Insurance when a company vehicle hits youOften several policies, paid in a set order.

This page is for people hurt by a vehicle driven for a business who need to know which insurance answers for it. It covers the order of coverage, the legal minimums, self-insured companies, denials, and how to get insurance information from a company that will not give it. It does not cover whether the company is legally responsible in the first place, which is in our guide to suing the company. Every company vehicle topic is on our Los Angeles commercial vehicle accident lawyer page.

Coverage by situation

Insurance Code section 11580.9(d) says that when two or more policies cover the same vehicle in a crash, the policy "in which the motor vehicle is described or rated as an owned automobile shall be primary and the insurance afforded by any other policy or policies shall be excess." Primary coverage pays first. Excess coverage pays only after the primary limit is used up. The statute has its own exceptions for vehicle businesses, rentals and loading, so the table below is a map, not a promise.

Company-owned vehicles

A vehicle the company owns or leases is usually covered by a business auto policy. The California Department of Insurance's Commercial Insurance Guide says a business auto policy "has the flexibility to provide coverage for business, personal, non-owned, or hired autos based on the coverage purchased," and that these policies "commonly utilize a Combined Single Limit." A combined single limit is one dollar cap for all injury and property damage in a crash, instead of separate per-person caps.

Every California auto liability policy has to cover permissive users. Insurance Code section 11580.1(b)(4) requires coverage for the named insured and, "to the same extent," for "any other person using the motor vehicle" with the named insured's express or implied permission. An employee driving the company van is the ordinary example. The legal minimum for a policy issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025 is $30,000 for one person, $60,000 for two or more and $15,000 for property, under Vehicle Code section 16056.

Employees in their own cars

When an employee drives a personal car for work, the employee's own policy lists that car as an owned automobile, so under section 11580.9(d) it is ordinarily the primary policy. Coverage the business bought for autos it does not own sits behind it. Because the Department of Insurance describes non-owned and hired auto coverage as available "based on the coverage purchased," whether that layer exists is a question to ask in writing, not an assumption.

The company can be responsible for the crash even if it bought no such coverage. If the employee was acting within the scope of employment, the employer answers for the driving under the rules in our guide to suing the company, and the employee's personal limits do not cap what the employer owes.

Trucks and motor carriers

Federal minimums apply to some trucks, not all. Under 49 CFR 387.9, a for-hire carrier hauling non-hazardous property in interstate commerce in a vehicle rated 10,001 pounds or more must carry at least $750,000, and oil or listed hazardous materials raise the floor to $1,000,000 or $5,000,000. Section 387.3 limits those rules to for-hire and hazardous materials carriers and excludes most vehicles under 10,001 pounds. Many delivery vans, and a private company hauling its own non-hazardous goods, have no federal floor.

California covers part of that gap for carriers operating inside the state. Vehicle Code section 34631.5 requires every motor carrier of property to carry a combined single limit of at least $750,000, or $300,000 for a carrier that operates only vehicles under 10,000 pounds and hauls no hazardous materials or bulk petroleum. Under section 34630, the certificate on file with the DMV must cover "any vehicle for which a permit is required, although the vehicle may not be specifically described in the policy." According to the CHP's permit FAQ, a carrier engaged solely in interstate transportation is not subject to the California permit.

Excess coverage and federal endorsements

Coverage often comes in layers. Federal rules define primary security as coverage "responsible for the first dollar of coverage" and excess security as coverage "above the primary security" (49 CFR 387.303T). The Department of Transportation's open data on federal insurance filings, the Motus insurance dataset, marks each filed policy as primary or excess and lists its limit, its underlying limit and the insurer's name. A filing shows what an insurer reported for the federal requirement, so it may not show every layer a company carries.

For-hire interstate carriers also carry the federal MCS-90 endorsement, a federally required promise to the public attached to their policy. On the form itself, the insurer agrees to pay "any final judgment recovered against the insured for public liability" from covered vehicles "regardless of whether or not each motor vehicle is specifically described in the policy." It pays only up to the federal minimum, it does not cover the carrier's own employees, and the carrier must reimburse the insurer for anything the policy itself would not have paid. Whether it reaches a particular trip can depend on the facts.

Self-insured companies

Self-insured means a company pays claims from its own funds instead of buying a policy for that layer of risk. It is a regulated status, not an absence of coverage. Under 49 CFR 387.309, an interstate carrier may self-insure only with federal approval, adequate net worth, "a sound self-insurance program" that may include "excess insurance coverage," and a "satisfactory" safety rating. The authority "will automatically expire 30 days after a carrier receives a less than satisfactory rating."

California treats self-insurance as coverage too. A motor carrier's certificate of self-insurance counts only toward the $750,000 and $300,000 tiers, under Vehicle Code section 34631(c). Insurance Code section 11580.2(b) says an "uninsured motor vehicle" does not include one "self-insured within the meaning of the Financial Responsibility Law of the state in which the motor vehicle is registered." A company that says it is self-insured is telling you where the claim goes, not that nothing stands behind it.

Some self-insured companies and insurers use a claims administrator, a separate company whose adjusters handle the file. The adjuster who calls may work for that administrator rather than for the company. Ask in writing for the legal name of the self-insured company, the administrator's role and claim number, whether insurance sits above the self-insured amount, and where a claim or lawsuit should be sent.

Driver not on the policy

A denial because the driver "was not on the policy" often starts the analysis rather than ending it. Section 11580.1(b)(4) requires coverage for anyone using an owned vehicle with permission and within its scope, so a policy does not need to list every driver. The real exception is narrower: under section 11580.1(d)(1), a policy may exclude a driver designated by name, and that agreement binds "every third-party claimant." The permissive-user rule also applies only up to the section 16056 minimums; coverage above them can be written differently.

Other routes remain when a denial holds. The owner is liable for a permitted driver under Vehicle Code section 17150, though section 17151 caps that at $15,000 for one person when it does not arise from employment or agency. An employer that sent the driver out is liable without that cap. And when the vehicle's insurer "denies coverage," section 11580.2(b) counts the vehicle as uninsured for your own UM claim.

One California case shows the pieces working together. In Century-National Ins. Co. v. Global Hawk Ins. Co. (2012) 203 Cal.App.4th 1458, a trucking insurer denied a claim involving a truck not described in its policy. The injured driver collected uninsured motorist benefits under his employer's policy, and the Court of Appeal held the trucking insurer had to reimburse that payment under its MCS-90 endorsement.

Rental trucks and app drivers

A rental or leasing company is usually not the party that pays. The federal Graves Amendment, 49 U.S.C. section 30106, says a company in the business of renting or leasing vehicles is not liable "by reason of being the owner" when "there is no negligence or criminal wrongdoing on the part of the owner." In Tavares v. Zipcar, Inc. (Cal. Ct. App., Jan. 30, 2026), the Court of Appeal held that the amendment "preempts state laws, such as Vehicle Code section 17150, which impose vicarious liability on the owners of leased or rented vehicles based solely on their ownership." The claim runs against the driver, the business that rented the truck, and the rental company only for its own fault, such as poor maintenance. Our guide to box truck accidents covers rental and moving trucks.

App-based delivery has its own statute. Under Business and Professions Code section 7455(f)(1), a delivery network company must maintain "automobile liability insurance of at least one million dollars ($1,000,000) per occurrence" for crashes during engaged time, where the car "is not otherwise covered" by a compliant policy. Engaged time runs from when the driver accepts a delivery request to when the driver completes it, as recorded in the app, under section 7463. Our pages on delivery app driver accidents and Amazon delivery van accidents cover the details.

Government and federal vehicles

A public vehicle changes the coverage picture. Section 11580.2(b) says an uninsured motor vehicle does not include one "owned by the United States of America, Canada, a state or political subdivision of any of those governments or an agency of any of the foregoing." Your UM coverage generally does not step in for a city truck or a county van; the claim runs against the agency itself. The government vehicle's driver also does not have to file the DMV accident report known as the SR-1, under Vehicle Code section 16000(b).

Getting the insurance information

The law gives several routes around a company that will not answer. At the scene, Vehicle Code section 16025 requires every driver involved to exchange names, addresses, license numbers and "evidence of financial responsibility." If that is insurance, the driver must supply "the name and address of the insurance company and the number of the insurance policy." A business card alone is not what the statute requires.

A lawsuit removes the guesswork. Code of Civil Procedure section 2017.210 lets a party obtain "discovery of the existence and contents of any agreement under which any insurance carrier may be liable to satisfy in whole or in part a judgment," including "the identity of the carrier and the nature and limits of the coverage." The same section adds that this information "is not by reason of disclosure admissible in evidence at trial." To identify the company in the first place, our tool for finding the company behind the vehicle lists the markings and numbers to record.

Releases and recorded statements

An insurer or administrator may ask early for a recorded statement or offer a quick payment with a release. A release is a signed document that ends your claim against the people it names, usually in exchange for payment. Before you have advice, ask for any request in writing and sign nothing that releases a claim. Our post on the documents an adjuster sends explains what each one does, and we handle the recorded statement for our clients.

Your own coverage

Your own policy is the backstop when the company's coverage is missing, denied or too small. Under section 11580.2(a)(1), a California policy must include uninsured motorist (UM) coverage unless the named insured deletes or reduces it by written agreement. Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage applies after the at-fault vehicle's liability limits "have been exhausted by payment of judgments or settlements," and pays up to your UIM limit less what the at-fault side paid.

Within two years of the accident, you must sue the uninsured motorist, reach agreement with your insurer, or formally demand arbitration by certified mail, under section 11580.2(i)(1). For a hit-and-run company vehicle, the statute requires physical contact, a report to police within 24 hours, and a sworn statement to your insurer within 30 days. Our page on uninsured motorist claims covers the process, and our guide on when insurance is not enough covers serious injuries that exceed every policy.

Coverage outside this guide

• You were the employee driving. Your claim against your own employer usually runs through workers' compensation, and a claim against another company's driver runs beside it under Labor Code section 3852.
• You were a rideshare passenger. Section 7455(f)(2) sends Uber and Lyft coverage to the Public Utilities Code, explained on our rideshare insurance coverage page.
• The driver was not working. A company logo does not make a personal trip a business one, and the claim may be an ordinary car accident claim, covered on our Los Angeles car accident lawyer page.
• Only cargo or freight was damaged. This page covers injury and death claims, not claims for lost or damaged goods.

A first offer is not a measure of the coverage. In one of our cases, a semi sideswiped our client on the freeway. The first offer was $100,000, and the case settled for $6,300,000 on the eve of trial.

The order of coverage

Whose insurance pays is usually answered by more than one policy, in order: the policy on the vehicle, then any excess or business coverage, then your own UIM, with a responsible company standing behind its driver. A self-insured company, a denial or a silent company changes where the claim goes; it does not end the claim by itself.

We identify each layer, request the documents that prove it, and track the deadline that applies, including the six-month claim for a public vehicle. There is no fee unless we recover.