# confusion over "business" insurance vs "commercial" insurance



## hanging in there (Oct 1, 2014)

I have read many posts in this forum that seem to point to this common point of confusion. Many people equate "business" and "commercial" as meaning the same thing. I would like to point out that, as far as the insurance market goes, they are two different animals.

Many if not most of the insurance companies that offer "personal" insurance can also offer a business endorsement to that policy that allows for the normal expected use of that vehicle for business purposes such as for a traveling salesman, route driver, delivering supplies and equipment etc. As part of this business use it is often expected that there will be higher than "normal" mileage use compared to the typical personal use policy.

So, please, don't take me literally since I'm not an insurance expert in any way, just a casual shopper and observer, but let's say it might cost roughly double for a typical business use policy compared to the same one for personal use from or indirectly through the same company.

Compared to... a "commercial" insurance policy which is designed for livery use, or for driving jobs such as OTR truck driving, which could easily run up to 10x or more the cost of a personal insurance policy, even if the expected mileage usage is the the same. Most if not all of the insurance carriers that write personal or business policies DO NOT EVEN OFFER commercial, that is an entirely separate specialized niche market handled by a much smaller assortment of companies. In many markets where you might have dozens of potential carriers to choose from for personal or business use you might only have 2 or 3 carriers available for commercial coverage, and they tend to be very picky and selective and their pricing can vary widely.


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## Jimmy Lee Hagerty (Nov 2, 2014)

thanks for the clarification. I will look into it.


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