For many small businesses, delivery vehicles play a big role in their success. So do the drivers who drive them.
With so many things being delivered these days, deliveries aren’t limited to just pizzas and flowers.
If your small business has vehicles for your staff to use, even for things other than deliveries like sales calls or company errands, you can do a few things to keep insurance costs down.
Insurance and Your Fleet of Vehicles
If your employees are driving your vehicles, you and they both need proper insurance. If an employee is involved in an accident in one of your vehicles and is found to be at fault, you’ll probably be liable. It’s imperative that they are insured.
You may want to think about commercial insurance as opposed to personal insurance. Premiums may cost a little more, but coverage is greater and you’ll have more protection should something happen.
Difference in Personal and Commercial Insurance
Besides the fact that commercial insurance is more expensive, if your company name is on the title of the vehicle, you have to have commercial insurance.
If you have a few employees driving a car, you may want commercial insurance as well. Commercial insurance will also cover an employee who is in their own car but is driving for the company.
An example is going to the bank to make a company deposit in their car.
As the article, “Will your auto insurance go up?” looks at, if one of your drivers has an accident or a traffic violation, yes, your insurance can go up.
You may want to consider keeping this employee on or not. If part of the job descriptions includes driving on a regular basis, make sure that your employees are safe, capable, good drivers with clean driving records. You want your insurance to stay as low as possible.
What Can You Do?
Before you hire anyone, check their driving record.
If you see multiple violations or accidents, you may want to think twice before hiring them. Just as you want a capable person doing any other work, you want a competent driver working for you.
If you have an employee who started out with a clean driving record, but seems to be getting some violations or is becoming risky, you may need to let them go or change their responsibilities.
An unsafe driver not only puts your company at risk, but also the lives of those on the road.
Deciding on what insurance to have covering your employees and vehicles can be a little tricky. Don’t ignore it, though.
Insurance and safe drivers are too important to neglect, so do what you need to do to have the safest options you can afford.
About the Author: Heather Legg is an independent writer who covers topics related to small business, social media and working from home.