Business.com - Factors that Affect Your Commercial Vehicle Policy

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Identify the main purpose for a commercial auto insurance policy

BIO:

Tim Gaspar is the owner of Gaspar Insurance Services.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello. My name is Tim Gaspar with Gaspar insurance services. We are an insurance agency specializing in small to medium size businesses.

One of the key insurance policies that you have to have, if you have any vehicles, is a commercial auto insurance policy. In regards to who should have this kind of coverage, there's essentially three reasons that you would get a commercial auto policy.

The first would be if the vehicles are registered to your business. Absolutely, if the cars are registered to your business, you want to make sure that you have a commercial auto policy because if anything happens, whether it be an accident or some other issue, guess who's going to be named in the lawsuit, your business right off the bat.

Second thing, if you have employees, whether they are driving your vehicles or not, you want to make sure that you have a commercial auto policy because there is a lot of liability there.

And third, if you have any kind of signage on your vehicles at all, whether it be something on the door or something as small as something on the back license plate frame, you have to have a commercial auto policy because having that lettering and signage will actually exclude most claims on a personal auto insurance policy.

Now in regards to the rates, as you can imagine, a lot of the ways they rate commercial auto insurance policies is similar to a personal auto insurance policy. An insurance company is taking a look at what your coverage's are, what zip code the vehicles are garaged in, the types of vehicles you have, certainly a heavier truck is going to cost more to insure than a taxicab because certainly a heavier car is going to cause more damage if you hit anything.

Also, you want to make sure that the people you are hiring to drive your vehicles are, number one, good drivers. Meaning that they don't have more than one or two tickets or accidents in the past two years and you also want to watch the age of the drivers you have on the policy. If you have a high number of drivers that are under 25 years old, it is going to significantly increase your premiums and end up costing a lot more money, so you want to make sure that you have experienced drivers on the policy.

Now when you set up this policy, obviously there are some certain coverages that you want to pay attention to that are super important. The most important right off the bat is your first coverage, and that is the liability limit. Your liability limit, you want it to be at least a million dollars.
If you are just starting your business, and you are looking to save money, and your thinking about doing half that or even less, there's not really any good reason to do that because you are only going to save maybe ten or fifteen percent off the premium. It is not going to be a huge savings, and it is really going to leave you open in the event anything happens.

Also, in addition to the liability limits, you also want to make sure you have something called uninsured motorist coverage. Which essentially pays for injuries to your employees and their passengers in the event of an accident.

You want to make sure that you have full coverage on any vehicles that have any substantial value; $1,000 dollars is about average for most businesses in regards to your deductibles.

Lastly, you want to make sure that you have something called non-owned and hired auto insurance. Non-owned auto insurance will pay for your employee's cars, or any damage they do, while they are driving around on company business.

I'm Tim Gaspar with Gaspar insurance for Business.com making sure that you have the right business insurance coverage for the right price.

The following affect your commercial vehicle policy:
• Whether or not you have employees
• Vehicle signage
• Age, experience & driving records
• Whether the car is owned by the business/employee

Category:

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