Don't be caught without business auto insurance in any of these scenarios:
- You use company vehicles to transport goods or people, conduct services, call on clients or haul tools and equipment
- You or your employees use personal vehicles to conduct company business or entertain clients
- You or your employees use rental cars or vans while traveling or conducting company business
Motor vehicle accidents are the number one cause of workplace fatalities. - Bureau of Labor Statistics
Why is business auto coverage important?
Commercial auto insurance protects your company from the exposures of liability for bodily injury or property damage resulting from the use of a motor vehicle. Whether you are negligent or not, motor vehicle accidents can cause you to be sued. Commercial auto insurance will pay for your defense costs, as well as damages for bodily injury and property damage to others caused by your negligence. In addition, commercial auto insurance can provide physical damage coverage, which pays for damage to your own vehicle.
Many insurance buyers don't understand the numerical symbols on their policies. Those numbers indicate which vehicles are covered for specific types of coverage. For example, we recommend that your policy has "Any Auto" coverage rather than "Scheduled Auto" coverage in the liability coverage section. "Scheduled Auto" limits your protection to named vehicles. "Any Auto" coverage broadens your protection to include any vehicle used for company business including your employees' vehicles and rental vehicles. This is important because as a business, you can be sued for damage and bodily injury caused by vehicles the business does not own.
Businesses should also make sure that their commercial auto policies contain coverage for uninsured and underinsured exposures. For example, if the person that hits you has no insurance, the uninsured coverage will kick in. If the person who hits you does not have adequate insurance, the underinsured coverage kicks in. If you don't have those two coverages on your policy, you'll be left to pay for someone else's negligence.
Consider these business auto insurance examples...
- A marketing consultant caused a car accident while driving to see a client in a company owned vehicle. He and the company were sued, but they were protected by the company's commercial auto policy.
- A salesperson got into an accident while taking clients to lunch in his personal vehicle. One of the people in the car was seriously injured. The salesperson's personal limits were quickly exhausted and the employer was successfully sued for the driver's negligence, since the driver was on company business.
- A delivery van full of office equipment rolled over on the freeway, but thankfully no one was hurt. The damage to the delivery van was paid for by the physical damage portion of the commercial auto policy. The office equipment inside was replaced by the transit policy, discussed elsewhere on this Web site.
A smart solution
If you need business vehicle insurance, or if you just want to learn more, R.J. Ahmann can help. With years in the commercial auto insurance industry, we've helped businesses stay on the road with business vehicle protection. Our experienced commercial auto insurance experts will help you obtain comprehensive, cost-effective insurance coverage – tailored for your business's unique needs. We represent a variety of "A" rated insurance companies so you are protected with stable, reliable coverage.
To ensure that you get the strongest insurance protection at the best rates, we...
- Tailor coverage to meet your specific fleet characteristics and control your total cost of risk.
- Develop composite-rated plans on larger fleets of vehicles, which allow businesses to avoid having to add or delete company vehicles during the course of the policy year (single rate).
- Use composite rating to dramatically reduce administrative effort for you and to avoid gaps/lapses due to errors.
- Ensure your policies contain the broader "Any Auto" liability coverage along with coverage to protect you against underinsured and uninsured motorists.
Ready to learn more? R.J. Ahmann is ready to help with solutions for commercial auto insurance!