What You Need to Know About
Commercial Auto Insurance in Northern Jersey
As a Northern Jersey landscaping contractor, your commercial auto policy is not only one of the key
policies in your insurance portfolio, it is one of, if not the most likely, to have to respond to a
claim. Many contractors think nothing of tossing the keys of the business's pickup and sending a
teenager or a part time worker off to the lumber yard or Home Depot for supplies.
In actuality, this is the same thing as tossing all the business's assets to the same kid or part
time worker in cold hard cash and sending him or her off down the highway.
The reality of the marketplace is this: landscaping contractors like you are target
defendants for lawsuits. Businesses are much more likely to be sued for a motor vehicle accident
than is an individual. The reason is simple - businesses, your business, is considered to
have "deeper pockets" than an individual will probably have.
Real Life Issues Commercial Auto Insurance Issues
That Can Destroy Your Northern Jersey Landscaping Contracting Business
The first issue is one that is much more prevalent with start-ups or small landscaping
contractors. That is, you keep your van or pickup truck in your own name on your personal auto
insurance policy. Since you are not incorporated and the price for commercial auto insurance is
more expensive than personal auto insurance - you figure - "Never had an accident - it won't happen
to me" and keep the extra dollars in your pocket. Better in your pocket than the insurance
company's...
Here is what you have actually done. You have handed your personal auto insurer a way to completely
deny any claim - big or small. Personal auto insurance has always been intended to drive back and
forth to work, to take the kids to soccer, to run errands. It was never meant to be a cheaper
alternative to a contractor's commercial auto policy.
So now, because these personal auto insurers have paid on claims like this without intending to,
they have tightened the loophole and made it that vans, pickups and panel trucks used in business
or carrying tools are excluded.
Excluded - no coverage at all. No lawyer to defend you. And because the vehicle is in your own
name - you and all of your assets have now been put at risk - your money, your home, your
retirement. This is a bad idea all around.
The second issue which comes up and presents claim's issues is the use of seasonal and casual labor
that you allow to drive your business's vehicles. Generally, these are fairly loose arrangements,
and when a claim comes in the insurance company knows nothing about these drivers and nothing about
their driving record. Insurance company underwriters and claims adjusters do not like surprises.
Now you are fighting with your insurance company when you could have easily avoided it.
Some Good News For Northern Jersey NJ Landscaping Contractors
Regarding Your Commercial Auto Insurance
As a Northern Jersey New Jersey landscaping contractor, the insurance company views you as a service business, which
to them means you are making less than 4 stops a day. Generally, your truck is parked while you are
at a job site, and then off to another job, etc. The good news is that, because of your limited use,
you will receive a policy credit or a reduction in your premium.
Also, you should know the rules as to what the insurance company is basing their premiums on so you
know the rules of the game going in.
Most insurance companies will look at:
-
Driver history
- Tickets and accidents the last 3 to 5 years
-
Radius of operation
- How far are you driving
-
Where the vehicles are garaged at night
- Doesn't much matter where you drive, but where the vehicle is parked overnight
-
Personal and corporate financial credit
- Both the business and the officer
-
Age of drivers, marital status
-
Do you have previous coverage?
- Is it active or cancelled? If cancelled how long ago?
-
Does your business have
General Liability Insurance?
With Same Company? You may get a significant credit for this.
Why you need a Northern Jersey
Landscaping Contractors Insurance Expert
The commercial auto policy's coverages are triggered by a series of numbers or what the
insurance industry calls "Symbols" on your Declarations Page. Many generalist agents do not
pay much or any attention to this information. That attitude can sink you. It's not that
they don't care - it is just that they are not dealing with contractors insurance policies
all day every day.
If your agent can't tell you in no nonsense definitive answers what symbols you, as
a landscaping contractor, should have - find another agent. These symbols both
provide and take away coverage. As a contractor if you place all of your assets with an
agent that can't clearly delineate how he is building out the coverage to protect you on the
line of insurance you are most likely to take a hit on, you are needlessly rolling the dice
with your future.
Our office insures contractors all day, every day. Providing real life solutions and money
saving options for landscaping contractors is what we do.
Northern Jersey Business Auto Insurance Estimate
Most contractors in this category have either a pickup truck, a van, or a small box truck
which they use in a local radius - less than 50 miles and make less than 4 stops per day.
Obviously, without knowing specifics like vehicle type, driving record, etc this quote is
a reasonable ballpark.
-
$1,000,000
Combined Liability & Property Damage
-
$1,000,000
Uninsured Motorist Coverage
-
$5,000
Medical Payments Coverage
-
$500
Deductible Comprehensive
-
$500
Deductible Collision
-
Annual Premium
$1,200 - $2,000
-
Down Payments
25% down, and payments monthly thereafter
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