Business Owners, How Sturdy is the Bodily Injury Liability Coverage on Your Wisconsin Car Insurance Policy?

Business Owners, How Sturdy is the Bodily Injury Liability Coverage on Your Wisconsin Car Insurance Policy?

As a Wisconsin business owner you already know that it's essential to cover all your bases. You want to make sure your business is well insured, your employees are well trained and your shelves are always well stocked with the tools of your trade. But how well does your Wisconsin car insurance policy measure up? Are you really ready for an emergency, or are you just cutting a check and crossing your fingers?

If your company provides in-home services, you have regular delivery drivers

You made sure your business was ready for anything. But is your car insurance?

or you happen to be one of the owners of UPS you already know that a good auto insurance policy is a must to keeping your business in the black-and not just because you want to see the fines Wisconsin is going to slap on you if you don't! But what about the little guy? The one who only sends its employees out to run errands every once in a while? The one who only carries commercial insurance to cover mass transport to company events?

If your bodily injury liability coverage isn't up to snuff you're going to feel the backlash just like everybody else.

Why You Need Commercial Bodily Liability Coverage on Your Wisconsin Car Insurance Policy

Did you know that if one of your employees gets into an accident on company time, whether they're dropping off the company dry cleaning or just running down to the market to get everyone some lunch, their personal car insurance policy may not cover their expenses? It's a "business expense", and they expect their employers to have it covered. After all, if you hadn't sent them out they wouldn't have had an accident, comprende?

What Bodily Liability Coverage Actually Covers

Every time you or one of your employees causes an accident on company time your business is going to be held responsible for the damages resulting from that accident-and we're not just talking about a few scraped bumpers. If the driver of the other car(s) or their passengers are injured in any way, shape or form you're going to be held responsible for their medical expenses too.

Sounds fair, right? So where does your Wisconsin car insurance come in?

Have you seen what doctors and hospitals are charging for medical care these days? A single 24 hour stay in the ICU can cost $5,000 or more. The average stay in the ICU is 3 days. Then there's the cost of a regular hospital stay (about $1,000 a day), the trip to the ER ($80 for the ambulance ride, $400 for radiology, $300 to the lab for a full workup, $250 just to see the doc), their painkillers ($80 a bottle x however long they need the prescription), follow-up care (at $80 and office visit) and physical therapy (at $120 or more per day).

These costs are just estimates based on personal experience, but you can see where they'd add up fast!

Since you don't want to be paying all that out of pocket, or even out of your business expenses, it's a good idea to make sure your Wisconsin car insurance policy is up to the challenge. Most car insurance companies recommend you carry a minimum of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident in bodily liability insurance, and it's easy to see why. Failing to do so can plunge your small business back in the red before you can say "boo."

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• Business Owners, How Sturdy is the Bodily Injury Liability Coverage on Your Wisconsin Car Insurance Policy? - Oct 16, 2009 - 10:12:31 PM