# Insurance Question



## IA Farmer (Nov 7, 2004)

I started plowing for the first time last year and I called my insurane agent and he said unless I was going to plow commercially my pickup insurance is all I needed Does that sound right to you all or do I need more insurance then that. Any advise would be great. Thanks


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## Young Pup (Aug 13, 2004)

What are you using the plow for? I believe your insurance agent might be mistaken. I think you need General Liability. I would call some other agents in your area and get their opinion. Your need to be covered in case you hit someone with the plow. They could take every thing that you own if you don't have the proper insurance.

Do a search on inusurance and you will find a lot of good advice on here from the veterans on here.


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## Mick (May 19, 2001)

First, let's make sure of the terminology. If you are accepting any compensation for plowing (ie: money), you are engaged in commercial plowing.

If the only plowing you do is property owned by you, your homeowner's insurance will usually cover liability.


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## lawnmedic (Jan 9, 2004)

Your truck insurance will cover any damage caused by your truck/plow as long as it is business class. General liability insurance only covers you if you are sued, someone slipping on ice after you left, your snow thrower shoots a rock out and it kills someone, ETC......


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## Young Pup (Aug 13, 2004)

Lawnmedic,

I agree with you but I just reread his post and it seems like he just has regular car insurance. So i think he needs both. Which in this case his agent told him something wrong. Now if he has business inusrance than that is different as we both know. 

JP


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## IA Farmer (Nov 7, 2004)

Yes all I have now is regular auto insurance. How much are you guys paying for business class and general liability insurance? Thanks for the help I dont really want to get sued and lose everything.


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## bobingardner (Jul 18, 2004)

I live in Massachusetts and every agent I spoke to said the same thing. If I have an accident involving the truck on my property my personal auto insurance would cover it and I'd be penalized for the following 6 years. An accident on my property not involving my truck, such as throwing a rock through a window with the snowblower, would be covered by my homeowners. No accidents on other people's property involving my truck would be covered by my personal auto coverage if they could prove I had any type of agreement to plow that person's property on a regular basis, whether I was being paid or not. They said the only way I could get coverage in that case would be to get commercial auto insurance. They also said I would still be penalized for 6 years even if I stoped plowing and switched back to personal auto coverage.


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## DJL (Oct 28, 2003)

IMO, I'd drop that insurance agent quicker than you can say "duh".  

What, residentials can't turn around and sue for slip n' falls? Ya, and I'm the pope. Am I missing something here? Why would he/she say you wouldn't need it unless you were doing it commercially? By commercially does your agent mean getting paid=commercial? Sorry, really confused here


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## johntwist (Feb 10, 2004)

Yes, I'm confused too.

bobingardner, just for s***s & grin's why don't you check out my thread on this same page about liability insurance to see what I found out, I'm in Mass. also. I don't know if it'll be of any help to the member from IA who started the thread, but obviously this situation must vary from state to state.

All I know for sure is that commercial truck insurance covering your plow and liability insurance covering your a** are two separate things here in the Bay State.


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## bobingardner (Jul 18, 2004)

johntwist said:


> Yes, I'm confused too.
> 
> All I know for sure is that commercial truck insurance covering your plow and liability insurance covering your a** are two separate things here in the Bay State.


I agree about the need to have a seperate liability policy. My previous post was in regards to damage caused by the truck only. They said the liability will be about $1500 per year but I haven't followed up on that yet.


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## northernsweeper (Aug 26, 2004)

I have a general liability policy for the business. This policy covers whatever damage I may do while I am at a work site. It will not cover any damage or accidents to or from the work site.
Your personal auto insurance will not cover you if the vehicle is used for any type of commercial work. They will not even insure it. Thus you are required to carry a commercial vehicle insurance policy on your work vehicle. This policy is over and above your general liability policy. In my state(Mn.),and in my case, each additional business vehicle I insure,costs an extra 800-1,000 per year (liabilty only on the vehicle).
Also make sure you are aware of the distance you are allowed to travel under your commercial policy. If your policy distance is stated at 150 miles on a particular vehicle, and you have an accident with that vehicle 185 miles from your base of operations, they may frown on paying.  At least this is the way I understand it  Hope everyone has a GREAT season!!


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## DJL (Oct 28, 2003)

northernsweeper said:


> I have a general liability policy for the business. This policy covers whatever damage I may do while I am at a work site. It will not cover any damage or accidents to or from the work site.
> Your personal auto insurance will not cover you if the vehicle is used for any type of commercial work. They will not even insure it. Thus you are required to carry a commercial vehicle insurance policy on your work vehicle. This policy is over and above your general liability policy. In my state(Mn.),and in my case, each additional business vehicle I insure,costs an extra 800-1,000 per year (liabilty only on the vehicle).
> Also make sure you are aware of the distance you are allowed to travel under your commercial policy. If your policy distance is stated at 150 miles on a particular vehicle, and you have an accident with that vehicle 185 miles from your base of operations, they may frown on paying.  At least this is the way I understand it  Hope everyone has a GREAT season!!


Are you sure you are not confused. They ask for mileage on my insurance form but that gives them an idea of amount of mileage traveled per day/wk/yr and my insurance premiums are based on that.


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## Mick (May 19, 2001)

DJL, he may very well be limited in the range of operations. For the first two years of my GL policy, I was limited to 25 miles from my "base of operations" (my home). There was no effect on cost of the policy, I simply could not plow snow more than 25 miles from the base. A couple of years ago, they removed the distance limitation along with quite a bit of other restrictions.


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## DJL (Oct 28, 2003)

Very interesting. I have to go triple check my insurance policy and ask my insurance agents about it.


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## Bigfoot (Nov 24, 2004)

*Need help in NY*

Can anyone recommend an agent that writes policies in NY? I've been searching around but haven't been able to find a company. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## trent (May 3, 2006)

RAM_ON97 said:


> I started plowing for the first time last year and I called my insurane agent and he said unless I was going to plow commercially my pickup insurance is all I needed Does that sound right to you all or do I need more insurance then that. Any advise would be great. Thanks


This may be an old thread but for the benifit of the viewers of this forum to shop for online for insurance. I checked on the net found it to be easier. So for those who are in a similar situation, go online when shopping for insurance. The place I went to is www.insurancepaylite.com they were able to give a quote that was acceptable to me in the speediest time. Anyways hope this helps you guys.


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