Help with navigating Commercial Auto Insurance?

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Daniel Postilnik

Junior
Jan 14, 2011
304
1
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37
San Francisco, CA
Hi guys, I'm about to move from a midwestern state to an eastern state but my business (and the vehicle I've been using for it) will stay with the in the midwest for use by my business partner.

Obviously there are issues with having only personal auto insurance for a vehicle that is being used for commercial purposes, but that is sometimes a risk small providers have to take. But now that I will be titling the vehicle to my DBA, I need the insurance to follow the vehicle, not the owner.

So two questions:
1. Can someone recommend a particularly good provider of commercial auto insurance?
2. If my company is a sole proprietorship, and the only vehicle I had owned becomes titled to my DBA, what happens to my personal auto insurance policy? If I'm not driving any particular vehicle, how do they calculate my premium?

Thanks in advance.
 
Re: Help with navigating Commercial Auto Insurance?

Daniel,

I personally use Progressive for my commercial auto insurance. So far I have had good luck with them and it's relatively cheap for what I have.

My situation is, I have a motorhome that is used for touring and it is in the DBA name. We have 5 insured drivers who are able to operate the vehicle. In order for them to calculate the premium, we had to submit each drivers license number, etc. (Like any auto insurance, they do checks on driving records, etc.)

Each employee that I want to give access to drive the vehicle to, I have to call Progressive and add them to the vehicle as a driver. They adjust the rates as needed when I add people to take them off. I try not to add or take away insured drivers often.

As a side note, we have been in one accident with the vehicle and it was the other persons fault. We had no issues with the way Progressive handled it and all turned out to work out great for us.

For me, the experience was painless, and honestly the reason I went w/ progressive is they were the only company that was willing to put together a policy for what we have. As a part of the policy, the 5 insured drivers are also allowed to use the vehicle for personal use if they would choose.

I'm not sure if this answered any of your questions, but hopefully it's a start!

Karl
 
Re: Help with navigating Commercial Auto Insurance?

I use Erie. I'm a sole proprietor and some vehicles are titled to the business and some are not. It really makes no difference since I am a sole proprietor. Good rates and good service. Same deal with employees as Karl. One time I had an employee the company would not allow presumably for a bad driving record. Over the years there's been a few small accidents. Nothing major and nothing that seems to have affected my rates. On question 2, if you only have one vehicle, you would no longer have a personal policy.
 
Re: Help with navigating Commercial Auto Insurance?

Robert Patch said:
I use Erie. I'm a sole proprietor and some vehicles are titled to the business and some are not. It really makes no difference since I am a sole proprietor. Good rates and good service. Same deal with employees as Karl. One time I had an employee the company would not allow presumably for a bad driving record. Over the years there's been a few small accidents. Nothing major and nothing that seems to have affected my rates. On question 2, if you only have one vehicle, you would no longer have a personal policy.
Click to expand...

We use Erie here as well. Has been pretty painless, no incidents at all. Be sure to have them write the policy in a way that allows you to hire vehicles as well (Ryder, Penske, Paclease etc) so that you also save on those insurance rates. If you are using the national lease companies you will have to have your own policy typically.
 
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