Commercial Auto

Symbols, radius, and the drivers who are not on your schedule

Commercial auto is rated per vehicle on four inputs: the radius you operate in, the weight class and body type, what the vehicle is used for (service, retail delivery, or hauling for others), and the motor vehicle records of the people driving. Radius is the one owners underestimate — a truck that occasionally runs a load three states away is not a local-radius truck, and misstating it is the kind of thing that surfaces after a loss.

The most consequential item on the declarations page is a set of numbers most people never read: the coverage symbols. They define which autos each coverage applies to — any auto, owned autos only, hired autos, non-owned autos, autos you acquire later. A business that upgrades from a symbol covering only the scheduled vehicles to one covering any auto has bought something materially different. Newly acquired vehicles are usually covered automatically for a limited window, but that window has a deadline; call us when the truck is bought, not when it is wrecked.

Personal cars used for work are the standard gap. A personal auto policy is written for personal use, and a claim that occurs while making deliveries or running a business errand can be denied on that basis. Hired and non-owned auto coverage on the commercial policy responds to the business's liability in that situation. It is inexpensive because it is excess over whatever personal coverage exists, and it does not cover damage to the employee's car — which is a good reason to require your drivers to carry real limits and to pull their records annually.

If you haul regulated commodities across state lines you may need federal filings attached to the policy, and if you are hauling other people's goods, cargo coverage is a separate purchase from physical damage on the truck. Both are common gaps in an operation that grew into trucking rather than starting there.