There is a sudden increase in use of cars owned by business to enable their employees to conduct business effectively, such cars which are owned by a company and used for business purposes are business cars. In many cases employees use their own vehicles for business purposes too. It also includes cars which are rented and leased for business purposes. As business vehicles are not covered by an individual auto policy or business owner's insurance policy one has to take business car insurance to cover it. So basically there are two category of cars which fall under business car insurance:
- Owned by employees but used for business purpose: In this case, the frequency of using business car decides the type of insurance required to be taken. Occasional car users need not take this insurance unless it forms the part of their income. For frequent car users who drive for both private as well as business purposes should take normal and business car insurance.
- Companies providing cars to employees for business : As far a company which provides business cars to its employees it is a good decision to take a business car insurance irrespective of any other factor.
As most of the firms anyways take insurance for their cars, the focus of the article is on individual cars owners who use their cars for business purposes.
What Do You Need For Taking Business Car Insurance?
For an employee seeking business car insurance, the car owner should have –
- Comprehensive car insurance with no claim discount for five years
- Policy holder’s and all other drivers’ age should be 21 or above
- No guaranteed claim discount for open driving policy holders
- No “at fault” claims for last 3 years
- Minimum surplus of $400 on the normal car insurance policy
Benefits of Business Car Insurance
Most of the business car owners avoid this insurance because they do not fully understand its importance. First of all, coverage is for vehicle; so driver details will not be required if car gets damaged. There is no consideration for the timing of accidents also. There are certain major benefits of this insurance and they are:-
- Up to 70% discount for policy holder’s spouse or partner
- There is 40% discount if one decides to take own car insurance along with the business car insurance
- There is 20% discount for offline applications
Business car insurance is beneficial in various other cases where car owners need to get their cars repaired and replaced. Moreover, any sort of injury or property damage to the third party is also insured under the policy guidelines of this insurance. This insurance can prove to be a money-saving decision for the business car owners because this insurance can be purchased along with other common types of insurance like homeowner’s insurance and normal car insurance. Insurance companies can offer discounts based upon the advanced and maintained safety features in the car such as anti-theft gadgets, car alarms, steering wheel locking devices, consistent well-secured parking and automatic seat belts.
Types of Business Car Insurance
There is no particular difference between commercial and regular car insurance except former covers business cars while latter covers regular cars. There are various kinds of business car insurance which are as follows:-
Accident Profits Coverage
Accidents profits coverage is activated when insurance holder needs reimbursement against accidents while driving the car for business purposes:-
- Medical treatment
- Therapy
- Income loss due to death
- Income loss due to disability
- Funeral costs
Conciliator Profits Coverage
This type of insurance provides coverage if driver causes injury or property damage to the third party. If driver gets arrested or damages more than the coverage amount, then insurance holder needs to pay for the remaining amount.
Family Fortification Coverage
Under this policy, all the drivers in the family of the insurance holders are covered against the accidents.
Direct Property Damage Reimbursement
If car driver comes across an accident where one is not guilty, then insurance company offers reimbursement against the vehicle and other content damage.
Unidentified, Underinsured and Uninsured Motorist Coverage
This policy provides the reimbursement of the car damage if policy holder gets injured or killed while driving by an unidentified, underinsured and uninsured driver.
Major Business Car Insurance Companies
There are various car insurance companies which have understood the value of this insurance and they come up with various user-friendly policies. These companies are:-
GEICO (Government Employees Insurance Company)
Currently, GEICO is serving over 11 million car insurance holders and it has already managed to insure over 17 million vehicles. GEICO became a fully owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway and it has AA+, Aa1 and A++ ratings from Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s and A.M. Best respectively.
GEICO provides business car insurance covering the personal auto policy of the insurance holder along with other coverage aspects like:-
- Physical injury liability cover
- Combined single limit
- Property damage liability cover
- Uninsured motorist cover
- Medical payments, personal injury and no-fault cover
- Collision cover
- Comprehensive bodily damage cover
State Farm
State Farm is operating in the insurance market since 1922. They understand that various cars used for business purposes stumble upon accidents and financial coverage can definitely come up as a matter of relief for victims. Their coverage aspects include liability, comprehensive coverage, medical coverage and collision coverage.
The Allstate Corporation
Founded and established in 1931 at Illinois, The Allstate Corporation has over 70,000 employees in their organization. Their financial strength weighs up to $125.6 billion and they were ranked 93rd in the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest companies. they provide following business car insurances:-
- Bodily injury liability coverage
- Drive other car coverage
- Non-owned auto insurance
- Hired auto coverage
- Additional insured coverage
- Medical payments coverage
- Collision coverage
- Comprehensive coverage
- Rental reimbursement coverage
- Uninsured motorist physical injury cover
- Uninsured motorist property damage cover
- Data electronic equipment and audio visual coverage
- Loading and unloading coverage