Commercial Tow Truck Insurance

Starting a towing business?

Starting your first company doesn’t mean you’re new to towing. If you’ve driven for another operator, include that experience in your application. Insurers consider your background along with your equipment and planned services.

You can request coverage even if you’ve never had a commercial policy. We work with first-time business owners as well as companies that are adding trucks or expanding their services.

Tell us about all the work you take on, including voluntary towing, roadside assistance, storage, police rotation, private-property towing, repossession, and heavy recovery. Let us know before adding a service so we can check whether your policy needs to change.

Tow truck insurance requirements in Illinois

Illinois tow truck registration requires specific coverage and insurance documents. Our Illinois tow truck insurance requirements page explains the minimum limits, certificates, affirmation forms, and ICC filings that may apply. We’ll help you put the insurance paperwork together for your business.

Coverage for the trucks you operate

We help arrange insurance for rollbacks, flatbeds, wheel-lift wreckers, conventional wreckers, and roadside-service trucks. If you operate a heavy wrecker, rotator, multi-car carrier, or repossession truck, tell us about its equipment and the jobs you use it for. These operations may need a closer review by the insurer.

Have each truck’s year, make, model, VIN, value, and equipment details ready. Carrying several vehicles on one load or keeping them at your yard can affect the coverage and limits you need.

We work with towing businesses throughout Illinois and Chicago and also welcome quote requests from Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Texas, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Available policies depend on your state, the insurer, and your operation.

Working with roadside networks and other customers

Agero, HONK, Allstate Roadside, GEICO, AAA, and Nation Safe Drivers each have insurance requirements for their providers. Auction and transport customers, including Copart, may have their own requirements too.

Send us the current requirements from any organization you plan to work with. We’ll check the requested limits, certificates, additional-insured endorsements, and workers’ compensation coverage against your policy.

Our roadside-network and contract insurance guide explains what to prepare. Meeting the insurance requirements is one part of the application; the organization decides whether to accept your business and assign work.

Discounts and payment options

Your business may qualify for savings based on continuous insurance, eligible additional policies, or participation in a driving-data program. If this is your first commercial policy, include your personal auto insurance history. Some insurers consider it when determining eligibility for a discount.

Compare the annual premium, deductible and payment schedule together. A lower down payment can help with cash flow, but it doesn’t always mean a lower total cost. Our guide explains how to save on tow truck insurance.

Considering Progressive? Our Progressive tow truck insurance guide explains its coverage options, available discounts, and payment plans. It also includes a sample quote comparison.

How much does tow truck insurance cost?

Your trucks, drivers, location, services, coverage limits, and insurance history all affect your premium. Two towing businesses with similar equipment can pay different rates. A quote based on your own operation will give you a clearer idea of the cost.

Our tow truck insurance cost guide explains the main pricing factors, and our article on why tow truck insurance costs increase covers what can change at renewal.

You can send your information once and have us compare the available options. We’ll walk you through the differences in coverage and payment plans.

What does tow truck insurance cover?

A towing business usually needs several types of coverage. Auto liability covers a different risk from damage to a customer’s vehicle or an employee’s injury. Here’s how the main coverages fit together.

• Commercial auto liability

  Commercial auto liability helps pay for injuries or property damage you cause to others in an accident involving an insured truck. Your limits need to meet applicable state and customer requirements. The vehicle you’re towing generally needs separate protection, such as on-hook coverage.

• Physical damage for your truck

  Comprehensive and collision help pay for covered damage to your own truck. Include its attached equipment and any lender requirements when choosing coverage. We’ll help you review the deductible, truck value, and how the policy would calculate a total-loss payment. Physical damage coverage explained

• On-hook towing coverage

  On-hook coverage helps pay for damage to a customer’s vehicle while you tow or transport it. Check how the policy treats loading, unloading and multiple vehicles on one load, and choose limits that reflect the vehicles you handle. On-hook towing coverage explained

• Garagekeepers legal liability

  Garagekeepers legal liability helps pay for covered damage to customer vehicles at your insured storage or service location when your business is legally responsible. Direct-primary and direct-excess options may also be available. Those forms of coverage can respond differently, so we’ll explain the options before you choose.

• General liability or garage liability

  General liability or garage liability helps cover certain claims involving your operations or premises, such as a customer’s injury at your business. The policy needs to cover the services you offer and satisfy any specific garage-liability requirement in a permit or contract.

• Workers’ compensation

  Workers’ compensation helps cover employees’ work-related injuries and illnesses. For a towing business, that can include injuries while loading vehicles, handling equipment or working alongside traffic.

Do you need workers’ compensation?

If you hire a driver or helper, check your workers’ compensation requirements before they start. Part-time staff, family members, and people paid as contractors may need to be included. A 1099 tax form alone doesn’t determine whether someone is legally an employee.

We’ll ask about your employees, payroll, ownership structure, and where the work takes place. State rules and business structure can affect whether an owner must be covered or can choose to be included. Confirm your own coverage before relying on the policy for an injury.

Ohio generally provides workers’ compensation through its state fund, with approved self-insurance available to qualifying employers. We can help explain what that means for your coverage review. Ohio workers’ compensation law

Getting your certificates and insurance filings

You may need a certificate for a customer, insurance filings for an agency, or both. Our filings and operating authority guide explains the differences. You can also learn what to check on a tow truck certificate of insurance and see what to prepare for your towing quote.