Insurance Info

With the convenience of the internet and insurance companies broadening their markets many tow truck business owners are finding themselves in a position of great exposure to their businesses. By working directly with insurance companies or have working with inexperienced brokers many of these business owners have purchased insurance policies that have failed to provide the protection needed for the tow truck operation.

All businesses are unique the towing industry is one of the most unique of them. These businesses have various exposures that many other businesses have such as taking custody of their client’s vehicles, towing the vehicles themselves, and having clients in their storage facilities viewing the stored vehicles. They need to have coverage for all of these exposures. The insurance industry and various insurance companies have adapted policies to provide these operations with all of the coverage that is needed to ensure that in the event of a loss these businesses are covered for all possible types of losses.

There are many coverage options available for towing operations such as on hook coverage, general liability, garage-keepers legal liability. These types of coverage are a must for full service towing operations that have vehicle storage. Continue reading ‘Towing Business’ Missing Coverage’ »

The commercial insurance industry in California is one of the fastest changing insurance industries in the United States. Insurance companies are continuously merging and acquiring other companies. Insurance companies are changing their target markets as these mergers and acquisitions take place. With the combination of these changes and other insurance companies broadening their guidelines in an attempt to grow their business the insurance rates available to the tow truck industry have been changing as well.

When an insurance company initially begins to accept new classes of business their rates are determined without a clear long history of the losses associated with the new businesses that they are insuring. Many of the insurance companies that are trying to broaden the types of businesses that they will insure have begun to write insurance policies with premiums that are very competitive. Frequently the premiums assigned are too low for the risks that are being insured. The insurance companies find themselves in a position that they are actually paying out more in claims than they are collecting in premium.

While these insurance companies are offering very low rates compared to their competition they get a large volume of business. Many of the tow truck business owners had recently changed their tow truck insurance policies so that they could receive the great rates as well. Continue reading ‘Rates Force Movement in Market’ »

Most of the insurance companies that offer coverage to towing operations offer the garage- keepers coverage on a legal liability form. Garage-keepers coverage is purchased to cover the non-owned vehicles that are in the care, custody, and control of the towing operations. This coverage will exclude vehicle that are being towed since there is additional coverage called on hook coverage available for that.

There are two types of garage-keepers coverage that are available. It can be purchased on a legal liability bases or direct primary. Almost all policies that are written are done as legal liability protections. What this means is that the vehicles will be covered in the event that the insured is negligent in some way making them legally liable for damage or theft of the non-owned vehicles.

A good example of insured negligence would be if the business owner or employee had left the lot for the day. If while leaving the storage lot they had forgotten to lock the gate behind them and somebody had damaged one of the vehicles that they were storing. This would be considered a neglect issue by the insured causing them to be legally liable for the damages that we caused to the vehicle owner. Continue reading ‘Garage Keepers Legal Liability’ »