California Commercial Auto Insurance: Map Every Vehicle and Use

Put each auto in the correct ownership bucket

• Owned-auto candidates — List every vehicle the business titles or leases, with VIN, registered owner, lease term, garaging, value, weight, body type, equipment, permits, lender, and acquisition date. Ask which covered-auto category and symbol apply; do not infer treatment from registration alone.
• Hired-auto candidates — Identify rentals, leases, and borrowed vehicles used for work. Treatment can depend on lease term, ownership relationship, and the issued definitions; an employee-, partner-, member-, or household-owned auto may fall elsewhere. Review liability, physical damage, territory, driver, deductible, and contractual charges separately.
• Non-owned-auto candidates — Identify employees, owners, volunteers, or contractors who use personal vehicles for errands, visits, deliveries, or other work. Ask the insurer to classify each arrangement. Non-owned liability can protect the business for specified liability; it does not replace the owner's auto insurance or automatically cover damage to that vehicle.

Describe drivers and use without shortcuts

• Drivers — List all regular and potential operators, license class and endorsements, experience, violations, accidents, training, supervision, and permission rules. Explain household or personal use of company vehicles.
• Operations — State radius, annual mileage, destinations, overnight garaging, job sites, interstate travel, and whether use involves service, sales, delivery, hauling, towing, transporting people, livery, or mobile equipment.
• Loads and equipment — Describe cargo, tools, customer property, hazardous materials, trailers, racks, refrigeration, lifts, or other installed equipment. Auto physical damage may not insure property carried inside; schedule the related property coverage separately.
• Changes — Create a process for new vehicles, substitute or temporary vehicles, employee rentals, newly hired drivers, revoked licenses, changed routes, and sold autos. Automatic or temporary coverage depends on the form and notice conditions.

Read covered-auto symbols and coverages together

• Liability — Confirm which autos and insureds qualify, covered-auto symbols, limit, defense, territory, exclusions, loading and unloading, and contract requirements. Do not infer any-auto coverage from a policy's title.
• Physical damage — Compare collision and specified-causes or comprehensive coverage, valuation, deductibles, towing, glass, rental reimbursement, total-loss handling, and lender terms for each vehicle. Liability alone does not repair the insured auto.
• Other protections — Review uninsured or underinsured motorist, medical payments, hired-auto physical damage, employee-as-lessor, drive-other-car, pollution, cargo, and trailer needs. Availability, definitions, selections, and limits vary.
• Excess limits — An umbrella or excess form may require scheduled underlying policies, particular limits, and matching covered autos. A client contract cannot expand either the auto or excess policy by itself.

Resolve the personal-policy boundary in writing