Hired & Non-Owned Auto
Hired Auto Liability coverage will pay for damages to a third party, on behalf of your company, if you or an employee cause an accident or an injury to someone while you are driving a rented or "non-owned" vehicle for business. In such a situation, the injured person will sue your company for the damages. Without this coverage, your company likely has no defense for such a claim.
The same scenario applies if you have an employee run an errand, make a delivery, or visit a client or customer in his or her own car. When the employee causes the accident, the injured party is going to look to your business for damages since the employee was using the car on company time. This could occur even if you casually ask a friend to pick up supplies for you the next time they go to a store and are involved in an accident.
If your business doesn't own any automobiles and the exposure is limited to you and your employees using personally-owned vehicles, then an endorsement for Hired & Non-Owned Auto Liability can be added to your General Liability policy or the General Liability section of your Businessowners or Package policy. If you don't deliver products, it's usually very inexpensive. If you do offer delivery, your insurer will want to know how many employees you have delivering, their delivery radius in miles, and will want Motor Vehicle Records (MVRs) on your drivers to ensure they're legally licensed and judge how "clean" their driving record is.
If you absolutely never run an errand in your personal vehicle or have employees run one in theirs, then this coverage is not needed. But even if you occasionally have someone running to the store or the bank or anywhere else, in a personally-owned vehicle for company-related purposes, you'll want to carry this coverage.
