If an employee hits someone while running to the bank in their own car, the injured person sues the employee and the business. The employee’s personal auto policy is written around the employee; the business’s general liability policy excludes autos outright. HNOA fills the space between them. On the ISO business auto form it is symbols 8 (hired autos) and 9 (non-owned autos) next to the liability coverage; on a businessowners policy it is an endorsement. It protects the company; an employee driving their own car is not an insured under the business auto form. It is liability coverage, so it does not fix the employee’s dented fender. Businesses that own no vehicles are not off the hook, because owning no vehicles has never meant nobody drives for you.
Where the gap comes from
On the ISO personal auto form (PP 00 01), the business-use exclusion does not apply to a private passenger auto, or a pickup or van the employee owns, so a work errand in the employee’s own car survives that clause, and the form treats as an insured any organization legally responsible for the driver’s acts. The problem is what that rests on: limits the employee picked, a policy that can lapse unseen, exclusions the business didn’t write.
Exclusion g. of the ISO CGL form (CG 00 01 04 13) removes bodily injury or property damage arising out of the ownership, maintenance, use or entrustment to others of any auto owned or operated by, or rented or loaned to, any insured. Employees are insureds under the CGL, so an employee’s own car on company business is an auto owned by an insured, and the claim is out.
Symbols 8 and 9 on the business auto form
On the ISO Business Auto Coverage Form (CA 00 01), the symbols next to a coverage on the declarations designate the only autos it covers. Two matter:
- Symbol 8, hired autos only: autos you lease, hire, rent or borrow, except from your own employees, partners, LLC members or their households.
- Symbol 9, non-owned autos only: autos you don’t own, lease, hire, rent or borrow that are used in connection with your business, including employees’, partners’ or members’ own autos and their households’, but only while used in your business or your personal affairs.
With 8 and 9 on the liability line, the business is an insured for any covered auto, and so is anyone using a hired or borrowed auto with your permission, with five exceptions, two of which matter here: the owner you hired or borrowed from, and your employee driving an auto they or a household member own. In the employee’s own car, HNOA protects the company, not the driver; endorsement CA 99 33, Employees As Insureds, adds the driver’s own liability. For any covered auto you don’t own, the form is excess over other collectible insurance: the employee’s personal policy, where it applies, goes first.
Uninsured motorist treatment varies by state: a 2017 IRMI commentary names Illinois, Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana and Vermont as states whose UM laws reach hired and non-owned autos, Arizona and Louisiana unless UM/UIM is rejected for all covered autos.
Who buys it, and on which policy
Anyone whose people drive for the business in vehicles it doesn’t own: shops and restaurants sending someone to the bank, nonprofits whose staff and volunteers run errands, sales reps in their own cars, and contractors whose crews drive their own trucks. It also shows up on certificate requests.
On a commercial auto policy, symbols 8 and 9 go on the liability line, with or without owned vehicles. On a businessowners policy, the Hired Auto And Non-Owned Auto Liability endorsement (BP 04 04) adds it, excess over any primary insurance on the auto like the business auto form; hired and non-owned are scheduled separately and only a coverage with a charge shown applies, so check both. One BOP difference matters: partners, executive officers and employees are insureds for a non-owned auto used in your business, though not a partner or officer in a car they or their household own. Both forms name the business itself as an insured whoever drives a non-owned auto in its business; the drivers they name are employees, so if volunteers drive, tell me when you apply.
Deliveries, rentals and apps
Delivery for a fee is public or livery conveyance use, which the personal auto form excludes, except a share-the-expense car pool. ISO endorsement PP 23 40 adds the ride-hailing side, excluding liability, medical payments and damage to the car for any period the driver is logged into a transportation network platform, passenger or not; its platform definition is built around passengers, so delivery for hire falls under the livery wording itself. Tennessee’s insurance department said so in a March 2020 COVID-19 bulletin: employees delivering food in their own cars may not be covered by their personal policies or the restaurant’s commercial auto policy and can end up inadvertently uninsured. HNOA is written to respond for the business when staff deliver in their own cars; disclose that when you apply. The drivers’ own protection is separate. Third-party app drivers aren’t your employees; what covers them is between them and the platform.
Rentals are symbol 8 for liability, and on the business auto form whoever drives one with your permission is an insured. Damage to the rental itself is excluded as property in the insured’s care, custody or control; that takes Hired Auto Physical Damage, which treats an auto rented without a driver as one you own, or the rental counter’s damage waiver.
What it does not cover
- The employee’s own car. HNOA is liability coverage for injury and damage to others, and symbol 8 excludes autos borrowed from employees, so hired auto physical damage never reaches one; a dented employee car is their own collision claim.
- The employee driver’s own liability in a car the employee or a household member owns, on the business auto form, unless CA 99 33 adds it.
- Injury to the driver. The form excludes bodily injury to an employee arising out of employment and to fellow employees; that is workers’ compensation territory.
- Vehicles hired with a driver are not covered autos for hired auto physical damage.
- The car’s owner. Whoever you hire or borrow from is not an insured, on either form.
Common questions
Doesn’t my employee’s personal auto policy already cover my business?
Partly. The ISO personal auto form treats an organization as an insured only for its legal responsibility for the driver’s acts, at the driver’s limits and subject to the driver’s exclusions. HNOA sits above that policy as excess coverage the business controls.
Do I need HNOA if my business owns no vehicles?
If anyone drives anything for the business, that is the exposure it addresses. With no owned autos it goes on a commercial auto policy as symbols 8 and 9, or on a businessowners policy as the BP 04 04 endorsement.
Is my employee personally covered under my HNOA?
Not in their own car. On the ISO business auto form, anyone using a hired auto with your permission is an insured, but an employee driving an auto they or a household member own is excluded, and CA 99 33 is the endorsement that adds them. The BOP endorsement does name employees as insureds for a non-owned auto used in your business.
Does HNOA cover damage to a rental car?
No. It is liability coverage, and property in the insured’s care, custody or control is excluded. Damage to the rental is what Hired Auto Physical Damage on the auto policy, or the rental company’s damage waiver, is for.
What about employees who deliver food in their own cars?
The ISO personal auto form excludes use as a public or livery conveyance, which is where delivery for hire lands, and Tennessee’s insurance regulator warned in a March 2020 COVID-19 bulletin that such drivers can end up inadvertently uninsured. HNOA is written to respond for the business’s liability; the driver’s own protection has to be arranged separately.
Sources
- ISO Business Auto Coverage Form CA 00 01 10 13 (National General forms catalog): covered auto symbols 8 and 9, Who Is An Insured and its exceptions, employee and care-custody-control exclusions, Other Insurance and hired auto physical damage, definition of employee
- ISO Businessowners endorsement BP 04 04 01 10, Hired Auto And Non-Owned Auto Liability (Missouri Farm Bureau form library): schedule and premium-charge condition, insuring agreements, who is an insured, excess wording, definitions
- ISO Personal Auto Policy PP 00 01 06 94 (Maine Bureau of Insurance filing copy): Part A insured definition, public or livery conveyance and business-use exclusions
- ISO endorsement PP 23 40 10 15, Public Or Livery Conveyance Exclusion Endorsement (Western National form library): transportation network platform definition, Parts A, B and D
- Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, Bulletin 20-04, COVID-19 guidance on automobile coverage for deliveries (March 26, 2020)
- IRMI, Craig Stanovich: The Auto Exclusion in the CGL Policy (CG 00 01 04 13, exclusion g.; employees as insureds), September 2022
- IRMI glossary: public or livery conveyance use (delivery service as livery use, excluded under the personal auto policy)
- IRMI glossary: employees as insureds endorsement (CA 99 33)
- IRMI, Gene Farnsworth: Business Auto Policy Covered Auto Designation Symbols, December 2017 (state UM/UIM treatment of hired and non-owned autos)
General information about hired and non-owned auto liability coverage as of October 2026, not legal or tax advice; the ISO Business Auto Coverage Form (CA 00 01 10 13), the Hired Auto And Non-Owned Auto Liability endorsement (BP 04 04 01 10) and your own policy’s wording control. Coverage depends on underwriting and the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy actually issued.