Can you help me find a commercial auto insurance company?
I’m interested in starting a car rental company. The business model is fairly high risk, and I’m having trouble finding a company that will provide auto insurance. The company will be located in Orlando, FL. If you know of any resources I can look into please let me know. I have contacted GMAC and all the major companies like Statefarm, Nationwide, etc.
Thanks so much! Good information and advice. I really appreciate it.
Look, your attorney, who you’re hiring, has connections to find someone who can do this.
See, the vast, vast majority of people who think about doing this, can’t afford it.
If you came to ME asking for a quote, I’d charge you a $1,000 brokers fee for my time, because odds are very, very slim that you’re going to go through with this – and, you’re right, it’s an extremely high risk business.
Let’s start with the cars. Physical damage on these cars, is going to be prohibitively expensive – three times the cost of the car. Car rental companies pay cash for the cars, they don’t have car loans.
Liability, will depend on the contract your lawyer has drawn up – and your loss control processes. But commercial auto policies for rental car companies, will have a DEDUCTIBLE on the liability section, usually a MINIMUM Of $5,000. Even so, with that big fat deductible, you should budget $5,000 per car, for EXCESS liability – that means, it doesn’t cover AT ALL if the person driving is uninsured.
You won’t find a Standard company like STate Farm, Nationwide, Allstate, Farmers, to write this. Your coverage will either be through a nonadmitted carrier, or your state assigned risk pool – which I"m not sure Florida even HAS.
You need an INDEPENDENT agent, specializing in transportation risks. You can find one, actually, you’ll get a list, by typing your zip code in to http://www.iiaba.net, and start calling down the line. Most of them will think the same thing I think when I get these calls – it’s just busy work and you’ll never end up buying coverage. So don’t be surprised if THEY want to charge a brokers fee to get the quote, also – refundable if you end up actually buying the insurance.
It takes MILLIONS of dollars invested to start a car rental company. And the people who rent cars, trash cars – ALL THE TIME. Deliberately – vandalizing them on the inside. That’s why there aren’t very many of them.
Your problem is the fact that you are approaching insurance companies directly. As you have already found out standard carriers such as Nationwide, State Farm and other name brand companies would not touch this type of risk.
What you need to do is contact an independent agent in your area that works with commercial accounts. An independent agent has access to what in the insurance industry is called the surplus lines market. Surplus lines carriers specialize in underwriting high risk operations. That being said you might find that even these carriers are not interested in your "fairly high risk’ venture. It is possible that the only market available will be Florida assigned risk.
Do yourself a favor look in the yellow pages for an independent agent.
You need to consult a commercial insurance broker – not directly approach insurers.