Business Insurance For Auto Dealers

Dealers Open Lot Coverage For Vehicle Inventory

For the rows of units that are the business.

Dealers open lot coverage, written alongside your commercial auto program, may cover the vehicle inventory itself, on the lot, in transit from auction, or at an off-site event, against theft, vandalism, fire, flood, and the hailstorm every dealer in hail country eventually meets. Floor-planned units add a second reader to the policy, since the lender expects loss payee status and honest stated values.

Dealers open lot coverage can help pay for:

• Hail, flood, and storm damage across the inventory.
• Theft and vandalism of units held for sale.
• Damage to vehicles in transit and at off-site sales.

Workers Compensation For Dealership Staff

For the techs, porters, and sales floor staff on your payroll.

Workers' compensation for auto dealers may cover medical bills and lost wages when an employee is hurt at work, from a tech under a lift to a porter moving units across a wet lot. Most states require it once you hire, with rules that vary by state, and the payroll split among service, sales, and office should be reported accurately.

Workers' compensation can help pay for:

• Medical care after shop and lot injuries.
• Lost wages during recovery.
• Employer liability defense.

Business Owners Policy For Dealerships

For the building, contents, and income behind the operation.

Most dealerships are written on garage programs rather than a standard business owners policy, and an honest agent says so, but the BOP's jobs still need doing: property coverage for the showroom, shop equipment, and parts inventory, and business income for a covered shutdown. We build those into the garage program where the package form does not fit. Here is how a BOP works for operations that do qualify.

Property and package coverage can help pay for:

• Covered losses to the showroom, shop, and parts inventory.
• Damage to lifts, tools, and office equipment.
• Lost income during a covered closure.

Also worth pricing as the store grows: the motor vehicle dealer bond your state license requires, employment practices liability for the sales floor, employee dishonesty and crime coverage for a cash- and title-heavy office, excess liability for franchise and lender limits, and our wider auto services programs for the shop side.

What's Not Covered Under These Policies

Every policy above has an edge, and dealer claims get denied at predictable points. These are the gaps we check on every incoming store.

• The inventory under liability coverage alone. The units are property held for sale, and only dealers open lot coverage insures them, at limits that must track your seasonal peaks.
• Customers' vehicles in your care, custody, or control without garagekeepers, the service department's whole exposure.
• A vehicle stolen by fraud, the fake identity that finances a car and vanishes, unless false pretense coverage is on the policy.
• Hail and flood losses above the weather deductibles many open-lot forms carry are worth reading before storm season, not after.
• Injuries to your own staff, which belong to workers' compensation rather than liability coverage.
• Title, odometer, and paperwork errors without a dealer's errors-and-omissions coverage part.
• Employment disputes on the sales floor that involve employment practices liability.
• Undisclosed personal use of dealer plates, a habit adjusters find fast.