What Insurance Do We Need for Driving and Company Cars?

Do you have company cars or staff or volunteers driving during their work for the nonprofit? If yes, it’s super important that you have the appropriate insurance coverage.

If the nonprofit owns a vehicle

Some nonprofits need to own a vehicle in order to carry out their mission – think the van that transports all the kids to a camp, the truck that delivers food to the elderly, and so on. If that’s the case, the vehicle should be covered by insurance – and NOT just added on to someone’s personal car insurance policy!

Company-owned cars need to be covered under a commercial auto policy. It is pretty similar to a personal car insurance policy, but there are differences. You’ll want to chat with an agent about who drives it, why they’re driving it, where they’re going, etc. All those details will affect the level of coverage needed in the case of an accident.

Not-owned vehicles

For hired or not-owned cars, the game is a little different, but there is still liability to deal with. If the nonprofit rents a car for staff or volunteers to use, chat with an agent – you’ll still need insurance, but it will be a different kind of package.

For personal vehicles driven for nonprofit work, you still want this liability covered. Why, you ask? Here’s an example:

Say a staff member at a dog rescue drives over to the pet store to pick up some backup dog food. She hops in her own car, and she gets in a car accident on her way back (she’s not hurt in this hypothetical, in case you were worried ?).

Yes, her car should be covered under her own personal car insurance policy. BUT, say she mentions in the report that she was working for Sue’s Puppy Rescue at the time and was getting dog food. The other person’s insurance company will almost certainly name her personal policy AND the nonprofit since she was driving on their behalf.

Not great, especially if the nonprofit ends up having to pay for anything out of pocket.

So, now what?

If any of these situations could possibly come up at your nonprofit, it’s easiest to get the liability covered rather than pay WAY more in event of something happening. If you need an insurance referral, Tom Wertish is awesome (learn more about him at www.novallus.com). And as always, if you’re not sure what you need, give me a call! Schedule a member consult here.