Your vehicles are important to your business. They deliver products to your customers and move your goods and service providers from one location to the next. However, each time you or an employee gets behind the wheel of a car, there is no way to know exactly what will happen. Bad road conditions, careless drivers or inclement weather can turn what would otherwise be a pleasant journey into a very dangerous ride.

Along with the possibility of suffering the loss of the vehicles themselves, unexpected driving incidents can leave you, your staff and others seriously injured and can cause unspeakable financial damage as a result of legal claims.

If you or an employee were to be involved in a catastrophic accident today, would you be able to recover from the aftermath? Are you uncertain about whether you truly need commercial auto insurance at all? Want to know more about how a commercial vehicle insurance policy can protect you and your business?

What follows is an overview of the benefits of commercial auto insurance and how the coverage it offers can safeguard your business and finances from tremendous risk and loss as you build and grow your enterprise.

Also known as commercial car insurance, business auto insurance, fleet insurance and truck insurance, commercial auto insurance is a type of policy that offers coverage for a wide variety of vehicles used to conduct business. It protects against financial losses that result from common physical and liability perils associated with driving such as collisions, medical expenses and damage claims.

These types of insurance coverages are important for a business to have, whether you are an entrepreneur with a single car or you have a much larger entity with a fleet of vehicles. Commercial vehicle policies generally offer more coverage than personal vehicle insurance policies for usage, perils and compensation amounts.

Before you decide which policy options are best for your needs, it is important to determine whether or not you actually need to have any form of commercial auto insurance.

The following are some of the essential factors to consider to figure out if you will benefit from having business car insurance:

• Do you use your vehicle to perform business activities, such as delivering goods or transporting people, outside of general commuting?
• Does the kind of work you do make higher than normal levels of liability likely if an accident were to happen?
• Do you transport heavy equipment, tools or trailers on a regular basis?
• Do you provide a service to the public using your vehicle?
• Do you have any kind of vehicle that cannot be covered by a personal motor vehicle policy because of its nature such as a tow truck, large farming vehicle or snow plow?
• Do you have employees who drive vehicles to conduct company business?

If you can answer yes to some or all of these questions, you need a commercial vehicle policy for adequate coverage to protect your business.

The following are some common options available for creating the ideal business auto coverage policy for your needs: