Does hired and non-owned auto cover damage to the caregiver’s car?

No. It covers the agency’s liability to other people. Damage to the caregiver’s own car is a matter for the caregiver’s collision coverage.

Our regional center contract requires $1M hired and non-owned auto. Can we add it to our general liability?

Often, yes. Many carriers that write care agencies add it to the general liability or the package by endorsement; others write it separately. Either way it shows on the certificate as auto liability with hired and non-owned marked.

Does the caregiver need to tell their own insurer they drive for work?

Yes. The personal form covers business use of a car, but the application asks about use and the rate reflects it. An undisclosed work use is a dispute waiting for a claim.

We provide non-emergency medical transportation. Is hired and non-owned enough?

No. Transportation billed as a service is a commercial auto risk, usually on vehicles the business owns or schedules, and Medicaid transportation programs set their own limits.

Will a certificate show which caregivers are covered drivers?

Not under hired and non-owned, which covers the agency for any employee driving their own car rather than named drivers. Commercial auto on agency vehicles can list drivers. If a funder asks for drivers by name, send us the request.

A home care aide in scrubs holding open the door of her own car for an older woman with a cane outside a single-story house at sunset

Does my caregiver’s car insurance cover driving clients?

Partly. A caregiver’s personal auto policy usually covers business use of an ordinary car, pickup or van, so it answers first, at the caregiver’s own limits, which may be as low as the state minimum. It excludes carrying people for a fee as a public or livery conveyance, and it covers your agency only as a stand-in for the driver. The agency needs its own hired and non-owned auto coverage, and regional center, Medicaid and county contracts commonly require it at $1,000,000.

Call/Text(626) 344-2158

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Tell us the situation.

One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.

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/ Who handles this

Kevin Kelsey

Founder | Principal Agent

Founder of Boring Insurance, with a background in compliance and risk management for some of Hollywood’s largest production companies.

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Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.

Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.

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The detail

The personal auto policy’s business-use exclusion "does not apply to the maintenance or use of a: a. Private passenger auto; b. Pickup or van," so ordinary business driving in those vehicles stays covered at the policyholder’s limits.
ISO Personal Auto Policy PP 00 01 09 18 (Virginia SCC filing)
The same policy excludes liability "arising out of the ownership or operation of a vehicle while it is being used as a public or livery conveyance," with exceptions only for a share-the-expense car pool and volunteer or charitable use.
ISO Personal Auto Policy PP 00 01 09 18 (Virginia SCC filing)
For a vehicle that is not the policyholder’s, the personal policy covers another organization "only with respect to legal responsibility for acts or omissions of you or any family member," so the agency is covered only through the driver and within the driver’s limits.
ISO Personal Auto Policy PP 00 01 09 18 (Virginia SCC filing)
New Jersey requires a licensed community residence for people with developmental disabilities to keep valid liability insurance on every vehicle used to transport them.
N.J.A.C. 10:44A-5.7
On our calls between August and October 2026, care providers reported a regional center contract requiring $1,000,000 of hired and non-owned auto that the cheapest available quote could not meet, and an earlier policy recommended as cheaper precisely because it excluded the auto coverage the contract required.
Boring Insurance call records, calls graded Aug 20 to Oct 4, 2026 (clients and carriers unnamed)

What this means for you

Carry hired and non-owned auto at the agency. It answers for the agency when a caregiver crashes on the job in their own car. It is inexpensive next to the rest of a care program, and it is the line contracts name.
Collect each driver’s declarations page. Keep proof of every caregiver’s personal policy and limits on file, and set a minimum you will accept. A caregiver at California’s minimum of $30,000 per person leaves a serious injury above that to the agency’s coverage.
Ask before you bill for transport. Driving a client to an appointment as part of care is different from running a transportation service billed per ride. Billed transport can fall under the personal policy’s livery exclusion and usually needs its own policy.
Agency-owned vans need commercial auto. A wheelchair van or a car titled to the agency goes on a commercial auto policy, and several states require liability insurance on vehicles that carry people in care.

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.