Risky Business
How to recover Lost Revenue when someone else hits you
Everyone understands that "Downtime Coverage" is something you can add to your own Commercial Auto Liability Policy. If you cause an accident and your unit is "Down" and you can't work, then your Insurance Company will pay you "X" amount of dollars while your vehicle is in the shop. It's pretty straightforward and Agents seldom need to get involved because "Claims" handles it all the time quite smoothly.
But what if someone hits YOU and your unit is "Down" and you can't work? Sure, that Insurance Company will pay to fix your vehicle, but who is working on your behalf to make sure you receive what's called "Loss of Use" or "Lost Revenue" when someone ELSE is at fault?
Make no mistake about it, the Insurance Company representing the guy who hit you won't be bending over backwards to provide YOU with lost revenue...or even suggest it's available.
So how do you go after what you deserve?
Frankly, it's not that easy because all claims and circumstances are different. Thankfully you don't run into this every day.
This additional Claims Assistance is something that a good Agent who DOES run into this every day will provide for you as YOUR advocate. Your Agent should help you in calculating the dollar amount due to you for the "Loss of Use" of your vehicle after someone hits you.
This is not something provided by your Insurance Carrier or your own insurance policy itself, it's a service provided by your Agent if they care about you.
It's in your best interest to check with your Agent BEFORE you need help with lost revenue to make sure this is a value added service they provide at no cost to you.
Shelly Benisch, TRS, CIC