Best Car Insurance for Transporting Clients in 2024

If you find that transporting clients for work is excluded, you can use a comparison tool to find a business-use or commercial car insurance policy that meets your needs If your job requires that you regularly transport clients, you may need additional car insurance because standard car insurance policies don’t always cover work-related driving, including transporting clients between locations.

You may need extra commercial car insurance for transporting clients, but does it cost more to insure a car for business use?

If you need a car insurance policy that covers you while you transport clients, you can find one by using our car insurance comparison tool.

Business vs Commercial Car Insurance for Transporting Clients

Once you determine that you need a car insurance policy that covers more than your personal car insurance policy, you will need to determine if you need business-use or commercial car insurance.

• Business-Use Car Insurance – A business use car insurance policy covers slightly more than your personal insurance policy. These types of policies generally cover work-related activities that involve driving to locations during your normal workday. It’s a policy for transporting clients in personal vehicles. They do not typically cover the transportation of materials but may include driving clients.
• Commercial-Use Car Insurance – Commercial car insurance covers the transport of materials in vans and other large vehicles. This type of policy is generally purchased for business-owned vehicles or vehicles that are driven for work 100 percent of the time.

in order to drive a commercial vehicle, you must be on the policy as an insured. Who is an insured on a commercial auto policy? Anyone who is on the policy as a potential driver. If your company has a commercial policy for your vehicle, you’ll be an insured. If you have a commercial policy on your personal vehicle, that also makes you the insured.

“The insured” refers to anyone who will be covered if they cause damages while driving the vehicle. 

Compare quotes from the top car insurance companies and save

 Secured with SHA-256 Encryption

Business Car Insurance vs Personal Car Insurance for Transporting Clients

In order to understand why your current car insurance policy may not cover you if you get into a car accident that can affect your rates, you should understand the differences between a personal or basic car insurance policy and business car insurance policy.

• Personal Car Insurance – car insurance protects you against catastrophic financial loss in the event of an accident, and a certain amount is required by law. In general, a personal car insurance policy covers you while you are driving for non-work related activities.
• Business Car Insurance – If your vehicle is used for both personal and business use, you may need a business or commercial car insurance policy. These policies take into consideration that you may be transporting business clients, property, or equipment in your vehicle and are priced accordingly. (For more information, read our “What is business use” car insurance?“).

If you’re driving clients in your personal vehicle, it’s important to consider business car insurance.

Regardless of which type of insurance you end up with, you’ll need at least liability coverage. This video from Allstate talks about what liability covers.

https://youtu.be/04SZGS6DdVM

Each state has its own requirements for liability coverage. You can search the table below with data from the Insurance Information Institute for your state to see what yours are.

Liability Requirements by State

The Digest of Motor Laws goes into more detail on limits if you want to find out more.

In addition to liability, comprehensive, and collision, you’ll want to look into uninsured coverage. Some states require it, but you can add it to your policy. If you’re hit by an uninsured driver, you’ll have to pay out of pocket without it. NOLO notes that you can’t have more uninsured coverage than your basic liability level of coverage.

Purchasing Your Business-Use or Commercial Insurance Policy for Transporting Clients

Business-use and commercial-use insurance policies are typically more expensive than personal car insurance policies, but this is because they provide more coverage and specifically include transporting clients and materials in your vehicle.

Thankfully, it is easy to purchase a car insurance policy that covers everything you need it to cover, especially when you use the services of a car insurance comparison tool.

• Step 1 – Determine whether you need commercial or business-use car insurance
• Step 2 – Locate a comparison tool and input all of your information
• Step 3 – Double-check that all of the information you entered is an accurate and honest as possible
• Step 4 – Make sure you indicate that you are looking for business and/or commercial car insurance
• Step 5 – Submit your information and let the tool find all the policies that meet your specific criteria
• Step 6 – Read through each policy to determine if it covers everything you need it to cover
• Step 7 – Narrow down your choices
• Step 8 – Choose the right policy for your driving needs and your personal financial budget
• Step 9 – Purchase your new car insurance policy directly online
• Step 10 – Print out the information for the car insurance policy and your temporary insurance cards

Once you pay for your new policy and print your cards, make sure your policy is active before you drive your car to transport clients. This insurance will ensure that you are covered if you get into an accident while driving and transporting clients during your workday.

Compare quotes from the top car insurance companies and save

 Secured with SHA-256 Encryption

Determining if You Need Commercial Car Insurance for Transporting Clients

In order to determine if you need commercial auto insurance, you will have to objectively evaluate your driving habits and read through your current car insurance policy for exclusions.

Most personal car insurance policies exclude all business use except for farming and ranching operations.

This means that if you are transporting clients in your personal vehicle, you may need either business use or commercial use insurance.

Do commercial vehicles need insurance? If you’re using a larger vehicle, such as a van that’s owned by your company, it definitely needs car insurance. Check with your company and verify they already have coverage.

Compare quotes from the top car insurance companies and save

 Secured with SHA-256 Encryption

Frequently Asked Questions

We’ve answered a few more questions below. Read on to find out more about car insurance for transporting clients.

How much does a commercial car insurance policy cost?

The price of a commercial policy depends on a variety of factors, so it’s hard to give one rate. Some things that influence commercial rates are:

• Model and monetary value of the vehicle
• Weight, especially trucks
• What the car is being used for
• Limits and deductible
• Number of commercial cars being insured

In addition, rates are influenced by factors that affect all car insurance policies, such as your driving record, credit history, and age.

What about car insurance for caregivers?

Car insurance for care workers may need additional coverage. However, it depends on what you’re doing in the course of your job. If part of your job is driving your patients to appointments and other places, you’ll need to get commercial car insurance on top of your personal coverage. 

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention notes that home healthcare workers are at a higher risk for car wreck-related injuries. Factors like distracted driving, driving while tired, and poorly maintained vehicles all can contribute to injuries. OSHA emphasizes that the last factor — the maintenance of vehicles — is super important, as that is an easily avoidable problem.

Social workers transporting clients should check with your home health care agency about adding caregivers to their car insurance, just to verify they have already 

Before making any final decisions on your insurance company, it is important to learn as much as you can about your local insurance providers, and the coverages they offer. Call your local insurance agent to clear up any questions that you might have. Questions to consider asking include, “What is the best coverage plan for me/my family/my situation?” “What are the minimum coverage requirements in my state and what form of coverage do you recommend?” “Do you guys offer any bundle discounts if I take out both my auto insurance and home insurance with you?” and “What is the average rate of insurance quotes you guys offer?”

Before making any big insurance decisions, use our free tool to compare insurance quotes near you. It’s simple, just plug in your zip code and we’ll do the rest!

Compare quotes online today for business use of your personal vehicle car insurance to transport clients by entering your zip code below.

Compare quotes from the top car insurance companies and save

 Secured with SHA-256 Encryption