What types of coverage does commercial car insurance offer?
Commercial car insurance policies offer the same types of coverage that are offered by personal car insurance policies: Liability coverage, property damage insurance, medical payments, combined single limit coverage, comprehensive insurance, collision coverage, uninsured / underinsured motorist insurance (UMI), and rental car replacement are some of the main coverage types available to businesses. Additional coverages may include employees using their own vehicles for the business, or several people using the same vehicle.
Here is a description of some of the coverages offered on commercial auto insurance policies:
Bodily Injury Coverage: This insurance covers liability costs for bodily injury or death to another person, if resulting from an accident that was caused by the commercially insured driver. In most cases, this coverage includes the cost of legal fees.
Property Damage Liability: This coverage offers financial protection in the event that a commercial vehicle accidentally damages someone else’s property. This type of coverage also typically includes the cost of legal defense.
Medical Payments: This is a type of no-fault personal injury protection (PIP). It typically pays the medical expenses of the driver and the passengers in a commercially insured vehicle that is involved in an accident, no matter who is at fault.
Combined Single Limit (CSL): A Combined Single Limits policy basically offers the same dollar amount of coverage per covered incident, whether for injury or property damage, and whether for one person or many.
Uninsured Motorist Insurance (UMI): This insurance typically covers the cost of injury and/or property damage that was caused by someone who was driving without insurance. UMI can also cover hit and run incidents, as well as accidents caused by drivers who do not have enough insurance. This would include most drivers in America, as the state minimum liability limits do not typically cover the costs of real traffic accidents. So most drivers are underinsured.
Collision Coverage: This type of insurance covers the cost of damage to the commercially insured vehicle when it hits, or is hit by, another object, whether the object is another vehicle, another person’s property, or objects found in nature such as trees.
Comprehensive Coverage: Comprehensive coverage is also known as “other than collision” (OTC) insurance. This coverage pays the cost of non traffic accident damage to your vehicle. Covered incidents that may damage your car include fire, floods, falling or flying objects, hail storms, vandalism, and car theft, among other things. Check with your insurer regarding which incidents are covered under your comprehensive commercial auto insurance plan.
Rental Car Coverage: This insurance covers the cost of a rental replacement vehicle, to be used while a business owner’s damaged vehicle is being repaired.
