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Business auto usage is not covered under your auto insurance

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Running a small business costs a lot of money. There are many expenses that you have to pay. Many people see businesses and they do not consider all the costs. They only consider the costs of things they can see such as the building you run it in, the products you sell (you had to get them from somewhere), etc. But there are many more costs than just the things that are visible to the eye.

Once such thing that is not visible to the eye but does cost money is insurance. Businesses have to be covered by insurance so that they can be protected against potential lawsuit. They have to have insurance to protect them against possible damage to their business. They also have to have insurance for any business cars that they drive. If they were to get in an accident while delivering products to customers, they have to have business auto insurance to cover them in that accident. Personal auto is not enough!


Do not put business cars under your personal auto insurance plan. Some people do it and get away with it. They say that it is a personally owned car; therefore they can have it insured under their personal auto insurance plan. It is illegal to put cars used for commercial use, under your personal auto insurance plan, and why risk it?

Yes, you may get away with it, but you would only get away with it until you were in an accident and it was found out that the vehicle you were driving was being used for business purposes. So even though you may say, "Business auto usage is covered under my auto insurance plan," the truth is that it will only be covered until someone finds out that you are using the car for commercial use. So wise up and get the right coverage.

Say that you have a very successful small business running. You are doing very well, you have a lot of customers, everything is just going splendidly. You are also happy because you are not paying extra insurance for your business vehicles. You have them covered under your personal auto insurance plan because they are your personal vehicles. You drive your kids to school in them, and you deliver products in them. Everything is just fine and dandy.

Then one day you have your delivery guy delivering a truckload of wood planks to a nearby customer. He gets half way there and is involved in a terrible accident. It was not technically his fault because someone who was not watching traffic slow down had rear-ended him. The trouble is that when the other guy rear-ended him, it was a very powerful impact. The impact was so powerful that it sent your delivery guy spinning across the freeway with wood planks showering down around him. The wood planks he was supposed to be delivering were now spread all across the freeway and more than one of them had hit other cars, making the accident much bigger than it otherwise would have been; damaging many more cars that otherwise would not have been involved.

The accident was not your fault so you do not want to pay for it. It was the other guy who rear-ended your delivery driver and caused the whole thing. That sounds logical, and the insurance company will be on your side until they look at the kind of coverage you have and realize that your vehicle was being used for business purposes, and is insured for personal use. Suddenly you have very expensive repairs, and no coverage. Not only are you in big trouble, and the insurance company will likely deny your claims, but because you neglected to get business auto insurance the huge cost of repairs and possible lawsuits, as well as the legal ramifications could be very damaging for your.

It is true that your company may not be a company that delivers big things such as wood planks. Maybe you only deliver small things, and you only deliver a few at a time. Or maybe you do not deliver products at all, but still use your vehicle as a business car, for transporting, etc. This still will not protect you if you are involved in an accident and it is found out that you were on business during the time of the accident. Personal auto insurance does not cover business. It is better just to protect yourself and your company and pay the extra insurance for insuring your business vehicle.

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