Commercial car insurance??

[elessar78]

Was shopping around for car insurance today and because of the nature of my wife's job, they recommended we place her auto under a commercial policy. Not necessarily more expensive, so cost is not the issue. Just wondering if it's necessary.

My wife is a therapist and right now she does some in-home counseling. So most of her driving constitutes "business" and not "commuting". Plus from time to time she may need to transport her clients in her car. The clients sign liability release/waivers. Are the waivers enough to absolve us of any responsibility?

She is an employee of a company (not an LLC or an independent contractor).

[bjl584]

Her company would most likely assume liabilty if there was an incident. The waivers should be enough unless your wife would engage in some sort of reckless behavior. Show up to work drunk or drive extremely aggressively or something like that.

[wincrasher]

Waivers are a nice ploy to try and make people think they can't sue.

But they don't mean diddly squat in court. You can't waive rights you are entitled to by state and federal law.

In the case of an accident, everybody will get sued. Your wife, her company, the other parties in an accident.

Get the insurance. If you had an accident while conducting business your personal auto insurance company will nullify the policy and not pay.

[disneysteve]

Get the insurance. If you had an accident while conducting business your personal auto insurance company will nullify the policy and not pay.

I agree with this. If the car is being used as a business vehicle, it should be insured as a business vehicle.

I wonder if an umbrella liability policy might be in order here.

[Snippa]

Waivers are a nice ploy to try and make people think they can't sue.

But they don't mean diddly squat in court. You can't waive rights you are entitled to by state and federal law.

In the case of an accident, everybody will get sued. Your wife, her company, the other parties in an accident.

Get the insurance. If you had an accident while conducting business your personal auto insurance company will nullify the policy and not pay.

That's a scary thought! My husband uses his van for his business but we don't have commercial insurance. We need to check into that. Thanks for pointing this out!

Dee

[wincrasher]

Years ago they did a study of vehicle accidents in Florida. The average accident was $25,000. The average for business vehicles was over $1 million.

Your liability skyrockets if you are hauling passengers. But people see dollar signs if you have a company sign emblazoned on the side of a truck or van.

[elessar78]

thanks we'll definitely look into this now. Although, my wife has a job interview today so it might become a moot point soon.

[johnins2009]

You don't have to insure your personal vehicle under a commercial/business insurance policy. The company she works for should be able to cover that. If they don't have it in their policy to cover her, if she gets into an accident, there will be big lawsuits against that company. Established companies will have enough coverage. I've heard of companies that went belly up due to not having adequate insurance coverage. Your wife can ask if the company has insurance to cover this. Good luck.