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Controlling Your Commercial Automobile Insurance Costs and Exposures

WOW!  We just read a report that says that 60% of company vehicles accidents occur on personal time.  That's a huge percentage and is affecting the premiums everyone is paying for commercial auto insurance.  What can you do to reduce this exposure and hopefully your insurance premium?  First of all, you can restrict the personal use of your vehicles by your employees.  Yes, they can drive it to/from work, or from home to a jobsite, but other than that, it should be parked!  If not, you are exposing your company to losses that you have no way of controlling.  We all want to believe the best of our employees, but realistically, we just don't know what they are doing on their own time. Another option is a Vehicle Reimbursement Program.  This is a program that reimburses employees for their business use of their personal vehicle; and this leaves the employee's insurance as the primary coverage in the event of a loss.  This may not be possible for contractors with employees with pickup trucks, so have your employee talk to their insurance agent to see if their insurance company offers that type of coverage on their personal auto insurance.   Do you have a risk management program in place?  If you do, it should include a program to verify an employee’s driving record and insurance coverage if they use their vehicle while working for you.  Does it include rules about using a cell phone while driving? If you don't have a risk management program in place, start there!  Most commercial insurance carriers can offer sample risk management programs that you can implement. And it costs you $0!