Privately-Owned Vehicle Insurance and Inspection

Your organization relies on the services of personnel to respond to an emergency scene or to the station via their own personal vehicles.

Recent court rulings have determined that employers can be sued for employee commuting accidents.  Consequently, it is important to ensure that all personnel have adequate liability insurance on their private vehicles.  Although most states require that vehicles be insured, many uninsured vehicle accidents still occur. 

We recommend the following guideline which your department should develop and enforce if they permit personnel to respond in their own personal vehicles:

Annually, your organization should verify that individual personnel have personal auto liability insurance with appropriate liability limits which protect not only the individual but also your organization.  This can be achieved by obtaining a copy of each individual's insurance certificate annually, or by having their insurance agent submit a certificate.  This could be done in conjunction with other annual issues, such as respiratory protection questionnaires, or verifying drivers’ licenses.

Since your organization allows response to calls for service with POV’s, your organization should consider a vehicle safety survey to be conducted at least on an annual basis.  The purpose of which should be to evaluate the POV’s road worthiness & basic safety equipment.  Items such as lights, turn signals, glass, windshield wipers and tire condition, should be some of the items considered.  The VFIS POV Safety Inspection form is a good guide for this purpose which follows in the next section.

Personnel must understand that first and foremost, he or she must arrive at the emergency scene safely in order to be of any help to the public.

Available Resources

• Personal Vehicle Safety Checklist