Non-Owned and Hired Auto Liability Insurance

Non-Owned and Hired Auto Liability Insurance. Many business insurance policies often include a non-owned and hired auto liability insurance. It may be part of your general liability coverage or maybe included as part of your commercial auto insurance. But not many people fully understand what this insurance is, or even why they need one in the first place.

Carrying adequate non-owned and hired auto liability insurance to protect your business is smart and also a must if you want to make sure that you don't get put in a position where you have to pay money out of pocket to cover expenses associated with a loss.

Non-owned and hired auto liability insurance covers bodily injury and property damage caused by a vehicles you hire like rental cars, or caused by non-owned vehicles like an employee's car.

What Is Hired and Non-Owned Automobile Liability Coverage?

Non-Owned and Hired Auto Liability Insurance is an important type of insurance for businesses that occasionally use non-owned or hired vehicles in their operations. For example, a delivery company that occasionally rents vans to make deliveries, a construction company that hires equipment, or a sales representative who rents a vehicle for a business trip.

The policy covers the cost of third-party bodily injury or property damage claims as well as any legal fees incurred as a result of the accident. It also covers the cost of defending the insured against any wrongful death or personal injury claims.

It is important to note that Non-Owned and Hired Auto Liability Insurance is a liability policy only and does not cover any damages to the rented or borrowed vehicle or any injuries to the driver. In these cases, the rental company or the person who owns the vehicle will have their insurance policy cover these damages.

Overall, Non-Owned and Hired Auto Liability Insurance is a necessary coverage for any business that occasionally uses non-owned or hired vehicles in their operations. It helps to protect the business from financial losses in the event of an accident while the vehicle is being used for business purposes. So, it is highly recommended to have this type of insurance in case of any unwanted incident.

Although many insurance companies and agents refer to non-owned and hired auto liability insurance as a single term, in reality, there are two types of covers involved; liability resulting from the use of hired autos, and liability resulting from the use of non-owned autos being use for the benefit of your business. Even though they are usually included together, it’s importance to understand the distinction between the two and what each of them covers.

Hired Auto in this context is used to describe vehicles that are hired, rented or borrowed by the business. For instance, if you rent a vehicle to use on a business trip, that is hired auto. If you occasional rent a truck to move merchandise or materials, that is also hired auto.

Non-Owned Auto on the other hand, is not hired, rented or borrowed by the business, but it’s being used to benefit the business. For instance, if your employee uses their personal vehicle to make sales calls or run errands, you are exposed to non-owned auto liability.

What Does Non-Owned And Hired Auto Cover?

Whether you realize it or not, your business occasionally gets exposed to one or both the hired and non-owned auto liability. Rental and errand situations always pop up. Here are some few questions you should ask yourself when trying to determine whether or not you require this important coverage:

Do your employees use their own vehicles to go to the bank or post office on behave of the company?
Have you ever sent employees to pick office supplies or drop off mail using their personal vehicles?
Does your field team or sales force use their personal vehicles for business?
Do you occasionally sent your employees to pick up visitors from the airport using their personal vehicles?
Do you hire trucks to move materials or supplies?
Do you or your employees occasionally hire vehicles when going for a business trip?

If you or your employees have an accident under any of the above circumstances, your business may be held accountable and sued for damages. General business auto policies only cover employees while using company owned vehicles to carry out business operations. The best solution is to add a hired and non-owned automobile liability coverage to your general auto insurance policy or opt for a commercial auto insurance that has this option included in it.

The coverage will kick in during an accident where your company is found liable. Typically, your employee’s personal auto insurance cover will provide primary insurance if the employee is using their personal vehicles to conduct company business. However, chances are the damages will exceed the employee’s policy limit and would then be passed on to your company. If you don’t have hired and non-owned auto liability policy in place, your business will be vulnerable to potentially costly exposure.

Hired and non-owned auto liability coverage covers property damage and bodily injury caused by a vehicle you hire (including borrowed and rented) or non-owned auto (vehicles owned by others including partners and employees). As earlier mentioned this coverage can be purchased as a standalone or added to your existing business automobile policy or general business liability policy. Hired auto coverage augments or replaces the liability coverage offered by the auto rental agencies.

Does It Cover Legal Defense costs?

A great feature of this coverage is that if your company is sued, even the claim is frivolous and has no grounds - or you are not legally responsible; this policy still has you covered. Hired and non-owned auto liability coverage will typically pay for any cost incurred by the insurance company including attorney's fees, police reports and witness fees. Additionally, it will cover court costs and any other costs related to the legal suit.

Non-Owned And Hired Auto Liability Cost

Hired and non-owned auto liability coverage protects your business against serious damages and losses, and the best of all, it’s extremely affordable. If you have an existing business or commercial auto insurance policy you can simply add this on. If your business or commercial auto insurance doesn't have hired and non-owned auto liability coverage, you can buy this as a stand alone policy.

Non-Owned and Hired Auto Liability Insurance