Commercial auto insurance is a business insurance policy that you get to cover the vehicles owned by or used by your business. This insurance protects you against liability for damage that an accident with your vehicle caused. It also provides certain compensation to the people inside your vehicle who are hurt in an accident.
If you aren’t sure if you need commercial auto insurance or not, think about how you use your vehicles in conjunction with your business operations. If you have a business, that uses a vehicle routinely, you need commercial auto insurance. If you still aren’t sure whether you need commercial auto insurance or not, contact an insurance agent or broker to discuss your options.
- 4 best companies to get commercial auto insurance quotes online
- Any other options for commercial auto insurance quotes online?
- Why do you need commercial auto insurance?
- Why should you compare quotes?
- Why get quotes online?
- How much does commercial auto insurance cost?
- Best commercial auto insurance companies
4 best companies to get commercial auto insurance quotes online
We all know that commercial auto insurance is expensive. And unlike personal auto insurance, it is not easy to get commercial auto insurance quotes online. Not many companies offer it. We have done intensive research and here are the 4 best companies offering commercial auto insurance quotes online. It should take you less than 10 minutes to get a quote online with these companies and if you are happy with the quote, you can buy the policy online. After buying the policy, you can also manage the policy entirely online.
You should get at least 4 online quotes from the 4 companies below:
- Progressive: Best Overall for online quotes
- biBERK: Best online quotes for low-cost business insurance coverage
- THREE: Best online quotes for simplified business insurance coverages
- InsurePro: Best online quotes for pay-per-day coverage
Progressive: Best Overall for online quotes
Progressive is the number one insurance company for commercial automobile policies in the US. They have a quick and easy online quoting system. You answer a few simple questions, and you get a quick quote return. The entire process takes approximately 10 minutes from start to finish.
Progressive is known for offering discounts for various things. You get a discounted rate if you bundle your commercial auto policy with other policies. They offer safe driver discounts as well and have a commercial version of its Snapshot safe driver program.
Today, we decided to obtain a quote from Progressive for a commercial cleaning business in Jacksonville, FL. We answered a few basic questions regarding the company we were seeking insurance for and some identifying factors. After processing the information, Progressive returned a quote. As you can see, the quote returned by Progressive is for 12 months, but they do offer monthly payment plans.
biBERK: Best online quotes for low-cost business insurance coverage
biBERK is a Berkshire Hathaway company that offers commercial insurance. The company focuses on providing customers with a simple online experience. You can get quotes, buy your policy, file a claim, and download an insurance certificate online. You can also talk to an agent if you want to go that route as well.
If you need specialized coverage like inland marine insurance, you may be out of luck because they don’t have some of the specialized policies. However, unlike Progressive, biBERK only provides small business insurance. Commercial auto is just one of their small business insurance policies. In addition, they also provide workers comp insurance, professional liability insurance, general liability insurance, and Business Owners Policy (BOP). So if you are interested in buying other small business coverages in one place, you might want to get quotes from biBERK.
We requested a quote from biBERK for a commercial auto policy for a cleaning service in Jacksonville, Florida. They provided a policy quote for a yearly policy with 12 monthly payments. If you want to shop online and have simple coverage needs from an established brand, biBERK might be a good choice for you.
As you can see below, the quote we received from biBERK is more experience than the one from Progressive. That is for this particular cleaning business in Jacksonville, Florida. Your own business may have a cheaper quote from biBERK than Progressive. In fact, it is very likely so since biBERK is focused on selling directly to small business owners, bypassing agents and brokers, which allows them to cut costs. In general, they claim that they help small business owners 20% on premiums. The only way to know for sure is to get quotes from all of these 4 companies and compare these quotes to find the cheapest one for you.
THREE: Best online quotes for simplified business insurance coverages
THREE is another subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaways, focused on small business insurance. The company was named THREE because it was founded with a conviction to make small business simple, easy-to-understand, no jargons, no fine print. In fact, they promise that every small business should have an insurance policy of 3 pages max and the policy should include all coverages a small business should have.
They apply the same philosophy to commercial auto insurance. They also believe that simplifying small business insurance also means reduce unnecessary complexities and will result in cost reduction and lower premiums to customers. If you prefer a simple and easy to understand in plain English without any exclusions in fine print, you may want to get a quote from THREE. They also offer quotes online. It should takes you less than 10 minutes to get a quote on THREE website.
InsurePro: Best online quotes for pay-per-day coverage
InsurePro advertises itself as insurance on demand. Part of the company’s questionnaire asks how often you need the coverage. The specific question is whether you need the coverage for one job or for your business in general. This will allow the company to offer coverage for a short period of time, just for a few days.
If you only need commercial auto insurance coverage for a few days when you use your vehicles for business purposes, InsurePro is a great choice for you since you will save a lot of money. However, even if you need regular coverage for the whole month, in our experience, InsurePro usually offers competitive rates.
Like other companies, you simply disclose personal information (name, address, phone number) and information about your business (industry, number of employees, etc), and you will receive a quote within approximately ten minutes. You then have the option to complete the process online.
The quote below is also for a small cleaning business located in Jacksonville, Florida. InsurePro’s quote is the cheapest one that we have received. However, this doesn’t mean InsurePro will also offer the cheapest quotes for your company. Their quote may be the most expensive for your company. So be sure to get quotes online from all of these 4 companies to compare. It shouldn’t take you just 5-10 minutes to get each quote. It will be worth your time.
Any other options for commercial auto insurance quotes online?
Unfortunately, these are the only 4 companies offering commercial auto insurance quotes online. Many other companies offer quotes offline. If you are ok with getting and comparing quotes offline, you have a lot more options.
If you prefer getting multiple quotes at once to compare them in one place, you may want to work with a top broker like CoverWallet or Simply Business or commercialinsurance.net. You may be able to start the quote process online, but their agents have to contact you by phone or email to provide you with several quotes.
Why do you need commercial auto insurance?
When you use automobiles in the execution of your business, you need commercial auto insurance. When you use your vehicle for occupation-related travel, you carry a greater risk than a typical automotive policy. Commercial policies and personal policies have many similarities in the main types of protection offered. A commercial auto policy provides financial protection for you and your employees when operating a company-owned vehicle or a personally owned vehicle in business operations.
Learn more at commercial auto insurance vs. personal auto insurance: Why you need to know the difference
Why should you compare quotes?
It isn’t always easy to find the perfect commercial auto policy. The costs for commercial vehicle insurance differ significantly among insurance companies. There is a difference between the price to insure one vehicle, a larger vehicle, or a fleet of vehicles as well.
You should compare commercial auto insurance quotes from multiple companies or brokers to ensure you are getting the best value for the coverage you need. Contact an insurance professional who specializes in insurance coverages to determine what coverages you need. Better yet, you can compare quotes online from the comfort of your own home or office.
Why get quotes online?
There are several reasons to choose online quotes. For one thing, getting quotes online is convenient; you don’t have to drive to your local insurance agent to discuss policies or premiums. More importantly, getting quotes online saves a lot of time. Within 30 minutes, you can easily gather 4 quotes online from the 4 reputable companies. If you have to get 4 quotes from the agents or brokers, it may take you a day or two with a lot of unproductive time waiting on the phone or driving to the agents/brokers.
The issues of commercial auto insurance is that not many insurance companies offer quotes online. We have done intensive research to learn that Progressive, biBERK, THREE, and InsurePro are the only 4 companies offering commercial auto insurance quotes. They also happen to be reputable companies in this field.
How much does commercial auto insurance cost?
The average cost of commercial auto insurance for small businesses is $175 per month. If you need a liability-only commercial auto insurance policy, it only costs $85 per month. A comprehensive policy with all coverages included is more expensive, costing up to $300 per month
These are just the average premiums. Your rates will be different. Be sure to shop around with a few companies or work with a broker such as Simply Business, commercialinsurance.net, CoverWallet, or Smart Financial so that they can help you get several quotes easily. You can compare these quotes to select the cheapest one for you.
Learn more at how much does commercial auto insurance cost?
Best commercial auto insurance companies
Hundreds of insurance companies offer commercial auto insurance, which can make it confusing trying to find the best one. We have done the research and here are the best commercial auto insurance companies for your consideration.
Final thoughts
If you use vehicles in the daily operations of your business, commercial auto insurance is a must-have coverage. This coverage protects you, your vehicles, and your business in the event of an accident involving your vehicle. Several companies provide commercial auto insurance.
Many of the companies provide online quotes for your convenience. Some of them also provide the ability to purchase policies online and make claims or deal with customer service issues online.
It’s important to compare quotes between multiple companies to get your best deal. This can be done easily by requesting a quote from an online broker like commercialinsurance.net, CoverWallet, or Simply Business. If you prefer not to get online quotes, you have the option of getting traditional quotes from an in-person agent or broker.