Commercial Auto Insurance Policies

I’m sure you as a parent dread the day your children start driving, as yet another item on the long list of how they were to drive you insane once becoming teenagers. I’m also sure that you probably do not worry about them having a job that would have them excluded from the family auto insurance policy. Excluded’ This is a little known fact, but delivery drivers face this problem. For parents of pizza delivery boys facing this dilemma, read on to know how to ensure your teenager has the needed coverage.

Pizza Delivery Drivers aren’t covered by automobile insurance companies. Surely you recall all of the information you had to enter into the forms on your first insurance policy. The extensive questions, about everything it seemed, felt invasive and intrusive. Why would an insurer want to know everything about how and when you used your car before they would even agree to give you a price quote? Actually, they need to know a lot about where, when and how much you’re on the road. More time and more miles on the road mean the driver is more likely to be involved in an accident and for the company that means paying out for claims. You got it, more claims mean higher insurance rates.

Now we’re beginning to catch on, aren’t we? There’s a big difference between parking your car in one place and being on the road during work hours. In the first instance there’s virtually no chance of damage and in the second you’re driving at relatively high speed with many other drivers, a big risk for the insurer. Your child’s job exposes him or her to the most risk of all circumstances as well as being something of a novice driver. It’s not surprising that most insurance firms have no intention of insuring a driver with such a high risk. You, and you alone could be held responsible for repairs and/or injuries, which is also an unacceptable risk.

Check out an employer before letting your child work for them, and look into how they’re choosing to deal with insurance issues. Since companies making use of delivery drivers are required for them to be insured, many will do this by way of providing company vehicles to use. This lets them save a bit on insurane costs since they’ll have an absolute idea of the number of their cars out driving at any given moment.

Also available to companies is a non-owned auto insurance policy. That way the employee has full liability coverage when delivering on company time. But it does not cover damages to your vehicle, that’s why if your child is going to be delivering, pizza or whatever, you need to talk to your own insurance company and see what you can do to protect your teen and your vehicle.

As a last resort, you can always just purchase outright a proper commercial auto policy. The cost for this kind of insurance is not insignificant, so it’s not a decision to make lightly. However, if you feel that the risk is there or your teen’s making a long haul of the job, and you have no other options for getting the right coverage, you should probably go for it. No matter how pricey it is upfront, it’s still less than the expense of paying for car repairs and the like yourself. As they say, better safe than sorry.

Susan Reynolds is a content coordinator for a leading South African Insurance Provider that specialises in Car Insurance Policies.