The Best Commercial Auto Insurance Companies in Michigan Full Breakdown

How's it going, everybody? If you are a business owner, CFO, executive, or somebody within a business that handles a commercial insurance, or maybe you're somebody that is looking at potentially starting a business and you're looking in your commercial auto insurance options, this video is for you. Whether your business has trucks, service vans, regular cars, or maybe larger vehicles like dump trucks, you've probably noticed that your commercial auto insurance policy is not cheap. So today I wanted to go over what actually makes up a good, solid commercial auto insurance policy, and then at the same time, what goes into the pricing, and then what some of the best insurance companies here in Michigan are when it comes to commercial auto insurance. Thank you for stopping by. My name is Brian. I'm an independent insurance agent based here in the state of Michigan, Metro Detroit specifically, and I work with businesses on their commercial insurance programs, as well as helping families and individuals with their personal insurance, their home, their auto insurance as well. My goal with this channel is to pass on a little bit of educational information to you so that you can make more informed decisions around your insurance, and then overall, help answer any questions that you might have. So let's get into it, and before we get too far into the video, I do want to invite you to subscribe to the channel, and if you find this video helpful, useful, anything like that, please feel free to like, share, pass along with anyone else as well. Now first, what actually makes up a good, strong commercial auto insurance policy? Because yes, while price is important, you definitely want to make sure that you have the right coverage and protection in place. The first coverage I want to go over is liability coverage. It's very important that you do make sure you have enough coverage in this area. Typically, the starting point is a million dollars, and this essentially protects your business. If one of your vehicles does get into an accident, somebody gets hurt, they sue you, there's a lawsuit that follows, and unfortunately, with how litigious the environment is here in the United States, this coverage is extremely important. So depending on your business, how many vehicles you have, you might even need to look into more than a million dollars in coverage or potentially an umbrella policy. And then next is personal injury protection coverage. Just like a personal policy, with a commercial policy, you are going to be legally required to make a PIP coverage selection. I always will recommend to choose unlimited coverage, because on a commercial policy, it typically isn't that much more expensive to have unlimited versus another coverage option, and really just gives your business the best overall protection. And then next, the physical damage coverage for your vehicles. If you do have a loan on any of your vehicles, any sort of financing, maybe a lease, you do want to make sure that you have comprehensive and collision coverage. Comprehensive covers fire, theft, vandalism, weather damage, and then collision covers any accidents with other vehicles. And even if you don't necessarily have a loan on a vehicle, but you wouldn't necessarily want to pay out of pocket if it were totaled, you definitely want to make sure you have these coverages on your policy. And now an endorsement that can sometimes be overlooked is hired and non-owned auto coverage. This provides liability coverage to your business for any rented or personal vehicles. So maybe if one of your employees has to use one of their personal vehicles for a work errand, they get into an accident, your business could unfortunately be held viable. So this is where having this coverage could come into play and is very important. And depending on your business, isn't typically super expensive to have included on your policy. And now a general tip, make sure that you do have an up-to-date driver's list. I know it can be hard throughout the year if you do maybe have a lot of turnover within your business, but definitely try your best to keep this list as up-to-date as possible. Then if your business also has any trailers, make sure these are listed out on the policy. Coverage for them typically will not just automatically extend. So make sure that you do have them scheduled out. All right, so now what actually impacts your commercial auto insurance rates? There are going to be quite a few factors. One is going to be the type of business you actually run. Contractors, landscapers, janitorial companies, distributors, these will all have different class codes with every insurance company and will be rated a little bit differently. Then things like the number of vehicles you have, your radius of operation, your business's claims history, and then your driver's motor vehicle record reports, your MVRs, will definitely play a huge role. Better driving records will typically lead to lower rates. And all of these different factors go into how each company will actually determine your premiums. And now who are actually the top insurance companies when it comes to commercial auto insurance? Who has the best rates, the best claims handling, the best service? Fortunately here in Michigan, there are very solid options. On the national company side, you have companies like Progressive, Travelers, the Hartford. These can all be very competitive, solid options. And then depending on your business size, you could be a great fit for regional companies like Auto Owners, Frankenmuth, Cincinnati Insurance, or Michigan Insurance. These companies can be very competitive, but it will all depend on your business size, your operation, your claims history, and then the driving record for your drivers. And now just to be transparent, those are just companies that our agency does represent. There could be other solid company options as well. We just typically find those companies to be the most competitive. And we know they're reliable when it comes to customer service and claims handling as well. The key is really to make sure that you find a company that's the best fit for your business in terms of both coverage and pricing, and that they're easy to work with if there's ever a claim. And now some tips to help try to maybe reduce your commercial auto premiums. Number one is going to be to try to bundle your commercial auto insurance with another policy like general liability or worker's comp. This can be a way to save and also just reduce the overall admin burden when it comes to maybe having to deal with multiple insurance companies, multiple billing cycles, things like that. And then some insurance companies do offer fleet safety programs or maybe Talmatics discounts. So if you do maybe have a larger operation and you have a Talmatics system in place, definitely make sure that you tell the insurance company, because again, sometimes they do give discounts for this. And honestly, overall, just having one of those systems in place is a great way to help reduce your claims over time. With all of this, if you are reviewing your commercial auto insurance, make sure that you are not just going for simply the lowest price, but really finding a company that is the best fit for your type of business, your operation, that you have the right coverage in place, and again, is competitive when it comes to pricing as well. Thank you for watching. And if you are looking for help with your commercial auto insurance or maybe your commercial insurance program as a whole, I would love the opportunity to work with you and see if our team can help. There are a lot of ways to get ahold of me and they should all be in the description below. Please feel free to text, call, email, fill out a contact form, whatever's easiest. And if you have any other questions about insurance, please feel free to reach out directly or leave them in the comments below. I would love to help answer those as well. So thank you again.