As a business owner, you need the same kinds of insurance coverages for the car you use in your business as you do for a car used for personal travel — liability, collision and comprehensive, medical payments (known as personal injury protection in some states) and coverage for uninsured motorists.

Whether you need to buy a business auto insurance policy will depend on the kind of driving you do. A good insurance agent will ask you many details about how you use vehicles in your business, who will be driving them and whether employees, if you have them, are likely to be driving their own cars for your business.

A commercial auto insurance policy is required under most circumstances when the vehicle is used for business purposes and meets certain other requirements. It is not just the registration that determines the requirement for a business automobile insurance policy.

Car insurance is mandated for good reason – if you get into an accident, you and the other driver involved will be thankful you have coverage. If you are a business owner whose company has a fleet of vehicles, the same auto insurance needs still apply. Even if your employees use company cars for both business and personal use, it would be good to look into purchasing a commercial vehicle policy for your business. If the business is the owner of the vehicle, make sure the name of the business appears on the policy as the “principal insured” rather than your name.

Our agents will sit down with you and explain your business’s vehicle insurance options. You will be asked about how your employees use their vehicles, which employees drive company cars, and if some employees will be using their own cars for company work and travel.

At Professional Insurance Services, we have several markets to cover your commercial vehicles. We can secure coverage for owner operators as well as fleets. Insurance is one of the largest expenses you face today. It is one area that all individuals and companies need to revisit at least annually to make sure their needs are being met. There are various factors that impact insurance costs, such as driving records, age of the driver, age of equipment, commodities hauled, radius, vehicle location, loss history, years in business and the list goes on.

While the major coverages are the same, a business auto policy differs from a personal auto policy in many technical respects. At Professional Insurance Services we will explain all the differences and options.