Commercial Automobile Insurance
Commercial auto insurance provides coverage for company-owned vehicles in the event of an accident that causes bodily injury or physical damage. Coverage can be for company-owned cars, trucks, buses and other types of vehicles. A common endorsement to commercial auto coverage is non-owned and hired auto liability insurance. This endorsement covers vehicles your employees use or that you rent or borrow but the business doesn't own. Commercial auto insurance covers physical damage to a company-owned vehicle if it hits another object, overturns, burns or is damaged as a result of vandalism or theft.
A commercial auto policy also covers medical expenses for those involved in an accident, regardless of who caused it. If your company is sued because of an automobile accident, the coverage generally includes attorney fees, court costs and payment to the injured person up to the policy limit. For example, if one of your employees is driving a company-owned car to a business lunch and gets into a car wreck, commercial auto insurance will pay for the costs of repairing all vehicles involved in the wreck. The policy also will pay for medical bills for anyone injured in the accident. Some commercial auto policies also pay for the cost of renting a replacement vehicle while the damaged one is being repaired.
Insurers use many factors to determine the policy premium. The number and kind of vehicles insured and the location of the business are key factors. Insurance rates vary by state and region. For example, costs tend to be lowest in rural communities and highest in cities where there is more traffic. Also, some cars are more expensive to insure than others. Vehicles with expensive repair costs and those that are more attractive to thieves are costlier to insure.
