Hired & Non-Owned Auto Insurance for Georgia Home Care Agencies
Here is the exposure most Georgia home care agencies underestimate: your caregivers drive their own cars in the course and scope of business — traveling between your clients, running errands for clients along the way, and sometimes traveling to and from work. When one of them is involved in a serious accident during that work, the injured party’s attorney may not stop at the caregiver’s personal auto policy. They may come for the agency.
Why Caregivers’ Personal Auto Policies May Not Protect Your Agency
Your caregiver's personal auto policy is the first line of coverage in an accident — but because caregiver incomes are modest, most caregivers carry limits at or near state minimums. In a serious accident, those limits can be exhausted almost immediately, and the injured party's attorney may look to the next available source: your agency. Hired & non-owned auto is what stands there when they do.
What Hired & Non-Owned Auto Covers
- Your agency’s liability when employees drive personal vehicles on agency business — travel between clients, errands, transporting clients where your model includes it, and sometimes travel to and from work.
- Defense costs when the agency is named in an auto suit — which, in serious accidents, it often is.
When Do You Need Commercial Auto Insurance?
If your agency owns vehicles, commercial auto handles those — for example, when the owners purchase vehicles through the agency, or a vehicle is provided to a key manager. Hired & non-owned covers everything you do not own but still answer for. For most home care agencies, the non-owned exposure is far larger than the owned — every caregiver with car keys is part of it.
Practical Risk Management, Not Just a Policy
We help Georgia agencies pair this coverage with sensible practices: verifying caregivers carry their own coverage at reasonable limits, checking motor vehicle records at hire, and setting clear rules for client transport. That is the pattern across everything we do — lower the risk first, insure what remains, and make sure the policy matches how your agency operates. Request a Georgia quote and we will walk your exposure with you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Doesn’t my caregiver’s personal auto policy cover an accident on the job?
It is the first line of coverage, but it is rarely the last. Because caregiver incomes are modest, most caregivers carry limits at or near state minimums. In a serious accident those limits can be exhausted almost immediately, and the injured party’s attorney may look to the next available source: your agency. Hired and non-owned auto is what stands there when they do.
What is the difference between hired & non-owned auto and commercial auto?
Commercial auto covers vehicles your agency owns — for example, when the owners purchase vehicles through the agency or a vehicle is provided to a key manager. Hired and non-owned covers everything you do not own but still answer for. For most home care agencies the non-owned exposure is far larger than the owned, because every caregiver with car keys is part of it.
Do I need this coverage if my caregivers never transport clients?
Almost certainly yes. Transporting clients is only one piece of the exposure. Caregivers drive their own cars between your clients, run errands for clients along the way, and sometimes travel to and from work — any of which can fall within the course and scope of your business. The coverage can also pay defense costs when the agency is named in an auto suit, which in serious accidents it often is.
What can I do to reduce my agency’s auto exposure?
Three things, and we help Georgia agencies put all of them in place: verify caregivers carry their own coverage at reasonable limits, check motor vehicle records at hire, and set clear written rules for client transport. That is the pattern across everything we do — lower the risk first, insure what remains, and make sure the policy matches how your agency actually operates.