Coverage for the vehicles a business actually runs — pickups and vans on service calls, cars driven by sales staff, delivery vehicles, box trucks and multi-vehicle fleets. Placed across markets by an independent Rochester Hills agency that reads the driver list and the radius before it markets the account.
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A business auto policy is assembled from parts that are chosen per vehicle, not applied to the whole fleet automatically. These are the ones that decide how a claim actually resolves.
Bodily injury and property damage the business becomes legally responsible for in an at-fault accident, usually written at a combined single limit. Which vehicles the liability applies to is governed by the covered-auto symbols on the declarations — a detail worth reading, because it is where owned, hired and non-owned vehicles are either included or left out.
Comprehensive and collision on the vehicles themselves. Older units are often written on actual cash value while newer or specialised ones may warrant stated amount, and deductibles can be set per vehicle rather than fleet-wide — useful when a schedule mixes a new truck with several older ones.
Answers the gap created when staff drive their own cars on company errands or the business rents a vehicle. A personal auto policy is unlikely to respond to a loss arising out of business use, and the exposure exists even for a company that owns no vehicles at all — which is why it is worth rating rather than assuming.
Responds when the at-fault driver has no coverage or not enough of it. Michigan's no-fault system also makes the selections on a commercial auto policy — including personal injury protection choices where they apply to the vehicles scheduled — worth reviewing deliberately rather than carrying forward from a prior policy.
Several vehicles on one schedule with one renewal date, rather than separate policies acquired as the business grew. Consolidating usually improves how the account is rated and makes adding or deleting a unit mid-term a straightforward endorsement instead of a new placement.
Additional limit above the auto liability, and often the reason a contract or lease can be satisfied. An umbrella sits over specified underlying policies at stated minimum limits, so the auto limit and the umbrella have to be set together — a gap between them is a common finding when the two were bought separately.
Two businesses with the same number of vehicles can price very differently. On commercial auto the underwriting conversation is mostly about who drives, how far, and what the vehicles are doing.
Motor vehicle records are ordered on the listed drivers, and the mix matters more than any single record: age, years licensed, and the pattern of violations and at-fault accidents across the roster. Carriers frequently ask what the business's own hiring criteria are and how often MVRs are re-pulled — having a written standard is itself a favourable signal.
A sedan, a cargo van, a one-ton pickup with a plow and a straight truck are rated differently, and gross vehicle weight can move a unit into a different class entirely. Specialised bodies, lifts and permanently attached equipment should be disclosed and valued, since they affect both the physical damage limit and the liability rating.
How far from the garaging location the vehicles normally run. A local service radius reads very differently from vehicles regularly crossing the state, and the radius stated at binding should reflect actual operations — a schedule rated local but running long trips is a problem that tends to surface at audit or at claim.
Service calls, jobsite travel, sales visits and delivery all present different exposure, and delivery in particular — whether of food, parts or product — is rated on its own terms. Any use not disclosed is a use not rated, so seasonal work and occasional towing are worth stating up front.
Where each vehicle is kept overnight, by address, since territory rating follows the garaging location rather than the business's mailing address. Vehicles taken home by employees are garaged at those homes, which is a common discrepancy on schedules that were never updated as staff changed.
Currently valued loss runs, usually three to five years. Underwriters read frequency as a management signal even when individual losses are small, so a run of minor backing and parking-lot claims can affect terms more than one larger accident — and what changed afterwards is worth documenting alongside the runs.
Not every carrier asks for every item, but a commercial auto submission moves faster when this is assembled up front.
Direct answers to what Michigan business owners ask before moving a fleet.
A commercial auto policy generally covers liability for injury and property damage caused in an at-fault accident, plus physical damage to the business's own vehicles where comprehensive and collision are purchased. Michigan's no-fault system also makes personal injury protection selections part of the conversation for vehicles scheduled on the policy. What responds in any given claim depends on the covered-auto symbols and the policy terms, conditions, limits and exclusions as written.
Generally once a vehicle is titled to the business, or once a personal vehicle is used regularly enough for business that a personal policy is unlikely to answer a claim. Ownership is the clearest trigger, but use matters too: a personally owned truck driven daily to jobsites with equipment and signage is a business exposure regardless of whose name is on the title. Personal auto forms commonly restrict or exclude business use, so the safer approach is to describe how the vehicle is actually used and let the form follow.
Yes, provided they are disclosed and acceptable to the carrier. Drivers are normally listed and their motor vehicle records reviewed, and some carriers apply eligibility criteria around age, years licensed and violation history. An undisclosed driver is not automatically excluded, but an accident involving one is a harder claim than it needed to be — keeping the driver list current is the low-effort protection.
It extends the business's liability coverage to vehicles it does not own — rented or hired vehicles, and employees' personal cars used for company errands. It protects the business, not the employee's own vehicle, and it does not replace the employee's personal policy. Because it costs relatively little and applies even to businesses that own no vehicles, it is one of the more common gaps found when reviewing an existing program.
Yes. Vehicles are listed on a schedule with their own values and deductibles under a single policy, which gives one renewal date and lets units be added or removed by endorsement mid-term. Each vehicle is still rated individually on type, use, radius and garaging, so consolidating a fleet simplifies administration without flattening what each unit contributes to the premium.
At minimum: a vehicle schedule with VINs and values, a driver list with dates of birth and licence numbers, the garaging address for each unit, how the vehicles are used, the normal operating radius, current limits, and currently valued loss runs. Contract requirements and any DOT number should be included if they apply. With those in hand most accounts can be marketed to several carriers at once rather than one at a time.
Titanium Shield Insurance Agency is an independent commercial agency in Rochester Hills. We review vehicle schedules, driver rosters and radius against what the business actually does, and place auto and excess coverage across carriers rather than through one company.