Ohio Commercial Garage Insurance

You love working with your hands, fixing what’s broken, and helping people get back on the road or back on the job. It’s why you opened a garage in the first place. Ohio drivers and businesses place their vehicles and their trust in your hands. You take great pride in your work and in your garage. Now it’s time to protect what you’ve worked so hard to build with the right insurance coverage.

What kind of shop do you run? A repair garage? A body shop? Do you work on cars and light trucks, construction or farm equipment, or heavy trucks? No matter how big or small the vehicles you repair happen to be, they’re all an integral part of your business. When your customer trusts you to fix their vehicle, they also trust that nothing bad will happen while it’s in your care.

Make sure your garage has the necessary insurance to protect your customers and your business from the disasters that can befall any business: fire, storm, theft, vandalism, dishonest employees, injury, etc.

Here at Hitchings Insurance Agency, we work with you to put together a comprehensive insurance plan that fits the needs of your garage. We don’t sell cookie-cutter policies here. No two garages are exactly alike, and your insurance coverage needs to reflect your reality.

Let’s start with basic business insurance coverage. General liability covers you when a customer or vendor gets hurt or experiences property damage at your shop. Commercial property coverage protects your equipment and any inventory you sell — like the spare parts and accessories in your shop. Workers’ compensation covers the injuries your employees may face on the job, and cyber liability protects you from a website or database hack. An umbrella policy offers extra liability for the major accident you never saw coming, and professional liability protects your garage when a customer sues for a repair-gone-wrong or bad information.

Ohio Garage Insurance

But beyond those basic insurance policies, your garage needs specialized coverage. That’s where we come in. We can help you find the right coverage for two very specific policies: garage liability and garage-keepers.

Garage liability coverage protects you from any property damage or bodily injury that happens in the course of doing business. It adds a layer of liability coverage for your day-to-day operations. And let’s face it, working with vehicles of any size, big tools, and heavy equipment can easily lead to damage or injuries. Accidentally dent a customer’s car or break a window during a repair? You’re covered.

Garage-keepers insurance covers any property damage to your customer’s vehicles while it’s in your care. This includes accidents during a test drive after a repair or while their vehicle is parked overnight during non-working hours. If you’ve ever shown up to the shop one morning to find a customer’s car damaged from an accident or theft, you know the headache it causes for everyone. This policy takes care of that for you.

At Hitchings Insurance Agency, we’re here to help you protect your garage and your livelihood. We can help you find the exact insurance policy that fits your business, explain how the policy works, and help you protect your garage from whatever life throws your way. We invite you to learn about the Hitchings Insurance Agency difference yourself – fill out a free quote form or call us at 419-423-9145.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does garage insurance cover?

Garage insurance is a specialty commercial insurance plan for businesses involved in the auto/equipment industry. This could be anything from auto dealers, tire distributors, body shops, maintenance and repair shops, parking garages, farm equipment dealers or construction equipment dealers. These plans can be complex. They need to cover the property, the liability, the products, the customer’s vehicles/equipment (commonly known as garage keepers coverage), the inventory, and various employee related coverages.

  • Other Coverages to consider:
  • Employee Theft
  • Third- party injuries
  • Title Errors and Omissions
  • False Pretense
  • Employers Liability
  • Workers Compensation

There are no two plans that are the same. This varies by annual revenues, property insurance values, inventory limits, garage keepers limits, liability limits, and type of garage that is being operated. Speak to an agent who specializes in garage insurance, and they will negotiate the best rate available in the marketplace while properly protecting your business.

A garage insurance plan needs to cover the liabilities that arise from your general business operations, which can be onsite or off. They need to cover the property you own, including buildings, tools, equipment, business personal property.

The garage insurance plan needs to cover the inventory held for sale, which can include new or used vehicles, products, and equipment.

Employee related coverages also need to be considered, which are employment practices liability, employers liability, employee benefits liability, employee theft, and others.

Covering your customers’ vehicles and equipment is also extremely important, which is called garage keepers coverage. Garage keepers coverage provides insurance on your customers’ vehicles while it is in the possession of the business.

Mechanics professional liability is also a specialty coverage that needs to be discussed if working on customer owned vehicles or equipment.