12.5 Commercial Auto Endorsements

Drive Other Car (DOC) Endorsement

The Drive Other Car (DOC) endorsement (CA 99 10) solves a coverage gap for a person — typically a corporate executive — who does not own a personal auto and instead drives a company car. Because the Business Auto policy covers the business, that individual has no liability, medical-payments, or UM protection when driving a non-owned auto for personal use (such as a borrowed or rented car on vacation).

DOC names the specific individual and extends the listed coverages to that person as though they had a Personal Auto Policy. It is, in effect, a personal-auto safety net layered onto a commercial policy for an executive whose only car is the company vehicle.

DOC also adds medical payments, uninsured/underinsured motorist, and physical damage for the named individual and resident family members when they drive a non-owned auto for personal use. The endorsement is essential precisely because the BACF's "who is an insured" language excludes the named insured (and its officers) when using an auto the business does not own — the policy was never meant to be the executive's personal coverage.

Without DOC, a CEO who borrows a friend's car on the weekend has no liability coverage at all. The endorsement should be reviewed annually because an executive who buys a personal car no longer needs it, and one who sells their personal car suddenly does.

Hired and Non-Owned Physical Damage

Recall that Symbol 8 (hired autos) grants liability only. To insure damage to a rented or borrowed auto, the insured needs the Hired Auto Physical Damage endorsement, which adds Comprehensive and Collision for hired autos. The endorsement usually states a limit (e.g., the highest value of any one hired auto) and a deductible.

Worked example: A contractor rents an excavator-hauling trailer worth $28,000. The Hired Auto Physical Damage endorsement has a $24,000 limit and a $1,000 deductible. A collision destroys the trailer. The insurer pays the lesser of ACV or the limit, less the deductible: the $24,000 limit applies, then $24,000 − $1,000 = $23,000, leaving the insured to absorb the $4,000 above the limit plus the deductible.

The endorsement also covers loss-of-use (the rental company's lost revenue) the insured is legally or contractually obligated to pay, subject to a daily and aggregate cap — important because car-rental contracts routinely make the renter responsible for downtime.

A related option is Auto Loan/Lease Gap Coverage, which pays the difference between the auto's ACV and the outstanding loan or lease balance after a total loss, sparing the insured from owing money on a destroyed vehicle. Producers should pair Hired Auto Physical Damage with Symbol 8 liability whenever a client routinely rents vehicles, because Symbol 8 alone leaves the rented unit's own damage uninsured.

Convenience and Lessor Endorsements

Several endorsements add personal-auto-style features or address financed vehicles:

• Rental Reimbursement (CA 99 23) — pays a daily amount (e.g., $40/day up to $1,200) for a substitute vehicle while a covered auto is repaired after a covered physical-damage loss.
• Towing and Labor — reimburses towing and on-site labor for private passenger covered autos.
• Lessor – Additional Insured and Loss Payee (CA 20 01) — names the leasing company or lender as an additional insured for liability and as a loss payee for physical damage on a leased or financed auto. The lessor is protected against the insured's acts and is paid directly for damage to its asset.

The Lessor endorsement deserves extra attention because leased fleets are common. It adds the lessor as an additional insured for the maintenance, operation, or use of the leased auto, and it protects the lessor's interest in physical damage even if the named insured's own coverage is voided by an act the lessor did not commit — similar to a standard mortgage clause on property insurance.

The lessor's interest cannot exceed the actual cash value of the auto. Producers should confirm the lease agreement's required limits and have the certificate match them, because a financing contract that demands $1,000,000 CSL is not satisfied by a $500,000 policy.

Pollution and Specialty Endorsements

The standard commercial auto pollution exclusion bars coverage for cleanup and bodily injury/property damage from pollutants, with narrow exceptions. The Pollution Liability – Broadened Coverage for Covered Autos (CA 99 48) restores limited coverage for pollution caused by fuels, lubricants, and fluids needed for the auto's operation and for pollutants being transported, subject to conditions. It does not turn the auto policy into an environmental policy.

Other specialty endorsements include Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist add-ons, the Mobile Equipment endorsement (which can bring certain self-propelled equipment under auto rather than CGL), and Audio/Visual/Data Electronic Equipment coverage for permanently installed devices. Match the endorsement to the exposure: pollution to spilled fluids, CA 99 48 not CGL.

Use this quick map of endorsement-to-problem to lock in the section:

The exam rewards candidates who can read a fact pattern, name the single exposure, and select the one endorsement that closes it — not the one that merely sounds related.