Does Commercial Auto Insurance Cover Employee Theft?

Employee theft is an unfortunate commonality throughout industries for various reasons. If you have employees that drive vehicles owned by your business, you face the risk of an employee not returning it.

Even with the most strict background checks, the unexpected can happen. If an employee does decide to steal a work vehicle, that vehicle should be covered as long as you have the right insurance.

Commercial auto insurance comes with a lot of different facets of coverage. The main type of coverage is liability, which is required by most states. Liability covers bodily injury and property damage that you may cause someone else.

It is the optional coverages, however, that can prove invaluable to your company.

Employee theft won’t be covered by basic liability coverage. Just like with personal auto insurance, theft is covered under comprehensive coverage.

What is Comprehensive Coverage?

Comprehensive coverage provides compensation to your business in case a work vehicle is lost or damaged to fire, hail, wind, theft and vandalism. Thankfully, theft under comprehensive coverage does cover employee theft.

There are a few reasons an employee might steal the vehicle. Some disgruntled employees may hold the vehicle “hostage” and refuse to return it until their demands are met. Other employees may simply not have another mode of transportation, so they refuse to return the vehicle. In a few cases, especially with ex-employees who believe themselves to be wrongfully fired, the employee may steal the company vehicle simply out of anger or spite. Whatever the case, it’s important to notify police if an employee refuses to turn a work vehicle. If the employee causes damage to the vehicle either on purpose or on accident, the damages should be covered under your commercial auto insurance’s comprehensive coverage.

You can hope that your company will never have to deal with this, but it’s best to be prepared no matter the case.

How to Know if an Employee May Steal

It can be next to impossible to predict that your employees could steal from you. However, there are certain signs to look out for, such as:

Employees being continuously upset (rather than having a single bad day)
Employees starting altercations with coworkers or managers
They start taking longer to come back with the vehicle/using the vehicle for more personal purposes

Be continuously aware of your employees’ moods and needs to anticipate their behaviors and help in areas that may need assistance.

Does Commercial Auto Insurance Cover Employee Theft?

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