{"id":4180,"date":"2017-02-02T16:38:42","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T22:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/?p=4180"},"modified":"2019-03-27T07:15:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T13:15:41","slug":"when-should-a-maine-contractor-insure-vehicles-commercially","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/when-should-a-maine-contractor-insure-vehicles-commercially\/","title":{"rendered":"When Should a Maine Contractor Insure Vehicles Commercially?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Contractor-Banner-582-X-172-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4197\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Contractor-Banner-582-X-172-2.png\" alt=\"Contractor Banner 582 X 172 (2)\" width=\"582\" height=\"172\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Many Maine contractors&nbsp;drive personal vehicles for business every day. <strong>Cleaning contractors<\/strong> drive their own cars to jobs from Cape Elizabeth to Cumberland. <strong>Food delivery<\/strong> workers pop a&nbsp;magnetic sign on the roof and zip&nbsp;through&nbsp;Portland streets. <strong>Uber drivers<\/strong> shuttle people to and from the Old Port in&nbsp;their SUVs. <strong>Landscapers<\/strong>&nbsp;haul&nbsp;mowers on trailers from Scarborough to Yarmouth. <strong>Carpenters and handymen<\/strong> load&nbsp;tool boxes and ladder racks for&nbsp;Munjoy Hill rehab projects. In winter, contractors from Kittery to Fort Kent pick up plow jobs to pay the bills.<\/p>\n<h2>Does a Personal Policy Cover&nbsp;Contractor&#8217;s Business Use of a Vehicle?<\/h2>\n<p>Maybe not. Many insurance companies exclude delivery or transporting commercial goods. If you&#8217;re in a crash hauling your tools or delivering a pizza, you could find yourself with no coverage. Almost every personal policy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/rideshare-insurance-for-uber-lyft-in-maine\/\">excludes carrying passengers for a fee (Uber or Lyft<\/a>).<\/p>\n<h2>If My Truck Has Lettering on the Side, Does it Require Commercial Insurance?<\/h2>\n<p>Lettering can be a &#8220;tipping point&#8221; when defining&nbsp;a business vehicle. Is your truck lettered? Talk to your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/business-insurance\/contractors-insurance\/\">Maine contractor&#8217;s insurance agent<\/a> to see if you need to switch to a business policy. Avoid a surprise at the absolute worst time &#8211; after an accident.<\/p>\n<h2>What if I&#8217;m in an Accident With My Contracting Truck on My Personal Insurance Policy?<\/h2>\n<p>You may have no coverage (see above). Even if your policy doesn&#8217;t exclude your claim, your personal insurer won&#8217;t be happy. After paying, they could cancel your family&#8217;s&nbsp;insurance. Or, they could&nbsp;force you to insure your truck on a business policy. At the very least, they would surcharge your policy for the claim.<\/p>\n<h2>What&#8217;s the&nbsp;Advantage of Business Auto Insurance?<\/h2>\n<p>Compared to a personal auto policy, a commercial vehicle policy allows you&nbsp;to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Get<strong>&nbsp;coverage for business use<\/strong> of the vehicle &#8211; which is the whole purpose of having insurance at all.<\/li>\n<li>Buy <strong>higher liability limits&nbsp;<\/strong>&#8211; to meet job requirements, and better protect your business assets and reputation.<\/li>\n<li>Have<strong> Loading and Unloading <\/strong>coverage<strong> &#8211; <\/strong>If you yank&nbsp;the wires from a customer&#8217;s house while pulling your ladder off your rack, that&#8217;s not covered by your business liability insurance. Business Auto policies cover it.<\/li>\n<li>Purchase<strong>&nbsp;higher rental limits<\/strong>, so you can rent a vehicle comparable to the one that&#8217;s damaged. No one wants to show up for a carpentry job in a subcompact car.<\/li>\n<li>Include<strong>&nbsp;non-owned auto coverage &#8211;&nbsp;<\/strong>protects your business if someone crashes while picking&nbsp;up a part or a tool for you with their own vehicle.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Separate your personal life from your business.<\/strong>&nbsp;You don&#8217;t want to explain to your spouse why their insurance was canceled, or the price increased so much.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Insure larger vehicles &#8211;<\/strong>&nbsp;most personal policies don&#8217;t insure anything bigger than a 3\/4 ton pickup.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Include attached equipment<\/strong> &#8211; like tool boxes, ladder racks or signage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How Much Does Commercial Vehicle Insurance Cost in Maine?<\/h2>\n<p>It varies of course, depending on the vehicle and use. Plan to spend&nbsp;about $100 a month&nbsp;for a contractor&#8217;s pickup truck with collision coverage and $1 million of liability coverage. Prices can decrease if you have more vehicles, or increase if you have bigger trucks.<\/p>\n<p>Would&nbsp;<strong>your<\/strong> Maine auto insurance pay if you were in an accident at work? Have questions about Maine contractors insurance? &nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/contact-us\/\">Contact Noyes Hall &amp; Allen in South Portland<\/a> at 207-799-5541, or click &#8220;let&#8217;s talk&#8221; below. We&#8217;ve helped contractors to stay on the job and out of hot water since 1933. Because we represent many insurance companies, we&#8217;re&nbsp;independent and committed to you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You Might Also Like:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/independent-subcontractor-or-employee-maine-workers-comp-insurance-costs-hang-in-the-balance\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-4070 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/INDEPENDENT.png\" alt=\"INDEPENDENT\" width=\"261\" height=\"178\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/who-needs-to-buy-workers-comp-insurance-in-maine\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-4077 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Who-must-buy-thumbnail.png\" alt=\"Who must buy thumbnail\" width=\"261\" height=\"178\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; Many Maine contractors&nbsp;drive personal vehicles for business every day. Cleaning contractors drive their own cars to jobs from Cape Elizabeth to Cumberland. Food delivery workers pop a&nbsp;magnetic sign on the roof and zip&nbsp;through&nbsp;Portland streets. Uber drivers shuttle people to and from the Old Port in&nbsp;their SUVs. Landscapers&nbsp;haul&nbsp;mowers on trailers from Scarborough to Yarmouth. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,5,37],"tags":[71,72,32],"class_list":["post-4180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-liability-insurance","category-car-insurance","category-commercial-vehicle-insurance-business-insurance","tag-commmercial-vehicles","tag-contractors","tag-doing-business-in-maine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4180"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5467,"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4180\/revisions\/5467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}