Commercial Insurance for Personal Vehicles Used for Business Purposes

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There have been many instances where a business owner was caught off-guard by the fact that there is a need to have commercial insurance for all vehicles used by a company or its employees for any business purposes. The problems come up when a business owner does not understand that the courts have interpreted “any business purpose” to have a very wide meaning. Your agent at Saucon Insurance Agency, serving Bethlehem, PA and the nearby communities, will conduct a thorough commercial insurance review to make sure your commercial vehicle insurance is adequate.

Here are some surprising examples of some vehicle use that courts considered a “business purpose”:

  • The boss lends his car to an employee to drive to the pizza store to pick up lunch ordered by the boss for the employees. The employee has an accident on the trip. Even though the personal car of the boss is involved in the accident, it was being used for a business purpose.
  • A company rewards employees who volunteer to use their personal vehicles to carpool other employees to work. The payment of a reward changes the use of the vehicle from personal use to business purpose.
  • A tractor is stolen and driven on the highway causing an accident. Even though the tractor use was not authorized, this was still within the wide definition of the business purpose of the tractor.
  • A salesperson drives a company car to go to meetings with clients and then gets in an accident while driving the company car to a vacation spot. Again, even an unauthorized use of the company vehicle is still is considered a business purpose.
  • The boss parks his brand new high-priced sports car in front of the company’s main retail store to attract attention. It attracts so much attention that this causes an accident. Even though this is a personal car, using it in this way is a business purpose.

Talk with your attorney as needed and then talk with your agent at Saucon Insurance Agency in Bethlehem, PA to make sure all vehicles used for any business purposes have commercial insurance coverage.