A courier company in Medley adds a fourth van in March. The office manager means to call the agent, gets busy, and the van runs for six weeks on the same magnetic signs as the rest of the fleet.

In May it rear-ends a car on the Palmetto. The driver was an employee, the cargo was routine, the van was owned by the company — and it was not on the policy.

The two most common reasons a commercial auto claim goes badly in a delivery operation are not coverage gaps. They are a vehicle that was never scheduled and a driver who was never disclosed. Both are administrative failures, both are free to prevent, and both are more likely than any exotic exclusion.

Delivery Is Not Trucking, and the Policies Differ

If you run box trucks, cargo vans, sprinters, or pickups on local and regional routes, your operation sits in a different place than a motor carrier.

Interstate motor carriers deal with FMCSA operating authority, BMC-91 filings, federal minimum limits, and the MCS-90 endorsement. A courier running Miami-Dade and Broward generally does not — which is good news, because it means the program is simpler.

What it does not mean is that a business auto policy alone is enough. The cargo, the loading, the drivers, and the property still need answers.

Keep the Vehicle and Driver Schedules Current

This is unglamorous and it is the highest-return habit in the business.

Vehicles. Every vehicle used for the business belongs on the policy, from the day it goes into service. A van added mid-year and reported at renewal is uninsured in between. Most carriers offer a grace period for newly acquired vehicles, but it is short and conditional, and relying on it is a bad plan.

Drivers. Carriers underwrite the people, not just the trucks. An undisclosed driver, or one whose record would have made them unacceptable, is a live claim problem. Pull motor vehicle records before hiring and periodically after, and tell your agent when the roster changes.

Radius. Your rating is built on how far you operate. A local operation that starts running to Tampa twice a week has changed its exposure and its rating basis. Reporting it costs premium. Not reporting it costs the claim.

Cargo Coverage Fails on Conditions, Not Limits

Owners tend to evaluate cargo coverage by the limit. Claims fail on the conditions.

Commodity exclusions. Most forms exclude or sublimit specific categories — electronics, pharmaceuticals, alcohol, tobacco, jewelry, artwork, live animals, hazardous materials. A courier who normally moves auto parts and takes one pharmaceutical run may have no coverage for it.

Theft conditions. Coverage frequently requires an attended vehicle, a locked and alarmed unit, or a secured yard. A loaded van parked overnight on the street usually does not meet the condition, whatever the limit says.

Refrigeration. Temperature-sensitive loads spoiling due to equipment failure are typically excluded unless breakdown coverage is added, and that coverage brings its own requirements about monitoring and maintenance records.

Loading and unloading. Whether cargo is covered while being handled varies by form, which matters more in delivery than in long-haul.

Read the commodity schedule against what you actually haul, not against what you hauled when the policy was written.

Loading and Unloading Is a Coverage Question, Not Just a Safety One

A driver drops a refrigerator on a customer’s floor. A dolly gouges a hallway wall. A pallet tips at a loading dock. A customer is injured helping carry something in.

Which policy responds depends on the facts and the forms. Some auto policies treat loading and unloading as use of the vehicle, bringing it under auto liability. General liability may respond where the auto policy does not. Cargo covers the goods themselves. Inland marine may cover equipment.

The practical point is that these claims sit at a seam between policies, and the seam is where things fall through. If a meaningful share of your claims come from delivery into customer premises — and for most courier and appliance operations they do — this is worth working through specifically rather than assuming.

The Vehicles You Do Not Own

Two common situations, both frequently uninsured.

Employees using personal vehicles. A driver who takes an overflow run in his own car, an office worker running to the supply store, a manager delivering a rush order. The business can be named in the claim. Hired and non-owned auto coverage is what responds, and it is inexpensive.

Rented and borrowed vehicles. A truck rented for a busy week or a temporary replacement while a van is in the shop falls into the same coverage.

Businesses using gig or contract drivers should also be clear about who those drivers are for insurance purposes. A driver treated as an independent contractor may still be examined as an employee, and the arrangement affects both auto liability and workers’ compensation.

Employees Get Hurt Lifting Things

Delivery work produces a predictable set of injuries: lifting strains, falls from the back of a truck, dock accidents, hand trucks and pallet jacks, heat exposure, and roadside incidents at the worst possible moment.

Florida requires workers’ compensation for most non-construction businesses at four or more employees, counting part-time and seasonal workers.

One rating point worth knowing: if you have office staff, that payroll may qualify for a clerical classification at a much lower rate than driver or warehouse classifications — but only where the records separate them. Where they do not, the auditor applies the higher class to everyone.

The Warehouse, the Yard, and the Office

If you have a dispatch location, a yard, or storage space, commercial property covers the building and contents, and the buildout if you leased a shell and improved it.

Two things specific to this trade:

Equipment away from the premises. Hand trucks, straps, dollies, ramps, tools, and anything living in a van overnight is generally an inland marine question rather than a property one.

Customer property in your possession. If you hold goods before delivery, that is a bailee exposure and it works differently than covering your own property.

Flood is excluded from property policies and requires commercial flood coverage separately — relevant for any warehouse district location in South Florida.

Contracts Set the Limits, Not You

Clients, shippers, and property managers increasingly write insurance requirements into their contracts: stated liability limits, additional insured status, sometimes waiver of subrogation.

A commercial umbrella is often the practical answer, since a serious injury claim from a vehicle accident can exceed a primary limit quickly.

One caution: an umbrella does not repair an exclusion below it. If the primary policy excludes something, buying more excess limit does not create coverage.

And a certificate of insurance is not an additional insured endorsement. If a contract requires additional insured status, the endorsement is the document that provides it.

The Short Version

Before renewal, confirm:

• Every vehicle in service is on the schedule

• Every driver is disclosed and their record has been pulled

• The radius on the policy matches how far you actually go

• The commodity schedule matches what you actually haul

• Theft conditions match how vehicles are actually parked overnight

• Hired and non-owned auto is present

• Payroll separates office staff from drivers

• Contract limits are met, with endorsements rather than certificates

Review Your Program

Prestige Insurance Group works with couriers, delivery companies, box truck and cargo van operators, last-mile fleets, medical couriers, parts and appliance delivery, and local logistics businesses across Miami, Doral, Hialeah, Medley, Kendall, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Tampa.

More detail on transportation insurance, business auto, trucking, and warehousing and logistics.

Miami 305-969-8776 · Orlando 407-993-2331 · Stuart 561-983-4333

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General information only, not legal advice. Coverage depends on the terms of your policy; refer to your declarations page and policy forms for what applies to your operation.