renting trucks from uhaul - do any of purchase the optional insurance?

[trader4]

Obviously you don't have a clue here. Vehicles don't cause accidents, people do. As Kurt pointed out, almost all policies cover the policy holder for liability, regardless of who's car they happens to be driving. That means if I borrow someone's car and cause an accident, my insurance company will cover me to the limits of my policy for damage and injuries I caused to the vehicle I hit. This only makes sense. You think I want to get behind the wheel of someone else's car, say while sharing driving on a trip, have an accident, and then find out they only have the minimal coverage and the accident exceeds that? Or that they let the policy lapse and have no insurance? I don't care about that, because MY policy protects me.

Now, if you have collision coverage on your car, in most cases, that coverage may not extend to another vehicle you happen to be driving.

[Rick Brandt]

It seems to me that the insurance industry gets to have it both ways. It would make sense (to most people I think) for liability coverage to follow the driver and collision/comprehensive coverage to follow the car.

BUT...if I own four cars and have collision/comprehensive coverage on NONE of them I still have to obtain (and pay for) four policies. Why is this the case? I can only be behind the wheel of one car at a time.

Also I was hit several years ago while borrowing my sister-in-law's car. It was HER insurance company that got involved, not mine. These would seem to indicate that the coverage follows the car, not the driver.

BUT...if a four driver household has only one vehicle they still need a policy for each of the drivers, not just one (right?). And that seems to indicate that the coverage follows the driver and not the car.

Bottom line is that whatever situation causes the insurance company to collect the most money seems to be the rule.

[trader4]

That's how it works in most cases.

The insurance company assumes, with some validity, that if you have 4 cars, there are more drivers than just you and there is more driving. I would agree that there should be a policy that only protects one driver.

The key here is that YOU were hit. Had you hit a bus full of nuns, the situation would be radically different. They could have come after YOU and your SIL.

No, they need a policy for the one vehicle. Along the way, they will disclose that there are 4 drivers regularly using the vehicle. The policy will then cover the owner.

=A0And that seems to

No.

[<josh]

Sorry, misstated that, the danger of quoting from memory. I look it up before actually renting anything.

It&#39;s a limit on load capacity.

There&#39;s one section that defines "your covered car," which includes various "private passenger cars" or "utility cars." A "utility car" is defined elsewhere as a pickup truck, van, or panel truck with a limit on rated cargo capacity, 2000 lbs.

Smaller U-hauls are rated under 2000lbs capacity, larger ones are over.

[<josh]

There are many options available for this.

From most companies, you can insure all four vehicles, rate one of them as the one you drive regularly, and insure the other three at reduced rates as rarely-driven vehicles.

Some companies will allow you to keep liability coverage on just one vehicle, and keep the others "laid up," not in use, and put liability coverage on them only when you&#39;re actually using them. The liability rate is higher per day, but you only pay for it when you&#39;re using it.

Some specialty insurers do have liability-only coverage that follows the driver in any owned or non-owned vehicle.

If the four drivers are all disclosed to the insurance company, and are all rated on the vehicle, then the policy can be written to cover all four of the drivers, not just the owner. The four drivers will have liability coverage when they drive other vehicles, too, *except*, generally, vehicles they have regular access to. (In other words, if you borrow your friend&#39;s car occasionally, you&#39;re generally covered. If your friend lets you borrow the car for six months and keep it parked at your house, you should check with your agent about getting non-owner coverage on that car.)

Disclaimer: I am not your insurance agent, I haven&#39;r read your policy, coverage varies by company, policy, state, etc.

[krw]

Exactly. When I last checked, I believe my insurance covered up to

10Klbs, GVW. IIRC, U-Hauls go up to 16K (I believe a CDL is required after that).

Which is why I said to check. Some do.

Fluffy?

U-Hauls aren&#39;t designed to carry pig-iron either. ;-) My last move (11/&#39;07) was about 10Klbs, about the same size as the largest U-Haul.

[S. Barker]

Not hard at all. If i loan my car to someone, then MY insurance covers the car and the liability. Same with the rental car co. THEIR car, THEIR insurance.

s

duh.

What&#39;s so hard to understand?

[Don Klipstein]

My experience indicates that what is required in this case is a single policy with a higher rate for having extra drivers in the household.

- Don Klipstein ( [e-mail])

[Nancy Young]

wrote

Oddly enough I did just that last week, rented a truck to move some stuff my car can&#39;t. I was surprised at how much this place wanted for insurance so I didn&#39;t spring for it. I know from earlier experience that my insurance does not cover rental trucks, just cars.

Needless to say, being uninsured, I ran my errands and got rid of that truck as soon as I could.

This place wanted $40 for the day, a blatant ripoff. A different place I used last year was $10 and I thought that was fair.

I&#39;m not offering advice either way. I took a chance and got away with it.

nancy

[Mark]

One other point that may have already been mentioned is that the rental company will want their money for damage immediately. If you haven&#39;t purchased their insurance they will run your credit card to the max to get their money. They aren&#39;t going to wait for you to file a claim with your car ins. or a credit card company.

[Don Klipstein]

If you hit anyone/anything and you have any assets other than the money that you are spending to rent the truck, the injured person or owner of injured property can sue you for it. If you have assets less than such damage, you can hypothetically be forced into bankruptcy.

If you don&#39;t have personal auto coverage that covers liability while driving the rental truck, if I were you I would buy optional insurance sufficient to cover at least a boggled parking maneuver, and a fender bender can easily cause a $3,000-plus repair bill even for a cheaper car - let alone a Lexus, BMW, Audi... And a truck can cause damage worse than "fender bender" to a car even at less than 5 MPH. In addition, the owner of the dented car may also sue for cost of a rental car to use while the dented car is in the shop.

If your personal auto policy covers your liability while driving a rental truck, be sure to carry your insurance card. If not, make sure you know what document shows liability coverage - you will need that if you hit anyone or anything, or get pulled over by the police for anything

- such as failure to signal a turn, violating a truck restriction, speeding or misinterpreting an officially authorized person directing traffic.

- Don Klipstein ( [e-mail])

[krw]

No, but the liability coverage will, assuming your insurance covers=20 your use of another vehicle. That&#39;s why it&#39;s important to CHECK.

--=20 Keith