Commercial Vehicle Personal Use

[meganswinney]

Hello everyone, I apologize if there is already a thread going for this but I haven't been able to find anything recent. My boyfriend and I have found a bus we like and we have everything else mostly figured out. We have hit a dead end with insurance though. I am not too worried about full RV coverage right now because that will be down the road. My main concern is how the heck do we get coverage simply for the drive home from where we buy the bus to where we park it?? I have emailed my State Farm agent and he said they will not cover school buses for personal use and I called Progressive and got the same answer. Does everyone else that does this just risk it with no insurance or am I missing something? If anyone has tips or recent experience that would be amazing. Thank you everyone!

[flattracker]

When I purchased the "new Crown" my State Farm agent told me that if I could show him pictures of the inside of the bus with seats removed, they would insure it. I paid a friend $100 to remove them and send me a picture of the inside of the bus with no seats. I got coverage. Before I drove it, my brother and I installed a bed and cook stove to make it legally an RV. Unless you have problems, the seats could come out in an afternoon (at least with a Crown). My seats were recycled by the person I bought it from. I also bought a trip permit at the Oregon DMV.

[TheHubbardBus]

We went with progressive... Commercial for personal use... No problems whatsoever. Still have the policy which has been renewed annually for the 3 years since. Everyone seems to have a different experience with the same insurers. Not sure of all the variables at play. If you hit a wall I'd try a brokerage that represents multiple agencies. Even if they cancel you'll have it home before they do. No way I would risk having no coverage. You get in an accident - your fault or not (people get impatient behind slow vehicles and do stupid stuff) - and you're screwed.

[rossvtaylor]

Ditto what Flattracker says. The issue is most likely the presence of the seats and the concern that you might transport lots of people. With the seats out, you should be able to get that Commercial Veh for Personal Use policy from Progressive (which we have used for that).

[Sehnsucht]

https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f18/i...ook-38204.html

National General is probably worth a look.

[Hutchy]

Originally Posted by meganswinney

Hello everyone, I apologize if there is already a thread going for this but I haven't been able to find anything recent. My boyfriend and I have found a bus we like and we have everything else mostly figured out. We have hit a dead end with insurance though. I am not too worried about full RV coverage right now because that will be down the road. My main concern is how the heck do we get coverage simply for the drive home from where we buy the bus to where we park it?? I have emailed my State Farm agent and he said they will not cover school buses for personal use and I called Progressive and got the same answer. Does everyone else that does this just risk it with no insurance or am I missing something? If anyone has tips or recent experience that would be amazing. Thank you everyone!

what state are you in?

[Dbacks2k4]

What state? I got commercial vehicle for personal use with State farm just a few months ago. It took a few weeks for agent to walk through underwriting.

[meganswinney]

I am in Missouri. I emailed my State Farm agent who my parents have been with for the last 25 years and he said State Farm won't cover school buses so maybe he is just talking about his specific office. Maybe it would be worth looking into another office in my area since you had recent luck with State Farm. Thank you!

[Dbacks2k4]

Originally Posted by meganswinney

I am in Missouri. I emailed my State Farm agent who my parents have been with for the last 25 years and he said State Farm won't cover school buses so maybe he is just talking about his specific office. Maybe it would be worth looking into another office in my area since you had recent luck with State Farm. Thank you!

My agent only covers Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin but may be able to direct you to an agent licensed in Missouri.

https://www.matthewcasillas.com/

Good luck!

[FreeEnergy4All]

Originally Posted by meganswinney

I am in Missouri. I emailed my State Farm agent who my parents have been with for the last 25 years and he said State Farm won't cover school buses so maybe he is just talking about his specific office. Maybe it would be worth looking into another office in my area since you had recent luck with State Farm. Thank you!

Talk about highlighting contradiction from an agency that stands to make money from us, but some won't do it, and some will.

But I find it hard to believe it's company policy that state farm never covers buses. That's probably just that particular agent's belief. It seems like if they don't want to do the work to find all the proper underwriters, then it's a no, but if they want to do that, then it's probably going to happen.

State Farm was also part of my family for a long time, and then when I was young, I got into some trouble and lost my driver's lic for a while, so I dropped my insurance and when I went back to start up again, he was like, nope. We will not insure you anymore.

~~~

I was like why, and he said something about too unreliable, too much of a risk. I was late on a couple of payments, and I dropped insurance for a while. Oh wow, so life did not go perfectly for me, so that makes me the bad guy? Best wishes.

[Drew Bru]

Originally Posted by TheHubbardBus

We went with progressive... Commercial for personal use... No problems whatsoever. Still have the policy which has been renewed annually for the 3 years since. Everyone seems to have a different experience with the same insurers. Not sure of all the variables at play. If you hit a wall I'd try a brokerage that represents multiple agencies. Even if they cancel you'll have it home before they do. No way I would risk having no coverage. You get in an accident - your fault or not (people get impatient behind slow vehicles and do stupid stuff) - and you're screwed.

We've had pretty much the same exact experience. The trick with Progressive seems to be that you need to contact Progressive Commercial, which is a different arm of the insurance company. I've read of people being turned town by Progressive but approved by Progressive Commercial....maybe OP is one of them?

[skoontz]

If you are struggling finding insurance, try this agent:

Alexander M. Waterman
Senior Agent
National General
Office: 314.493.8691
Email: Alexander.Waterman@NGIC.com

he emailed me that, depending on underwriting, he can insure a pre-conversion bus in the following US states:

AL, AR, AZ, CO, GA, IA, IL, KY, LA, MS, MO, NH, NM, OH, OK, PA, SD, TN, TX, UT, WY

There may be some restrictions based upon the age/condition of the bus.

He also wrote that he can insure conversions in all 50 states "except Massachusetts where they would need to contact a local agent who does NGIC".

He did specify that they cannot insure conversions with wood stoves or roof decks due to the liability. According to him, the problem with the roof decks was from people falling off and injuring themselves.

.
Hope this helps someone

[meganswinney]

Originally Posted by skoontz

If you are struggling finding insurance, try this agent:

Alexander M. Waterman
Senior Agent
National General
Office: 314.493.8691
Email: Alexander.Waterman@NGIC.com

he emailed me that, depending on underwriting, he can insure a pre-conversion bus in the following US states:

AL, AR, AZ, CO, GA, IA, IL, KY, LA, MS, MO, NH, NM, OH, OK, PA, SD, TN, TX, UT, WY

There may be some restrictions based upon the age/condition of the bus.

He also wrote that he can insure conversions in all 50 states "except Massachusetts where they would need to contact a local agent who does NGIC".

He did specify that they cannot insure conversions with wood stoves or roof decks due to the liability. According to him, the problem with the roof decks was from people falling off and injuring themselves.

.
Hope this helps someone

Wow thank you! I think I will contact him and see what I can find out. I really appreciate it!

[meganswinney]

Originally Posted by Dbacks2k4

My agent only covers Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin but may be able to direct you to an agent licensed in Missouri.

https://www.matthewcasillas.com/

Good luck!

Great thank you I really appreciate it!

[meganswinney]

Originally Posted by flattracker

When I purchased the "new Crown" my State Farm agent told me that if I could show him pictures of the inside of the bus with seats removed, they would insure it. I paid a friend $100 to remove them and send me a picture of the inside of the bus with no seats. I got coverage. Before I drove it, my brother and I installed a bed and cook stove to make it legally an RV. Unless you have problems, the seats could come out in an afternoon (at least with a Crown). My seats were recycled by the person I bought it from. I also bought a trip permit at the Oregon DMV.

Yeah I thought about seeing if that was possible but I am not sure how easy it would be to remove the seats in an afternoon. Also, I would imagine the agent would need pictures of the inside before we go to pick up the bus, so at that time there would still be seats in the bus.

[KipperTheKoolBus]

Originally Posted by meganswinney

Wow thank you! I think I will contact him and see what I can find out. I really appreciate it!

Add no roof raise to the list with decks and stoves

[TheHubbardBus]

Originally Posted by Drew Bru

We've had pretty much the same exact experience. The trick with Progressive seems to be that you need to contact Progressive Commercial, which is a different arm of the insurance company. I've read of people being turned town by Progressive but approved by Progressive Commercial....maybe OP is one of them?

Yep. Exactly this. I failed to mention the same, but you're spot on Drew. That's the path we took.

[Tejon7]

I had commercial vehicle for private use insurance through Progressive Commercial for a few months when I first got my bus. They required me to list my business as the vehicle owner, which I don't think I've heard other's mention before. Has anybody else had that requirement? It wasn't a problem in my case, but might be another stumbling block for others.

[TheHubbardBus]

Not us, Tejon.

[FreeEnergy4All]

Originally Posted by KipperTheKoolBus

Add no roof raise to the list with decks and stoves

Why? What is the supposed mentality for that? I have heard that some won't insure the conversion if it's not professionally done.

They probably don't want to insure the least safe, the cheapest conversions with the least proper safety measures engineered into the rig.

Sounds like an excuse to deny based on if it's a DIY conversion vs a decent one that can be trusted to endure structurally. But I could be mistaken.

~~~

Auto custom shops regularly do custom work for cars and trucks and so to say no "body remodeling" can be done to buses like a "roof raise", sounds like an overstatement.

Has anyone else heard of being denied bus insurance because it has a properly raised roof?

Sounds like another personal issue with an isolated agent who just does not want to bother with certain kinds of customers that he/she probably can't make money from.