insurance for commercial vehicles Archives

Sidelined: Loss-of-Use Coverage for Vehicles

We come to rely on our machines – so much so, that we take them for granted, and when they wear out, malfunction, or just plain quit, our reaction can be surprise, anger, or even despair.

Imagine having a vehicle – a truck or car – serving as your business’ sole lifeline to your enterprise. Making customer deliveries, transporting products as part of the manufacturing process, making sales calls. Everything depends on that vehicle working reliably and safely, every day. Then, suddenly, it’s out of service.

Whether for days, weeks, months, or permanently, the loss of that vehicle means loss of your income. That’s where loss-of-use coverage comes into play.

Loss-of-use coverage essentially provides reimbursement if a vehicle is out of commission while undergoing repairs after an incident. This coverage is not included in policies by default, such as liability coverage. A loss-of-use claim follows the original accident claim, meaning that your policy would pay for substitute transportation costs. Insurers usually set their own coverage limits by either capping the number of days or providing a per-diem amount for reimbursements.

The terms of a loss-of-use policy can be tricky. It’s one thing to recover the cost of renting a replacement vehicle. It’s another to recover lost income. If your vehicle is your lifeline to making a living, it’s worth checking into what a loss-of-use policy can do for your business.

The professionals at The Reschini Group can help. Contact them today.

The Reschini Group provides these updates for information only, and does not provide legal advice. To make decisions regarding insurance matters, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional or firm.

Source: https://www.thezebra.com/auto-insurance/insurance-guide/what-is-loss-of-use-coverage/

In the Driver’s Seat: Hired and Non-Owned Auto Coverage

By Mike Drew, The Reschini Group

“Hey, would you mind running these supplies over to the client across town?” asked the supervisor to the employee.

And with that simple question, a series of insurance-driven dominoes began to fall that, before it was all done, taught some valuable lessons in liability coverage and unexpected exposure.

The employee used his own personal car to make the delivery, but struck another car in an intersection on the way, resulting in multiple injuries to a third party. In the months to follow, ambulance bills, medical expenses, surgical costs, lost wages, and a variety of other financial considerations began to accumulate – but what determines who pays for them?

Well, that depends on whether the employer who made the initial request carried Hired and Non-Owned auto coverage. This subset of commercial auto insurance addresses just what it says – it protects an employer should another party come after it for recovery damages involving cases where an employee drives a vehicle not owned by the employer.

Many business people don’t understand the need for this specialized coverage, assuming that the employee’s personal auto insurance would cover damages. While it’s true that a driver’s personal auto coverage may be the first to be tapped, it may not be sufficient to cover the costs of injuries, ongoing medical treatment, pain and suffering, or a fatality.

If the person involved in an accident is driving the vehicle because of an employer, even if the employer does not own the vehicle, the employer will be pursued for damages beyond the employee’s personal auto coverage. Hired and Non-Owned coverage provides the protection needed in such situations.

Be sure about your coverage. The professionals at The Reschini Group are well versed in commercial auto insurance and how you can be adequately protected, based on your business’ specific situation. Contact us to learn more. Because, simply stated, the complex world of commercial auto insurance can’t be simply stated.

The Reschini Group provides these updates for information only. To make decisions regarding insurance matters, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional or firm.

Life is a Highway

Maintaining MC Number Compliance

By Mike Drew, The Reschini Group

Most heavy industry includes trucks and significant ground transportation, whether to bring raw materials to the production site, or to ship finished products to the marketplace. This holds true – perhaps even more so – in the oil and gas industry.

When deploying land-based vehicles – like trucks of all shapes, sizes, and configurations – across state lines, you can bet that regulations exist to make sure everything is done properly and safely. In this case, the key element is the motor carrier, or MC number, designated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as a U.S. Department of Transportation number. Sounds simple enough, right? Complete the proper form, register your vehicle, get an MC number for it, and you’re in business.

But not so fast, friend. Silver tanker shor from behind

The number of variables already inherent in interstate transportation – plus the nature of oil and gas industry-related materials, plus the potential for carrying material for another party, plus other parties carrying your company’s material, plus any state-specific regulations, and so many others – require the completion of numerous forms to achieve and maintain full compliance.

It can become a tangled, confusing, costly process. But here’s the stark, cold reality – the U.S. Department of Transportation can shut down an entire company that is not in full compliance. So taking the time and paying the cost to get it right, right from the start, quickly becomes a worthwhile investment.

And if all that weren’t enough, affected companies must also be careful to avoid “quick-fix” websites and individuals who promise speedy, cut-rate compliance tips. It’s not that simple, and you could open your organization up to significant lost revenue by proceeding without credible guidance.

The Reschini Group is your go-to source for the insurance-specific aspects of your transportation program, and we can help guide you to the best, most qualified experts regarding these additional compliance issues.

The Reschini Group provides these updates for information only. To make decisions regarding insurance matters, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional or firm.

Crying Over Spilled Milk

The Importance of Commercial Auto Coverage

By The Reschini Group

Milk. Nature’s perfect food, they told us. Pure and pasteurized, smooth and silky, nothing could be safer or more benevolent, right? Not necessarily.

Things change when accidents happen. Be sure your coverages are adequate.

Say a refrigerated tanker, transporting thousands of gallons of milk, loses control, tips over an embankment and ruptures, spilling that truckload of milk into a nearby stream. At that point, our old friend milk officially becomes a pollutant. It has gone somewhere it’s not supposed to be.

While that may sound like an extreme example, it is nonetheless absolutely accurate. Those same standards apply to trucks carrying materials not nearly as harmless as milk, too. In the oil and gas industry, for example, that could include any waste materials or supplies required for drilling, and scores of other liquids and solids hauled by ground transportation.

Should materials somehow enter waterways or seep into groundwater tables from accidents and spills, pollution coverage – officially tagged as an Auto Pollution Broadening Endorsement – must be in place for the company transporting those materials. The Auto Pollution Broadening Endorsement provides safeguards and the financial support to satisfy reclamation costs and other expenses resulting from such incidents.

And here’s the kicker – if a company does not have this coverage, all of those costs may have to be covered out of pocket, potentially making a very sizeable dent in bottom-line financial performance.

It’s a simple fix. Adding the Auto Pollution Broadening Endorsement now is a quick, low-cost way to avoid a lot of pain later. The Reschini Group can help take care of this right now, so contact us to learn more.

Then you can relax with a nice cold glass of milk.

The Reschini Group provides these updates for information only. To make decisions regarding insurance matters, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional or firm.