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Hired & Non-Owned Auto Insurance in Tampa, FL: Coverage When Employees Drive Their Own Cars for Work

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An employee runs to the supply house in her own car, rear-ends someone on Kennedy Boulevard, and the injured driver's attorney finds your company name on the invoice in her passenger seat. Her personal auto policy may deny the claim as business use. Your general liability policy does not cover vehicles at all. That is the gap hired and non-owned auto insurance in Tampa exists to close.

Hired and non-owned auto (HNOA) covers your business's liability for two situations: vehicles you rent or hire, and vehicles your employees own and drive for work. It does not insure the vehicles themselves. It protects the business when someone else's car creates a claim against you.

Commercial Auto Insurance Tampa adds HNOA to policies for offices, cleaning companies, real estate teams, contractors and any business whose people run errands in personal cars. It is one of the least expensive coverages on a commercial policy and one of the most commonly missing.

Tell us how many employees drive for work and how often, and we can quote it in minutes, either on its own or alongside the vehicles you already own.

Talk to a Commercial Auto Specialist

Call (813) 544-3977

52years serving Florida
80+carriers across all lines
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Commercial auto carriers we write with

Auto-Owners
Chubb
GEICO
GUARD
Hagerty
Liberty Mutual
Mercury
Nationwide
Progressive
Travelers

01Coverage

What Hired and Non-Owned Auto Insurance Covers in Tampa

HNOA is liability coverage. Two words in the name describe two different exposures.

Hired Autos

Hired means rented, leased or borrowed for business use: the box truck you rent for a busy week, the car an employee rents on a trip to a Lakeland job site, the van you borrow from another contractor. Coverage responds to your liability arising from that vehicle's use.

Physical damage on a rental is a separate election. If you decline the rental counter's damage waiver, the policy needs hired auto physical damage added, or the rental company's bill lands on the business.

Non-Owned Autos

Non-owned means vehicles the business does not own, most often employees' personal cars used for deliveries, bank runs, supply pickups, client visits or getting between job sites. Coverage protects the business, not the employee, and it sits above the employee's own policy.

That last detail matters. The employee's personal policy is primary, and Florida's required baseline is thin: $10,000 in personal injury protection and $10,000 in property damage liability (ss. 627.736, 324.022, Fla. Stat.), with no requirement to carry bodily injury liability for ordinary registration. When that runs out, the claim looks for the business.

What HNOA Does Not Cover

It does not repair your employee's car, it does not cover their personal use, and it does not replace commercial auto coverage on vehicles the business owns or leases long term. If the business titles the vehicle, it belongs on a business car insurance or commercial auto policy instead.

Up nextWho Needs Hired and Non-Owned Auto in Tampa

Why it matters

Tampa roads by the numbers

26,269crashes in Hillsborough County in 2024
2,982of those crashes involved a commercial motor vehicle
4thHillsborough's rank among Florida's 67 counties for total crashes
46,677commercial motor vehicle crashes statewide in 2024

Source: FLHSMV Traffic Crash Facts, 2024 annual report

02Who it's for

Who Needs Hired and Non-Owned Auto in Tampa

If the answer to "does anyone ever drive their own car for work?" is yes, the exposure exists.

Offices and Professional Services

Law firms, agencies, medical offices and property managers rarely own vehicles, so commercial auto never comes up until an employee's errand becomes a claim. Tampa Bay runs on small businesses: the Census Bureau counted 188,229 nonemployer establishments in Hillsborough County alone in 2023, plus 103,021 in Pinellas County.

Cleaning, Janitorial and Home Services

Crews driving personal cars between houses are the classic non-owned exposure, often several times a day across South Tampa, Carrollwood and Brandon. Our cleaning and janitorial page covers how those accounts are usually structured.

Real Estate, Sales and Route Work

Agents showing properties, sales reps covering a territory and technicians driving to calls all put personal vehicles on business errands. Mileage drives claims frequency, and Tampa Bay mileage is high: the average commute alone runs 28.8 minutes in Hillsborough County and 31.1 minutes in Pasco County (Census Bureau, 2020-2024 American Community Survey).

Contractors Whose Crews Follow in Their Own Trucks

The company truck leaves the shop, and two crew members follow in their own pickups. Those personal trucks are non-owned autos the moment they are used for the job, which is why contractors carry HNOA even with a full fleet of owned vehicles.

03How it works

How We Quote Hired and Non-Owned Auto in Tampa

HNOA is rated on exposure, not on a vehicle schedule, so the quote is quick.

Step 1: How Many People Drive, and How Often
We ask for employee count, how many drive personal vehicles for work, roughly how often, and whether anyone makes deliveries. Rental use is a separate question, including how many rental days a year the business books.
Step 2: Limits and Primary Wording
The limit normally matches the liability limit on your other coverage, commonly $1,000,000. If a client contract requires you to be primary and non-contributory, that wording has to be endorsed, which is one reason HNOA gets added mid-term for Tampa Bay contractors who just signed a new customer.
Step 3: Placement
HNOA can be endorsed onto an existing commercial auto policy, added to a business owner's policy with some carriers, or written standalone when the business owns no vehicles at all. We place it where it costs least and reads correctly on a certificate.

Up nextContact Commercial Auto Insurance Tampa About HNOA

04Get in touch

Contact Commercial Auto Insurance Tampa About HNOA

Call (813) 544-3977 or use the form at the top of this page. For most businesses the whole conversation takes about ten minutes.

Have your employee count, a rough number of employees who drive for work, and any contract language that mentions auto liability. If you already have a commercial policy, send the declarations page and we will check whether HNOA is already on it, since it sometimes is.

We add this coverage for businesses across Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Polk, from St. Petersburg professional offices to Plant City service companies.

05Questions

Frequently Asked Questions About Hired and Non-Owned Auto Insurance in Tampa

The questions Tampa Bay owners ask once they learn the gap exists.

Still wondering?

Ask a licensed agent

Mon-Fri, 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM (after-hours quotes by form)

(813) 544-3977 Request a quote online

How much does hired and non-owned auto insurance cost?

It is rated on payroll and how many employees drive, and for most small businesses it is one of the smallest lines on a commercial policy. Adding it to an existing commercial auto policy usually costs less than buying it standalone. For a Tampa office with a handful of employees running errands, it is among the least expensive coverages on the program.

Does my general liability policy cover employees driving their own cars?

No. General liability excludes auto exposures, which is the single most common misunderstanding we see in Tampa Bay. The claim goes to the employee's personal policy first, then to your business if those limits run out or the personal carrier denies it as business use. That sequence plays out the same whether the errand was in Ybor City or Wesley Chapel.

Does HNOA pay to fix my employee's car?

No. It is liability coverage protecting the business. Damage to the employee's own vehicle is handled by their personal policy, and they should know that before they run company errands. We suggest putting that expectation in writing for crews working across Brandon and Riverview.

Do I need HNOA if my employees only drive occasionally?

Frequency changes the price, not the need. One supply run a month still creates the exposure, and the premium at that level is small. Most Tampa Bay businesses that add it do so after a customer contract or an insurance review points it out.

What about employees using delivery apps or making deliveries in their own cars?

Delivery raises the risk profile sharply, and many carriers exclude or surcharge it. If your people deliver in personal vehicles anywhere around Tampa, say so up front, because the policy has to be written for it. Our delivery and courier page explains which markets write this class for Tampa Bay operators.