Commercial auto symbols are the number codes in Item Two of the business auto declarations that decide which vehicles each coverage applies to. Symbol 1 covers any auto for liability only, symbol 2 covers owned autos, symbol 7 covers only the autos listed on the schedule, symbol 8 covers hired and borrowed autos, and symbol 9 covers non-owned autos used in your business. If the right symbol is not next to a coverage on the declarations page, that coverage does not apply to that vehicle.
The symbols are where expensive gaps hide. A symbol 7 fleet that misses the 30-day notice on a new vehicle has effectively self-insured it, so the same insurer can pay a loss on last year's box truck and refuse the identical claim on the van you bought last month. Here is how the symbols work under the ISO Business Auto Coverage Form CA 00 01.
Covered Auto Symbols
Covered auto symbols are the numbers in the declarations of a business auto policy that define which autos are insured for each coverage. If a vehicle's symbol is missing next to a coverage on the declarations page, that coverage does not apply to the vehicle.
How do covered auto symbols work?
Each covered auto symbol turns on one coverage for one group of vehicles, and does nothing else. Every coverage on the business auto declarations (liability, medical payments, uninsured motorist, comprehensive, collision and towing) has a "covered autos" box next to it. The numbers in that box, often "1" for liability and "7" for physical damage, tell the policy which autos that coverage applies to. Section I of CA 00 01 defines each symbol.
Before any claim is paid, the adjuster asks one question first: is this vehicle a covered auto 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 | Covered Automobiles | Applicable coverages |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Any auto, owned, hired, or non-owned | Liability only |
| 2 | Owned autos only (including autos acquired later) | Liability, physical damage, medical payments, PIP, uninsured motorist |
| 3 | Owned private passenger autos only | Same as 2, plus towing |
| 4 | Owned autos other than private passenger | Same as 2 |
| 5 | Owned autos subject to no-fault | PIP where state no-fault law is compulsory |
| 6 | Owned autos subject to a compulsory uninsured motorist law | Uninsured motorist where it cannot be rejected |
| 7 | Specifically described (scheduled) autos only | Liability, physical damage, medical payments, PIP, uninsured motorist |
| 8 | Hired autos, leased, hired, rented, or borrowed (not from employees, partners, members, or their households) | Liability, physical damage |
| 9 | Non-owned autos, including employees' and partners' own vehicles used in the business | Liability only |
| 19 | Mobile equipment subject to a compulsory or financial responsibility law | Liability only |
A few details in that table decide most real claims:
Symbols 3 and 4 split the owned-auto group that symbol 2 covers into private passenger autos and everything else, so coverages can be set by vehicle type.
What does symbol 1 mean?
Symbol 1, "any auto", is the broadest designation the form defines, and it applies only to liability coverage. Ownership does not matter: liability covers the vehicle, listed or not, whether you own it, hired, leased or rented it, borrowed it, or it belongs to someone else entirely. Because symbol 1 can support only liability, the standard setup is symbol 1 for liability plus symbol 2 or 7 for physical damage and the other coverages.
For-hire fleets have another reason to care where liability reaches. Federal rules set minimum public liability insurance for interstate motor carriers in 49 CFR 387.9, starting at $750,000 for general freight and rising to $5,000,000 for bulk hazardous materials.[1] A truck the liability symbol misses is a truck running below that federal minimum.
What does symbol 7 mean, and where is the trap?
Symbol 7 covers only the specific autos scheduled in the declarations, coverage by coverage. Check Item Three 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:
- The insurer already covers all autos you own for that coverage, or the new auto replaces a vehicle that had that coverage, and
- You notify the insurer within 30 days of acquiring the vehicle.
Miss the 30-day notice and the new vehicle has no coverage for that coverage. A replacement vehicle gets only the coverages the replaced vehicle had, so if you replace a liability-only van, 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. Symbol 8 covers autos you lease, hire, rent or borrow. It is often entered on the comprehensive and collision lines to buy hired auto physical damage, which insures damage to a rental truck. Symbol 8 excludes vehicles borrowed from your employees, partners, LLC members or members of their households. Symbol 9 covers everyone else's vehicles used in your business, mainly employees' own cars on company errands. For businesses without owned vehicles, our guide to hired and non-owned auto insurance covers the details. Two points decide most symbol 9 claims:
- It protects the business, not the driver. If an employee causes an accident while driving their own car on agency business, symbol 9 insures the agency, not the employee. The employee's personal auto policy pays first 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?
Carry the symbols that match every way a vehicle enters your operations, and ask for the broadest ones the insurer will give:
List every way vehicles enter your business
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 rather than 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 on the other coverages. Many carriers refuse symbol 1 or reserve it for fleets they know well. 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, and mobile equipment in use at a site belongs to the general liability policy. 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.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between symbol 1 and symbol 7?
Symbol 1 covers any auto (owned or not, listed or not), but only for liability. Symbol 7 covers only the vehicles listed in the declarations, coverage by coverage, and you must tell the insurer about a newly acquired vehicle within 30 days or it is not covered. Symbol 1 is the broadest designation and symbol 7 is the narrowest.
Do I need hired and non-owned auto coverage if my business owns no vehicles?
Usually, yes. Your business can be sued when an employee drives their own car on company business, and it has the same exposure when it rents or borrows a vehicle. Symbols 8 and 9 provide this coverage, or a hired and non-owned auto endorsement on another policy can. General liability policies exclude it.
Does symbol 9 cover my employee when they drive their own car for work?
No. Symbol 9 protects only the named insured business. When an employee drives their own car for your company, their personal auto policy pays first, and your business auto policy sits excess for the business. An Employees As Insureds endorsement (CA 99 33) can make the employee an insured under your business policy.
Are newly purchased vehicles automatically covered?
It depends on the symbol. Under symbols 1 through 6 or 19, an owned auto of the described type acquired mid-term is covered automatically for the rest of the policy term.
Under symbol 7, a newly acquired vehicle is covered only if the insurer covers all of your owned autos for that coverage (or the new vehicle replaces one that had it), and you tell the insurer about it within 30 days.
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.
Checking the symbols on your declarations
Covered auto symbols decide which vehicles each coverage in your business auto policy insures. Symbol 1 is the broadest but liability only, and symbol 7 covers only scheduled autos, so a new vehicle must be reported within 30 days to be covered. Before your next renewal, pull your declarations pages and read Item Two line by line to confirm the right symbol sits next to each coverage.
References
- 1.Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. “49 CFR 387.9: Financial Responsibility, Minimum Levels.” https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/387.9 ↩