What are the Benefits of Commercial Auto Insurance?
From helping businesses protect their assets and employees to helping companies minimize damages after accidents, there are countless benefits of commercial auto insurance.
Commercial auto insurance is essential for any business that owns and operates vehicles. Not only is it usually a legal requirement, but it also provides several essential coverages that can help you keep you and your employees safe while on the road.
Let’s take a closer look at what commercial auto insurance covers and what benefits it offers to businesses.
What is Commercial Auto Insurance?
Just like personal auto insurance protects your personal vehicle against damages resulting from covered accidents, commercial auto insurance protects you, your employees, and your company vehicles from various hazards while on or off the road.
Any business that owns and operates vehicles needs commercial auto insurance as personal auto insurance does not cover vehicles used for business purposes. Even if you are using your personal vehicle, you need commercial auto insurance if you are using it for business-related reasons.
What Does it Cover?
Commercial auto insurance offers many of the same coverages included in personal auto insurance, including:
- Bodily injury and property damage liability coverage: This coverage can help pay for the expenses that result if you or an employee causes bodily injury or property damage to another person while operating a company-owned vehicle.
- Medical payments coverage: Medical payments coverage may help cover the medical expenses of the driver and passengers in a company-owned vehicle after a covered accident, regardless of who was at fault.
- Uninsured motorist coverage: If you or an employee are involved in a collision with an uninsured or underinsured driver, this coverage can help cover the resulting damages.
- Comprehensive coverage: Comprehensive coverage helps pay for damages to your vehicle that result from incidents other than collisions, including theft, vandalism, fire, and any other perils named in your policy.
- Collision coverage: Collision coverage covers damages to your vehicle that result from a collision with another object.
These coverages combine to offer comprehensive protection against some of the most common risks you and your employees might face while on the road. To find out more about what a commercial auto insurance policy covers, read here.
Does commercial auto insurance cover personal vehicles?
Commercial auto insurance can cover personal vehicles as long as they are being used for business purposes. Otherwise, commercial auto insurance does not cover your personal vehicles.
Benefits of Commercial Auto Insurance
Commercial auto insurance offers several important benefits for businesses of any size.
Commercial auto insurance helps you:
- Minimize out-of-pocket expenses after an accident.
- Protect your employees by covering them while they drive company-owned vehicles.
- Protect your business by protecting it against lawsuits resulting from at-fault accidents.
- Meet the insurance requirements for your leasing agreement.
- Comply with state insurance laws.
While some businesses may hesitate to take on any extra expenses, commercial auto insurance offers long-term protection for you, your business, your employees, and your business assets.
If you or your employees are ever involved in an auto accident while driving a company vehicle, commercial auto insurance can cover legal expenses and other costs so you don’t have to cover these expenses out of your own pocket.
How Much Does Commercial Auto Insurance Cost?
One of the main factors that impact your commercial auto insurance rates is your industry and its unique risks. For example, a restaurant that owns a fleet of delivery vehicles may face different costs than a construction business that owns a fleet of work trucks.
Other factors that may impact your car insurance rates include:
- The size of your vehicle fleet
- Type of vehicles (e.g. trucks, vans, cars, etc.)
- Fleet cost
- Employee driving history
- Company claims history
- Vehicle usage
- Coverages
- Coverage limits
- Deductibles
If your auto insurance policy exceeds your budget, you should be sure to ask your insurance provider about any discounts you may be eligible for. You may also consider adjusting your deductible and coverage limits as needed to bring costs down.
Request a Quote
Commercial auto insurance offers a wide range of important benefits. It can help protect you, your employees, your business, and your business assets from a wide range of hazards on or off the road.
At KSA Insurance, we work with businesses in South Carolina and across the southeastern United States to help them find comprehensive commercial auto insurance policies that offer complete protection at affordable rates.
Contact us today to request a quote and learn more about the benefits of commercial auto insurance.
