Commercial Auto Insurance

Tell us about your vehicles, drivers, and how they are used. We review your exposures and limits with you, explain where personal policies fall short, and help you put the right commercial or fleet program in place. We stay with you as your fleet changes, and we advocate for you after an accident.

Which vehicles does a commercial auto policy actually cover?

Only the ones the declarations page says it covers. A commercial auto policy does not insure your vehicles as a category. It insures classes of vehicle, selected separately for each coverage, using numbered symbols printed beside that coverage on the declarations. If the symbol is wrong, a vehicle you believed was insured is not. Before anything else on this page, read the symbol next to each line of coverage on your own declarations. That is the real answer to what is covered, and the vehicle schedule is secondary to it.

What do the covered auto symbols 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9 mean?

They say which vehicles a given coverage applies to. Symbol 1 is any auto, and it is used for liability rather than physical damage. Symbol 2 is all owned autos, and it picks up vehicles you acquire during the term automatically. Symbol 7 covers only the autos listed on the schedule, with no automatic cover for a vehicle bought mid-term. Symbol 8 is autos you lease, hire, rent or borrow. Symbol 9 is non-owned autos, and it applies to liability only. The symbols are assigned per coverage, not per policy. A policy can carry a broad symbol beside liability and symbol 7 beside collision, and that mismatch is where owners are most often caught out. One further distinction: physical damage covers the vehicle, not what is inside it. Freight and goods in transit need their own coverage.

Does hired and non-owned auto pay to repair the truck you rented?

No. Hired and non-owned auto is third-party liability cover. It responds when someone else is injured, or their property is damaged, by a vehicle you rented or by an employee's own car on your business. Damage to the rented vehicle itself needs hired auto physical damage shown on the declarations. Damage to an employee's own car is not covered at all. There is a further gap worth naming. Where an employee rents a vehicle in their own name for your business, physical damage does not reach it automatically, and an endorsement is needed. If your staff rent vehicles on business trips, check that before the next trip rather than after a claim.

What happens when an employee drives their own car for your business?

Their own policy is looked to first, and your exposure does not disappear. California draws the line between personal and commercial auto in Insurance Code section 660, which describes the private passenger vehicle a personal policy is written to cover. A personal policy is written for private passenger use and can exclude or limit business use, so what it does in any particular claim depends on that form. Separately, Labor Code section 2802 requires an employer to indemnify an employee for losses incurred in the discharge of their duties. Non-owned auto liability is what stands behind the business when an employee's own vehicle is in the claim.

What are California's minimum auto liability limits, and why are they not working limits?

Since 1 January 2025 the minimums are $30,000 for injury or death to one person, $60,000 where more than one person is hurt, and $15,000 for property damage. They were set by SB 1107 and are published on the DMV's financial responsibility page, which also allows a $75,000 cash deposit or surety bond instead. These are the floor for registration, not a limit that reflects commercial exposure. A single injury claim can exhaust $30,000. The DMV states directly that these requirements do not include additional insurance that a federal, state or local agency may require of commercial or fleet vehicles. Contracts, lenders and lessors routinely ask for a great deal more, and the limit has to be on the declarations before it can respond.

Does your business need a California Motor Carrier Permit?

If you are paid to transport property in your vehicle, yes. The DMV requires a Motor Carrier Permit regardless of the vehicle's size, type or weight, so a paid courier in a cargo van is in scope. It is also required for vehicles rated at 10,001 pounds or more, hazardous materials transport, truck and trailer combinations over 40 feet, and vehicles needing a commercial driver license. A CA number from the California Highway Patrol comes first. Vehicle Code section 34630 provides that no permit issues until proof of financial responsibility is filed, and that coverage must then be maintained or the permit suspends. Section 34631.5 sets a combined single limit of $750,000, falling to $300,000 for a carrier operating only vehicles rated at 10,000 pounds or less, with higher figures for petroleum and hazardous materials. If you hire carriers rather than drive, section 34620 bars engaging one without a valid permit and requires you to verify it and keep the documentation.

When do federal rules and a USDOT number apply instead?

They apply in addition, not instead. The California permit is the intrastate track, and federal rules attach when the operation is interstate. Title 49 CFR 390.5T defines that to include a trip inside one state where the journey originates or terminates outside it. The federal thresholds are a rating of 10,001 pounds or more, carrying more than eight passengers for compensation, or placardable quantities of hazardous materials. Section 387.9 sets $750,000 for for-hire non-hazardous property, $1,000,000 for oil and listed hazardous materials, and $5,000,000 for bulk hazardous substances. A carrier can need the state permit and federal registration at the same time, and neither substitutes for the other.

Can your business be liable for an employee's commute?

Usually not, and two exceptions matter. California's going and coming rule treats the ordinary drive to and from work as outside the scope of employment. The first exception applies where the employer requires the employee to bring a vehicle so that it is available for the business, and that requirement can be implied rather than written. The second applies where use of the employee's vehicle gives the employer a direct or incidental benefit, and the employer relied on the vehicle being available. Whether either applies is decided on the facts of the case, not settled in advance by a policy. Treat it as an exposure to insure rather than an outcome to predict.

Ready to look at it? Start a business insurance quote and send your current declarations page, because the symbols on it answer most of these questions in about a minute. Tell us each vehicle, its gross vehicle weight rating and what it is used for. Tell us whether anyone is paid to carry property, whether employees drive their own cars or rent vehicles on business, and whether any trip crosses a state line. If a contract sets your limits, send the insurance requirements page with it. Some accounts we can write directly and quickly. Others go to underwriting for approval, or need a wholesale market, and those take longer. Either way you know before you decide.

Statutory references current as of September 2026 and specific to California, including the minimum limits that took effect on 1 January 2025. Permit thresholds and federal financial responsibility figures are those published by the DMV and in title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Coverage descriptions are general; the policy form controls.