Drive Other Cars and My Partially Stolen Cavalier

One day last summer I was having one of those days where I had more jobs that needed completed than minutes in the day.  Doing my best to multi-task, I was answering a client's question on my blackberry while walking out of the bank.  I grabbed the door handle of the car, lifted it and sat down in the seat without taking my eyes off the email that I was typing.  When the funny odor hit my nose I realized it was time to clean my car; except, I didn't drive a car, or even own a car.  At the time I had an SUV, which meant the Chevy Cavalier that I was sitting in wasn't even mine. 

I didn't drive the Chevy Cavalier that day.  In fact, I slipped out of it as slyly as possible, hoping that no one had witnessed me enter a vehicle that wasn't mine. I would say a majority of the time when we drive vehicles that are not ours, we have permission to drive them.  The other side of the coin is called auto theft and is highly frowned upon by society. When we do drive other people's vehicles with their permission, our personal auto insurance extends to cover our personal auto liability while we are driving that car.  In Ohio, typically the owner's insurance is primary and the driver's insurance is secondary, but what happens if you get behind the wheel of a car that isn't insured? Thankfully you don't have to worry about that if you have a personal auto policy for yourself.  What if you don't have a personal auto policy? What if you insure all of your vehicles on a commercial auto policy? If a commercial auto policy is all that you have, read the following and call your agent to make sure that you have "Drive Other Cars" coverage on your policy.

 Drive Other Car Coverage

Bob Plum is a self employed carpenter who insures his pickup truck on a commercial auto policy.  Bob does not have a personal auto policy because his pickup truck is the only vehicle that he owns.  Bob has done the right thing by insuring his truck on a commercial auto policy because he uses his truck for business purposes and routinely uses it to haul his equipment trailer from job to job.  Since Bob does not have a personal auto policy, we added “Drive Other Car Coverage” or D.O.C  to his commercial auto policy, which gives Bob liability coverage when he drives a vehicle that he does not own.  A personal auto policy automatically comes with this coverage.  For those of you who have both a commercial and personal auto policy, it is not necessary to add “Drive Other Car Coverage” to your commercial auto policy, but it should always be present if a commercial auto policy is the only auto policy that you use to insure your vehicles.