Commercial Auto Insurance for contractors

Personal auto policies typically exclude business use and will deny a claim when you're hauling tools, equipment, or materials to a jobsite. Commercial auto is rated for business use and covers the real way contractors drive — including the trailer and cargo exposure.

Hired auto covers rental vehicles; non-owned auto covers employees driving their own personal vehicles for your business. If any crew member runs materials or drives between jobs in their own truck, you want non-owned coverage — it protects your business when their personal policy falls short.

Yes. Trailers need their own physical damage coverage and the truck towing them needs adequate liability. We schedule trailers and make sure the combined rig — truck plus loaded tool trailer — is properly insured, including the theft-from-trailer exposure.

Liability and physical damage to the truck itself can be covered, but the stolen tools inside are not — that's a tools & equipment (inland marine) claim. We coordinate commercial auto with a tools floater so a truck break-in is fully covered: the truck repair under auto, the gear under the floater.

Premium is based on the vehicles (type, value, use), drivers (records and experience), radius of operation, and cargo/trailer exposure. Clean driving records and accurate vehicle scheduling keep the cost down. We document how you actually use the trucks to rate fairly.

Both. Whether you run a single work truck or a fleet of haulers, vans, and tool trailers, we structure a commercial auto program that covers every vehicle and driver — and pair it with tools floaters so the contents are covered too.

Commercial auto covers at-fault liability and physical damage for company vehicles. We respond fast, coordinate the claim, and get the truck repaired or replaced — and we make sure the tools inside are covered under the floater so the crew keeps moving.

Most contractors pay $500-$2,500 a year for a scheduled tools floater, typically 1-3% of the total scheduled gear value, modified by deductible and theft-loss history. We quote the full program in about 15 minutes and show every market's price.

Yes. Contractors Choice Agency is licensed in all 50 states and writes tools & equipment programs for contractors from the highest-theft markets to the storm-rebuild surge zones.

About 15 minutes for a standard scheduled-tools program. Once bound, we turn around certificates, schedules, and additional-insured endorsements usually within minutes.

No. GL covers third-party injury and damage, not your own gear. Tools are covered under a tools & equipment (inland marine) floater — which is what we build to close the gap GL leaves open.

We write tools & equipment at replacement cost so stolen or destroyed gear is replaced new, not depreciated. ACV policies can pay pennies on the dollar for a $600 nailer — replacement cost keeps you working.

Yes — a scheduled tools floater covers theft from your truck, trailer, and jobsite, subject to the policy terms and deductible. Some policies carry a higher theft-from-unattended-vehicle deductible, which we review carefully.

Schedule anything of meaningful value — nail guns, miter and circular saws, lasers, generators, compressors, mobile equipment, and specialty gear. We help you build the schedule with make, model, serial number, and replacement value, and update it as you add gear.

Yes. High-value mobile equipment should be scheduled separately at agreed value so a total loss pays what it's really worth. Generic policies undervalue this gear — we list each unit individually.

Often, yes. We have excess-and-surplus (E&S) inland marine markets for contractors with loss runs, prior thefts, or cancellations that standard markets decline. Bring your loss runs and gear schedule.

If you haul material packages that could be lost, damaged, or stolen in transit or before installation, yes. An installation floater covers materials from the supplier's truck until they're installed and accepted — closing a real gap.

You reach a person with context, not a queue. We respond within 2 hours, help you document the loss (police report for theft, photos, schedule), and manage the claim with the carrier so it's paid correctly and you can replace gear fast.

Tools and equipment coverage lives in the inland marine market — a specialty class most generic agents don't understand. A specialty broker knows which carriers write scheduled gear at replacement cost and how to manage a tools-theft claim so it pays.