Commercial auto insurance covers vehicles owned, leased, or used by your roofing business. This includes your work trucks, box trucks, trailers carrying equipment, and any vehicle used to transport crews to jobsites. Personal auto policies explicitly exclude vehicles used for business purposes, so any truck that hauls materials, tows a dump trailer, or displays your company logo needs to be on a commercial auto policy.
A standard commercial auto policy includes liability coverage for injuries or damage you cause to others, collision and comprehensive coverage for damage to your own vehicles, uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, and medical payments. Most GC subcontractor agreements require $1 million combined single limit for auto liability. If your crews drive company vehicles daily across town to jobsites, your exposure is significant.
For roofing contractors, commercial auto also covers hired and non-owned auto liability. This is important when employees use their personal vehicles for company errands or when you rent a vehicle for a specific project. Without hired and non-owned auto coverage, a claim arising from an employee driving their personal truck to pick up materials could fall outside your coverage. Make sure every vehicle regularly used in operations is scheduled on your policy, and review your fleet list with your agent at every renewal.