Auto Liability Insurance You Must Have

For all you business owners out there, do you ever send your employees on errands to the store or to the post office? To pick up food for the office? Do you have sales reps driving their own autos to meet clients or potential clients? Ever go on business trips and rent cars? If you have a business of any kind, I’d be shocked if none of these scenarios apply to your daily/weekly/yearly operations.

Have you ever thought about what would happen if that employee you sent to pick up lunch hit a pedestrian and seriously injured or even killed them? Or if your sales rep was involved in an accident causing serious bodily injury or property damage to others involved? Unfortunately, accidents are not uncommon and when an employee causes an accident, the injured party will more than likely look to YOUR company to pay damages.

This is why you need to be certain ‘Hired & Non-Owned Auto’ liability is added as an endorsement to your commercial general liability insurance policy. Your business doesn’t need to own vehicles for this to apply.

Hired & Non-owned auto is a small endorsement which can have a huge impact on your general liability insurance coverage. It protects your business from bodily injury and property damage claims caused by a vehicle you rent or borrow; or caused by vehicles owned by others, such as your employees. It usually does not pay for physical damage to the vehicle itself; that’s covered by the owner’s insurance (although this option is sometimes available).

What’s great is that it’s incredibly inexpensive to add this coverage to your existing general liability insurance policy. Usually no more than $100-$200 annually for $1,000,000 in coverage! To be blunt, you would be dumb not to carry this endorsement if it is an option on your GL policy.

Be sure to check your current policy to see if this endorsement has been included. If it’s not, or if you’re uncertain, call your agent today to discuss! Accidents are not uncommon, so tomorrow may be too late!

-JK