Review your Commercial Auto & Marine Insurance

If you get into an accident, commercial auto insurance can pay for the damage to the other driver’s vehicle and cover their medical expenses. It can even help pay for medical expenses for your vehicle’s occupants, like your employees, if they’re hurt in a crash. 

Review your Commercial Auto & Marine Insurance 

Your policy can also pay to repair your vehicle if it’s damaged by:

  • Theft
  • Covered weather events
  • Vandalism
  • Collisions with objects
  • Uninsured drivers

But when it comes to the gear in your truck, you may not have as much protection as you think. Commercial auto insurance may cover the tools in your insured vehicle when:

  • They’re stolen
  • They’re damaged by covered weather events or vandalism

But here’s the big exclusion: Your commercial auto policy may not pay to replace or repair your tools when they’re damaged during an accident.

To illustrate that point, let’s say you’re on your way to a job site and get rear-ended. You aren’t injured, but your truck sustains some pretty heavy damage, and many of your tools are destroyed in the crash. Your commercial auto policy can help out with your truck, but it probably won’t cover the cost of repairing or replacing your tools and equipment.

For that protection, you may need a different policy: inland marine insurance.

How Inland Marine Insurance Protects Your Tools in Transit

Inland marine insurance is a type of commercial property insurance. Its origins date back to the 19th century when marine insurance covered goods shipped across the ocean or other waterways. Inland marine insurance evolved as a way to cover goods in transit on land.

Today, inland marine insurance “floats” with insured items, which allows it to cover property in situations other policies can’t address. It can cover moveable property, such as:

  • Property in transit, like the tools in your truck
  • Property in your temporary care, like tools or equipment that you lease
  • Mobile heavy equipment, like a forklift or bulldozer
  • Computers or other electronic equipment that travel with you to job sites

So let’s revisit that rear-end accident on your way to a job site. Your commercial auto policy can cover the vehicle’s damage, but for the tools, you’ll likely turn to your inland marine insurance to pay for repairs or replacements.

In short, having commercial auto and inland marine coverage is usually a reliable way to protect both your truck and your tools in transit.

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