Car Insurance Business

Technically, this has nothing to do with your business. However, if you are using your car for business purposes, you will need to insure that you have this coverage. In order to properly ensure your vehicle, if it is used for business - either transportation of product and supplies or for you to visit clients - you have to upgrade your car insurance.

Most insurance companies will distinguish between three types of primary usage of a vehicle:

• "Commuting" means you mainly use your vehicle to drive to and from school or work.
• "Pleasure" means you typically drive your vehicle for fun with no regular commuting or business use.
• "Business/commercial" means you mainly use your vehicle for business purposes such as, sales, service and delivery calls or other work-related driving.

Most of us will not need business/commercial coverage, because we only use our vehicles for driving to work. The commuting level of coverage will be sufficient. The Business use designation is really for the person who is making intensive use of their vehicle for business purposes.

Be aware that insurers do vary in how they define these levels of coverage. Some insurers will actually include commuting with your vehicle under business use. Some insurers will also take into account your yearly mileage when they quote you a premium. It pays to have an idea of your yearly mileage and the distance to and from work, if you want to get the right coverage for your vehicle usage.

In most cases, business use will mean a higher premium. Why? You are driving the car more, in the vast majority of cases. This raises the risk to the insurer, and correspondingly, raises your premium.

So, why would you bother getting this insurance? The biggest reason is that you want to be covered in case of an accident. If the insurance company determines that you had an accident while the vehicle was being used for business, they can deny your claim. It's really that simple.

In some cases, particularly if the business owns the car or vehicle (as opposed to the individual driver owning the vehicle) there may be discounts available to the business through fleet insurance or multi-policy discounts. Also, keep in mind that if the car is owned by the business, the business must insure it. It is not a personal responsibility in this case. However, if you own the vehicle and you use it for business, then it will be your responsibility to properly insure it through your personal insurance policy.