What It Covers

Commercial Auto covers vehicles titled to or regularly used by your business for liability (bodily injury and property damage to others in an at-fault accident), as well as physical damage coverage for your own vehicles — including collision, comprehensive, and specified perils. Coverage applies to trucks, vans, trailers, and specialized mobile welding rigs. It also extends to hired auto (rented vehicles) and non-owned auto (employee vehicles used for business) when those endorsements are added. Trailer coverage — including coverage for welding equipment trailers — requires specific attention to ensure it's properly structured.

Why It Matters for Welding Businesses

A personal auto policy will not cover accidents that occur while a vehicle is being used for business purposes — even a single business errand. Mobile welders, contractors, and shops that move equipment between locations face significant auto exposure every day. A fully loaded welding rig traveling to a jobsite is a substantial piece of equipment, and an accident involving it can generate claims far exceeding personal auto policy limits. Separate from the financial exposure, clients and general contractors require Commercial Auto certificates as a condition of showing up on their projects.

Who Needs It

Any welding business with vehicles titled in the business name, or that regularly uses vehicles for business operations: mobile welders with service trucks and rigs, welding contractors with field vehicle fleets, fabrication shops and machine shops making deliveries or picking up material, testing and inspection firms driving to jobsites, pipe welding and industrial maintenance contractors with crew transport, and welding supply businesses with delivery trucks. If a vehicle touches business operations, a commercial policy is required.

Common Triggers

Vehicles titled to the business; contract requirements from general contractors or project owners; vehicles used to transport welding equipment, gas cylinders, or finished fabrications; employees regularly driving vehicles for company business; trailer towing for welding equipment.

Welding Industry Examples

• A mobile welding rig is involved in a serious accident while traveling to a remote jobsite — the personal auto policy denies the claim because the truck was in business use.

• A service truck loaded with welding leads, torches, and gas cylinders rear-ends another vehicle at a stoplight, causing injury and vehicle damage.

• A fabrication shop's delivery van is at fault in an accident while making a steel component delivery to a construction site.

• A trailer hauling a portable welding generator disconnects on the highway and causes a multi-vehicle accident.

• A welding inspector's company vehicle is totaled in a parking lot accident — commercial auto covers the physical damage.

• A pipe welding crew's van is stolen from a motel parking lot while on a remote pipeline project — theft coverage under the commercial auto policy responds.