If you’re like most Dallas commercial auto owners, you want to get the most out of your car, truck, tractor, or whatever commercial vehicle you drive.  More importantly than ever, the increased costs associated with doing business make insurance savings a top priority.  So, here are a few tips courtesy of TXINSURANCEPRO.COM to help you get the best commercial auto insurance rates for your business.

Tip #1:  Prior Insurance

Just with other insurers, commercial auto insurance companies use your prior insurance for either discounts or underwriting criteria.  When you’re purchasing a commercial auto insurance or any insurance policy, be sure to discuss your prior insurance policy with the agent. You never know, your car insurance coverage may give you a discount on your business auto insurance.

Tip #2:  It never hurts to carry general liability.

Whether your Dallas Business is a trucking company, law firm, or household mover, packages are generally less expensive.  So try bundling your commercial auto, office coverages (property) and general liability into one policy.  In some cases, if the insurance company has an appetite for your business, they’ll give you a break if you insure the entire business and not just one piece of your business.  So when you’re looking for that General Liability insurance quote, remember the agent asking about your entire business might be a good thing.

Tip #3:  Keep Business Insurance and Personal Insurance Separate

Although it may be convenient for your personal auto to be insured on your commercial policy, combining personal and commercial vehicles on one policy could cause difficulty in certain types of businesses.  Good examples include for hire truckers, commercial carriers, and household movers.  Because these types of commercial auto policies have state and federal filing requirements, adding a vehicle not used in your business could cause a problem and delay your filings.  While this is not the case with all businesses, discussing this with a qualified agent will help make sense everything.

Tip #4:  Know the Difference Between Certificate Holders and Additional Insureds

Have you gotten the opportunity at a big contract and they but they want to see certain insurance requirements?  Did they want to be listed as a certificate holder, or was it an additional insured.  One only requires  a fax while the other reuqires a change to your business insurance policy that could increase your rates.  When you’re purchasing that commercial insurance policy, make sure you discuss the difference between certificate holders and additional insureds being added to your policy.

Tip #5:  Discuss your business class in detail

Making sure that you agent properly categorizes your business can make the difference between hundreds if not thousand per year in insurance expenses.  Face it , it’s virtually impossible for any one insurance company to have statistics and rates on every single business in the state of Texas.  Business start up and close shop every day.  As a result, make sure that you completely discuss your company’s operations with your insurance agent.  If you have a Sales, service, and manufacturing operations, you want your policy to reflect  that business exposure.  Simply rating your business as a manufacturing company will give you a higher rates.  Instead, make sure to break your business into percentages so that you can get a better idea of your true commercial insurance rates

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