Commercial business insurance is not a commodity, but many businesses purchase it as if it were by using a quoting process. It may seem counter-intuitive, but when price drives the commercial insurance decision, it typically ends up costing the business more than it should. Instead of price, risk and minimizing it should drive commercial insurance purchase decisions.
Odds are you have used such ride-sharing apps like Uber, Lyft, or Sidecar on a vacation, business trip, or getting to or from a sporting event, but did you ever think of the insurance implications? Ride-sharing businesses are different than taxi or livery businesses and not subject to the same insurance regulations (yet). A ride-sharing company connects passengers to drivers via a smart phone app usually on short notice but they can be arranged in advance. While you might expect that your personal auto policy is not designed to cover a side business as an Uber driver, you might not have thought about your employees and their use of your vehicle for the same.
Learning that an employee was involved in an accident on company time is alarming. Even more troubling is when you find out the at-fault driver doesn’t have coverage or is underinsured. While most states require drivers to maintain auto insurance, according to recent study by the Insurance Research Council (IRC), one in eight motorists remain uninsured. Uninsured motorist (UM) and underinsured motorist (UIM) are coverage options added to your commercial auto policy for transferring risk in such unfortunate circumstances.
When choosing insurance for your business, and an agent to represent you to the insurer, most businesses have a checklist of major things they look for in this critical relationship: industry expertise, community presence, and national resources. A business needing commercial insurance will of course want to check all of these boxes when getting insurance coverage. Most businesses, however, feel they have to make tradeoffs and end up with just one or perhaps two of these relationship attributes.
