How Are Vehicles Insured While Being Transported by Carrier?
Insurance is needed for many things that can go wrong with an automobile. For one, you need insurance to help pay for repair costs after an accident. However, one thing you may have never considered is insurance you need to have when your car is transported on a carrier. Below is some information you should know about this kind of insurance.
What Is Car Shipping?
The act of having your car transported on something like a carrier is actually a practice that is referred to as “car shipping.” In fact, an entire industry revolves around this service. This industry exists because there are many times when a person needs to move a vehicle from place to place and driving that vehicle or having it towed is not appropriate.
For example, a person may be moving from California to Hawaii. If that’s the case, that car will have to be shipped to a Hawaiian island by boat. A person may also want to move a car across the country but is worried about nasty winter weather making that extremely difficult. The car can instead be shipped by train or truck for a fee.
Will Regular Insurance Cover Car Shipping?
The car insurance most people have will not pay for shipping one’s vehicle in such a way. This will have to be an out of pocket cost for the owner of the vehicle. Even worse yet, most regular insurance will not cover damage that occurs when an automobile is shipped on something like a carrier. Unfortunately, damage to a vehicle can and does happen in such situations. Companies that transport such vehicles can’t always stop accidents from happening. Two cars, for example, may collide during transport.
Car theft in such situations is also a problem. This is due to the fact that people other than the owner have access to the vehicle while it makes the voyage to its destination. This risk is especially large for vehicles that must move through more than one country during transport.
What Insurance Do You Need for Car Shipping?
Due to the fact that most regular forms of car insurance will not cover damage or theft that occurs during car shipping, you will probably want to obtain insurance that does. One possibility is simply relying on the carrier’s insurance. It is true that a vehicle should be covered by the insurance that many carriers have for cargo. However, this insurance can differ from carrier to carrier. You should make sure to become educated on whether or not your car will be protected and under what circumstances you would be reimbursed. For example, if your car is transported over water, it may only be insured for several thousand dollars. With a newer vehicle, this will certainly not be satisfactory. For this reason, paying for your own carrier insurance may be the best option. This will certainly be the case if the insurance you purchase for the transport will reimburse you for the full amount lost if your car is damaged or stolen during transport.
What Will Carrier Insurance Not Cover?
However, there is one thing will probably never be covered by carrier insurance. That is personal belongings. In fact, most car shippers will strictly forbid you from leaving possessions in your car while it is transported. Some may allow it. However, if those belongings are stolen, you are unlikely to be reimbursed for the theft.
Miles Walker is a freelance writer and blogger who usually looks at car insurance deals over at CarinsuranceComparison.Org. His most recent review looked at the best car insurance quotes.
