Commercial auto insurance typically provides coverage for: liability damages; collision or comprehensive physical damage loss to your business autos; medical expenses for injury to occupants of your business autos; and damages sustained by occupants of your business autos due to the negligence of an uninsured or underinsured motorist.

The commercial auto policy provides physical damage coverage for vehicles you own, lease, hire or use in your business and liability coverage for bodily injury and property damage caused to others by your use of the insured business vehicles.

It can include two types of physical damage coverage for your insured vehicles:

• • • Collision loss: damage from auto accidents.
    • Comprehensive loss: damage from weather, theft and other non-collision causes.

It also includes two types of liability coverage:

• • • Bodily injury coverage: for accident-related injuries to others when you’re at fault.
    • Property damage coverage: from accident-related damage to someone else’s property, such as a car or house, when you’re at fault).

Not everything is covered by a standard commercial auto insurance policy. While coverages vary based on where you live, the following expenses and scenarios are typically excluded or require additional coverage options be added to your policy:

• Medical expenses that are unrelated to an accident when an employee is driving a company vehicle.
• The contents inside your business vehicle.
• Accidents that happen when an employee drives a personal vehicle for business reasons.
• Repairs to a rental vehicle you’re driving while waiting for your company car to be fixed after an accident.

If you own, lease, hire or use vehicles for business, you should minimally carry liability coverage. It’s mandatory in most states for owned autos. In addition, businesses that move goods or people across state lines are required by federal law to have it. For larger commercial vehicles, you may need a commercial truck insurance policy.

You need commercial auto insurance for vehicles that:

• Are used for business.
• Carry a commercial license plate or tag.
• Are registered commercial.

You should also carry commercial auto coverage if you or your employees use vehicles for work-related tasks, such as:

• Driving clients to the airport;
• Going on sales calls;
• Taking packages to a shipper;
• Shopping for office supplies.

Important to know: You may be required to get additional coverage if you use vehicles for certain functions, including:

• Delivering food, products or publications;
• Acting as a chauffeur, taxi or limo service;
• Transporting flammable or hazardous materials;
• Carrying equipment;
• Towing vehicles;
• Trucking and moving freight.