Commercial or business auto insurance may sound expensive, but sometimes it’s not. Distance driven, type of business, and vehicle use determine the cost to insure your rig for liability. The cost of physical damage coverage is tied to the vehicle’s value and all its attachments and accessories. We have customers who pay as little as $350 a year for a box truck used in the agricultural or floral business. Others pay tens of thousands for a fleet of fully covered vehicles with multiple drivers.
Even if you have a pickup truck that might fit on a personal auto policy, we recommend a commercial policy if you do any kind of artisan, contracting, or sales business. Once you register the vehicle in the business’s name or accessorize it with racks, boxes, tanks, and lifts, it must go on a commercial policy. This requirement doesn’t mean you can’t use your vehicle for personal activities. Yes, business policies cover both commercial and personal-related trips.
When you call for a quote, please be prepared with the following data.
1. Full name of the business owner (the credit score will be based on the owner’s personal credit)
2. Address of the business (can differ from where the vehicles are garaged)
3. Indicate whether the owner is also a driver
4. If the business is a Limited Liability Company (LLC), partnership, or corporation, we’ll need the EIN and the legal business name the way it appears on the documents
5. Principal class or type of business performed
6. List all the drivers, full names, dates of birth, and driver’s license numbers
7. Year, make, model, vehicle identification number, and value of each vehicle insured (split the dollar cost of base model and accessories)
8. Indicate the garaging address and zip code, and how far each vehicle is typically driven from the garaging location, such as 50 or 100 miles or more
9. The liability and physical damage coverages needed (some contracts call for higher limits, like a million)
Commercial lines auto policies are very concise. We need to know about ALL drivers. Let us run the driving record before you decide to include a driver. Many employers will deny a driver employment or disallow them behind the wheel based on the driving record. The younger the driver and more tickets and accidents, the higher the cost of the insurance. We can, however, also include an SR22 on the commercial policy for those who need it.
If your business is subject to registration with the USDOT because of your industry and the size of your vehicles, we will need the business name exactly the way it appears and your account number. We understand if you are a new business and have applied for the number, but it has not yet been issued. Our system allows us to start your policy, intending to revise after the number has been received.
If you are too busy to call, please complete the online quote request form. We can communicate with you by text or email to clarify data. You are busy, and we want to make life easy for you.
Once the policy is in force, we ask that you keep us informed of changes in classification, vehicles, drivers, and locations. We also need to know if a vehicle has been upgraded. One customer forgot to tell us he added $40,000 worth of accessories to his $80,000 truck, and it was totaled. The company only had to pay for the base truck.
We are happy to answer any questions you may have. Call or text us today.