Commercial Auto Symbols: What Symbols 1, 2, 7, 8, and 9 Mean

Commercial Auto Symbols determine what type of vehicle is eligible for each line of coverage by using numeric codes located in item two of the Business Auto Declarations Page. For Liability only coverage on any auto, use symbol 1. To cover owned Autos use symbol 2. Symbol 7 will only provide coverage to the Specific Autos listed in the Scheduled section of the policy. Symbol 8 provides coverage to Hired and Borrowed Autos. Coverage for Non-Owned Autos used in your business can be found by using symbol 9. If the right symbol is not next to a coverage on the declarations page, that coverage simply does not apply to that vehicle.

A symbol 7 fleet which fails to give one 30 day's notice of a new vehicle will have self insured that vehicle. The same rule applies in allowing an insurance company to settle the loss on your box truck while refusing to settle the exact same claim on your van from last month. Here is how the symbols work under the ISO Business Auto Coverage Form CA 00 01.

How do covered auto symbols work?

A Covered Auto Symbol is a button to turn on a single coverage for a single class of automobiles, and does no other than this. Each coverage listed in the Business Auto Policy Declarations (Liability, Medical Payments, uninsured motorist, Comprehensive, Collision, and Towing) will have a "Covered Autos" box next to it. When you type into that box a combination, often "1" for Liability and "7" for Physical Damage, you are telling the policy what autos that coverage covers. Section I of CA 00 01 establishes each symbol.

Before any claim is paid, the adjuster asks one question first: Is this automobile a covered automobile for this coverage? If the answer is no, the analysis ends there, regardless of fault or limits.

What does each covered auto symbol mean?

Here is what each covered auto symbol covers, and which coverages it can support:

Symbol 2 automatically covers owned autos acquired mid-term, with the premium recalculated by audit at term end. Symbols 3 and 4 split that same owned territory, private passenger autos versus everything else, so coverage can be tuned by vehicle type.

What does symbol 1 mean?

Symbol 1, "any auto", is the broadest designation the form defines. There are no requirements as to who owns it. Liability insurance will cover a vehicle, listed or not, whether it belongs to you, has been hired, leased or rented, has been borrowed from someone else, or even if it does not belong to you at all. The only way that any coverage for a vehicle described by symbol 1 would exist is through liability coverage. Therefore, the standard format for listing automobiles is as follows: 1 for liability coverage along with either 2 or 7 for physical damage and the remaining coverages.

For-hire fleets have another good reason to be concerned about where liability coverage extends. The federal government has set minimum levels of public liability insurance for commercial interstate motor carriers. The schedule for this minimum liability insurance can be found at 49 CFR 387.9. Liability coverage under federal regulations starts with $750,000 for general freight and goes up to $5,000,000 for bulk hazardous material.^[1] A truck the liability symbol misses is a truck running below that federal floor.

What does symbol 7 mean, and where is the trap?

Symbol 7 covers only the specific autos scheduled in the declarations, coverage by coverage. Item Three must be checked vehicle by vehicle: the sedan may carry comprehensive and collision while the delivery van carries liability only.

The trap is newly acquired autos. With symbols 1 through 6 (and 19), owned vehicles acquired mid-term are covered automatically for the rest of the policy period. Symbol 7 is different. A newly acquired auto is covered only if both conditions are met:

1. The insurer already covers all autos you own for that coverage, or the new auto replaces a vehicle that had that coverage, and
2. You notify the insurer within 30 days of acquiring the vehicle.

Miss the 30-day notice and there is no coverage for the new vehicle for that coverage. A replacement inherits only the coverages the replaced vehicle carried, so replace a liability-only van and the new van has liability only.

What is hired and non-owned auto coverage? (Symbols 8 and 9)

Symbols 8 and 9 cover vehicles your business uses but does not own. The symbol 8 includes leased, hired, rented or borrowed automobiles for your business. This is often listed as part of Comprehensive and Collision coverage for Hired Auto Physical Damage (i.e. insurance for damages to a rental truck). Symbol 8 excludes automobile(s) borrowed from your employee(s), partner(s), LLC member(s), or household member(s). Symbol 9 represents all other vehicles utilized while conducting your business, chiefly employees' own cars on company errands. Two elements generally determine whether most claims will be considered under symbol 9:

• It protects the business, not the driver. If a producer causes an accident driving her own car on agency business, symbol 9 insures the agency, not the employee. Her Personal Auto Policy is primary and the agency's policy sits excess. The Employees As Insureds endorsement (CA 99 33) closes that gap for the driver.
• It is liability only. There is no physical damage coverage for a vehicle your business does not own.

Which symbols should your business carry?

Match the symbols on your declarations to the ways vehicles actually enter your operations:

• Inventory every entry point. Owned fleet, leased units, employee cars on business errands, rentals during travel, borrowed trucks, and road-going mobile equipment each map to a symbol. Equipment used at the jobsite instead of on the road is a contractors equipment question, not an auto one.
• Ask for the broadest symbols the insurer will give. The common strong combination is symbol 1 for liability plus symbols 2, 8, and 9 across the other coverages. Many carriers decline symbol 1 outright or reserve it for known fleets, so if it is refused, symbols 2, 8, and 9 together cover nearly the same ground.
• Read Item Two line by line at renewal. A policy can show symbol 1 on liability and still leave a rented box truck's physical damage uninsured because symbol 8 is missing from the comprehensive and collision lines.
• Coordinate the auto policy with your general liability policy. Autos on the road belong to the auto policy, mobile equipment in use at a site belongs to general liability, and placing both with one insurer avoids disputes over borderline claims.

You are not locked in until renewal. A mid-term endorsement can move a fleet from symbol 7 to symbol 2, effective the day you ask for it.

This guide is for educational purposes and summarizes standard ISO policy language. Your policy's specific terms, conditions, and endorsements control. Talk to a licensed broker about your actual exposures.

The Bottom Line

Symbols for covered autos determine what vehicles will be insured under each of the coverages in your Business Auto policy. Symbol 1 is the broadest but liability only, while symbol 7 is used to describe only scheduled autos. Therefore, if you add a new automobile to your fleet, it must be reported to the insurer within 30 days to have it insured. Prior to your next renewal, pull all Declarations pages from your policies and review Item Two line-by-line. Confirm the correct symbol exists adjacent to each coverage listed.