How should a senior living community insure its resident transportation?

A van carrying eight to twelve residents converts a single vehicle accident into a multi-claimant event, and the claimants are frail. Injuries that would be minor in a general population are catastrophic here, and each occupant is a separate bodily injury claim against a single per-occurrence limit.

That is the argument for buying more auto limit than the fleet size suggests, and for making sure the excess or umbrella schedules the auto policy as underlying so the tower actually reaches it.

The trip is not only driving. Assessing whether the resident is appropriate to transport, transferring the resident into the vehicle, securing a wheelchair, supervising during the trip and confirming a safe handoff at the destination are all care activities.

Auto policies exclude the rendering of professional services. Professional liability policies commonly exclude the ownership, maintenance or use of an auto. Read together, an injury during a wheelchair securement can be argued out of both. Ask for a carve-back on one side, and prefer the professional liability side, where the negligence theory naturally lives.

The single most common actual loss here is not a collision. It is a fall during loading or unloading, or a resident left in the vehicle. Both are supervision claims wearing an auto costume.

Staff who drive their own cars for community errands, to accompany a resident to an appointment, or to transport supplies create exposure for the community even though the vehicle is not yours. Non-owned and hired auto liability is the coverage, and it is inexpensive relative to the exposure.

Pair it with a written policy: who may drive on community business, a motor vehicle record check at hire and annually, a minimum personal auto limit requirement with proof, and a prohibition on transporting residents in personal vehicles unless specifically authorized. That last rule is the one most often broken and most often uninsured.

Contracting transport to a third party moves the driving exposure but not the selection and supervision exposure. Require the vendor to carry auto liability at a stated limit, name you as additional insured, provide primary and noncontributory wording, waive subrogation, and provide evidence of driver qualification and vehicle inspection.

Then keep the certificate current. A vendor certificate that expired eight months before the accident is a document that helps the plaintiff rather than you.