Skip to content
CoverMatch
MATCH GUIDE

Matching commercial auto

QUICK ANSWER

Commercial auto covers vehicles your business owns, leases or uses for work, with liability for injury and damage to others and optional physical damage on the vehicles. Carriers rate each vehicle by type, use, radius and garaging territory, and each driver by record. CoverMatch compares the liability limit, which vehicles and drivers are listed, physical damage deductibles, and whether hired and non-owned auto is included.

Add your policies Get matched
Reviewed by Michael LaBarbera, Licensed property & casualty agent, Provident Financial Group · Reviewed Oct 11, 2026 Updated
Coverage scoreEvery policy in one wallet
Commercial AutoRenews in 47d
Workers' CompensationLive cert ✓
Business Owner's PolicyCan switch
CoverMatch One quote lists both vans; the other has one van and no hired and non-owned coverage. Your platform contract asks for both.
01 / WHAT UNDERWRITERS ASK
  • Each vehicle: year, make, model, VIN, gross weight and whether it is owned or leased
  • How each vehicle is used: service calls, deliveries, hauling, sales
  • Radius of operation — local, intermediate or long distance
  • Where vehicles are garaged overnight
  • Each driver's name, date of birth and licence number for motor vehicle records
  • Whether employees drive their own cars for work
  • Prior accidents and violations, and current limits
02 / WHAT MOVES THE PRICE
  • Vehicle type and weightA pickup rates differently from a box truck; heavier vehicles carry more liability exposure.
  • Driver recordsViolations and at-fault accidents in the last three to five years raise the rate for that driver.
  • Radius and useLong-distance hauling rates above local service calls.
  • Garaging territoryDense urban areas rate higher than rural ones.
  • Liability limit and deductiblesA $1M combined single limit, which contracts often require, costs more than state minimums; higher comprehensive and collision deductibles cost less.
Direction only — the carriers' quotes carry the figures.
03 / HAVE READY
  • Registration or title for each vehicle
  • Driver list with licence numbers
  • Your current auto declarations page
  • Contracts that set a liability limit or require hired and non-owned coverage
  • Loss runs if you have had an accident

Reading an auto quote

The schedule of vehicles and the schedule of drivers come first: anything missing from them is not covered. Then the liability limit, usually a combined single limit for commercial policies. Then, per vehicle, comprehensive and collision deductibles and any stated value. Finally the endorsements: hired and non-owned, medical payments, uninsured motorists, and rental reimbursement.

How CoverMatch compares

Each quote's schedules are matched against the vehicles and drivers you listed, so an omission shows as a row, not a footnote. Limits and deductibles sit side by side with the current policy. Contract rows from your wallet — a platform that needs a $1M limit, a client that needs hired and non-owned — are checked against each quote.

The price levers you control

Deductibles, the liability limit above what contracts require, and who drives. A driver with a clean record on a vehicle that mainly sits in a yard rates differently from the same vehicle driven daily downtown; tell the application how each vehicle is really used.

After you buy

Vehicles and drivers show on the policy card; adding a vehicle or driver is a change request from the policy page that goes to the carrier automatically, and the certificate for a platform or client updates itself.

Questions people actually ask

My van is in my personal name. Can I insure it on a personal policy?

Personal auto policies exclude most business use and most vehicles over a certain weight or with commercial equipment. If the vehicle makes deliveries, carries tools or wears your logo, insure it commercially.

What is hired and non-owned auto?

Liability coverage for vehicles your business does not own: rentals and employees' personal cars used for errands. Many contracts and platforms require it; it can sit on the auto policy or be endorsed onto a general liability or BOP policy.

Do I need physical damage coverage?

If a vehicle is financed, the lender requires it. For older owned vehicles, compare the premium against what the vehicle would fetch; the comparison shows the quote with and without it when carriers price both.

Why does one quote exclude a driver?

Carriers can exclude drivers whose records fall outside their guidelines. An excluded driver has no coverage while driving, so the comparison marks exclusions clearly.

MANAGE IT IN THE APP

Every policy, renewal and live certificate in one wallet.

Scan a dec page and the card appears. Share a live certificate link that updates itself. Get matched when a renewal comes around.

Add your policiesGet matched

Keep reading

MATCHMatching abuse and molestation coverage: how the comparison works MATCHMatching bailee coverage: how the comparison works MATCHMatching builders risk: how the comparison works MATCHMatching business income coverage: how the comparison works MATCHMatching a business owner's policy MATCHMatching commercial crime coverage MATCHMatching commercial earthquake coverage: how the comparison works MATCHMatching commercial flood coverage: how the comparison works