I have no company vehicles. Does the auto requirement apply?

Usually the contract still wants hired and non-owned auto liability, which covers vehicles you rent and employees’ own cars used for work. It can be added to many general liability or business owner’s policies, or written alone.

Does CA 20 48 make my policy primary for the general contractor?

Not by itself. Whether the auto policy is primary for them depends on the policy’s other insurance condition and any primary wording endorsement, which varies by carrier. Ask if the contract requires primary and non-contributory on auto.

Can you check the insurance requirements in my contract?

Yes. Paste the insurance section into our free Contract Insurance Decoder and it names the endorsement behind each clause, flags the ones that are often missing, and prints a checklist, without the text leaving your browser. Send that with your current policy and a licensed agent compares them line by line, usually the same business day.

An HVAC contractor beside his white work van with ladders on the roof rack at a commercial job site at dusk, holding a phone and a folded document

What do CA 20 48 and CA 04 44 do on a commercial auto policy?

CA 20 48, Designated Insured For Covered Autos Liability Coverage, makes the general contractor an insured on your business auto policy, but only for liability arising from what you and your drivers do; it does not cover their own vehicles or their own driving. CA 04 44, Waiver Of Transfer Of Rights Of Recovery Against Others To Us, stops your auto insurer recovering from them after it pays.

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The forms, side by side

Form	What it does	Blanket or scheduled	Carrier availability	What to ask your agent	Common trap
CA 20 48	Makes the party an insured for liability from your covered autos	Scheduled; carrier blankets exist	Widely available	Is the general contractor on CA 20 48 or a blanket?	It does not cover their own trucks or drivers
CA 04 44	Waives your auto insurer’s recovery against them	Either	Widely available	Is CA 04 44 on the auto policy?	Only the general liability waiver gets added
Symbols 8 and 9	Hired and non-owned autos	Not an endorsement	Widely available	Which covered auto symbols do we have?	Employees driving personal cars to the site with no non-owned coverage

CA 20 48
What it does
Makes the party an insured for liability from your covered autos
Blanket or scheduled
Scheduled; carrier blankets exist
Carrier availability
Widely available
What to ask your agent
Is the general contractor on CA 20 48 or a blanket?
Common trap
It does not cover their own trucks or drivers
CA 04 44
What it does
Waives your auto insurer’s recovery against them
Blanket or scheduled
Either
Carrier availability
Widely available
What to ask your agent
Is CA 04 44 on the auto policy?
Common trap
Only the general liability waiver gets added
Symbols 8 and 9
What it does
Hired and non-owned autos
Blanket or scheduled
Not an endorsement
Carrier availability
Widely available
What to ask your agent
Which covered auto symbols do we have?
Common trap
Employees driving personal cars to the site with no non-owned coverage

The detail

CA 20 48 is the ISO business auto endorsement titled Designated Insured For Covered Autos Liability Coverage (current edition CA 20 48 10 13, issued with the CA 00 01 10 13 business auto form).
ISO CA 20 48 10 13, as listed on issued business auto policies
Under CA 20 48 10 13, each scheduled person or organization is an insured for Covered Autos Liability Coverage, but only to the extent it qualifies as an insured under the Who Is An Insured provision of the coverage form; the endorsement states it does not alter coverage provided in the coverage form.
CA 20 48 10 13 as filed by a carrier
CA 04 44, Waiver Of Transfer Of Rights Of Recovery Against Others To Us (Waiver Of Subrogation), switches off the recovery condition for the scheduled parties, but only to the extent subrogation is waived before the accident or loss under a contract with that party.
CA 04 44 03 10 as filed by a carrier
On the business auto coverage form CA 00 01 10 13, covered auto symbol 1 is any auto, symbol 8 is hired autos only and symbol 9 is non-owned autos only, which includes autos owned by your employees used in your business.
ISO Business Auto Coverage Form CA 00 01 10 13, specimen published by Sonoma County

What this means for you

The auto requests ride on the general liability line. A contract sentence asking for additional insured and a waiver "on all required policies" includes the auto policy. Certificates often show the general liability endorsements and nothing under auto.
Hired and non-owned is the common gap. A contractor whose employees drive their own trucks to the site needs non-owned auto coverage even with no company vehicles.
Limits usually match general liability. $1,000,000 combined single limit is the common requirement, with the umbrella above it for larger jobs.

Go deeper on any of these

Need this handled?

Reading about it and having it handled are different jobs, and the second one is ours. We place the accounts other brokers decline — claims history, a cancellation, an unusual operation, a business nobody wants to underwrite twice — and we will tell you when the policy you already have is the right one. Tell us the situation and a licensed human replies the same business day.