The following are the essential foundations of a mechanic's insurance package.
Standard and important for all commercial packages. Covers third-party bodily injury, property damage, libel and slander — for example, a slip-and-fall on an icy walkway, or a fire spreading from your shop to neighbouring buildings.
Mechanics work with hazardous materials, gasoline, motor oil, coolant, tires. Covers both slow events (radiator leaking coolant into soil over time) and sudden events (dumping gasoline into a waterway), including financial penalties, government fines, emergency response and clean-up costs.
Critical for any shop size. Covers theft, vandalism, fire, flood and natural disaster — including repair, equipment replacement and building restoration.
Mandatory in Canada for any vehicle used for commercial purposes, including tow trucks and parts pickup trucks. Personal auto will not cover commercial-use collisions.
Covers accidental damage to a customer's vehicle caused by a mechanic or employee, for example, side-swiping a parked customer vehicle while moving it into the garage. A separate policy from CGL.
Tell us about your insurance needs and current coverage.
We shop multiple trusted insurers to find coverage that fits your needs and budget.
Review your options, choose what fits your needs, and get your policy started, often the same day.
Serving all of Ontario, our brokers are available in every region. Find the closest office to you.
Don’t see your city? Call us to find
the nearest broker to you
Our licensed brokers help clients throughout Ontario — virtually, by phone, or in person.
What is Mechanic Insurance?
Mechanic insurance or auto shop insurance is a package of business insurance coverages designed to address the insurance needs of mechanics. With the right Ontario mechanic insurance on their side, auto repair shop owners can access the insurance compensation they need to deal with litigation costs if they have legal action brought against them or to handle the expenses involved with recovering from damage to their commercial property from an insured peril such as a fire or natural disaster.
The reason why it's so essential to have auto mechanic insurance is because, during your business operations, you are certain to encounter situations that you will not be willing or able to pay out of pocket to resolve. Whether that's being sued for damaging a customer's vehicle or installing a faulty part, paying fines for causing a polluting event, getting your auto shop back up & running and equipment repaired after a flood or many other possible scenarios, you’ll need the correct type of auto shop insurance that applies to the problem at hand. You can file a claim with your insurance company and get financial assistance for those expenses up to the coverage limit on your policy.
Who Needs to Have Ontario Mechanic Insurance?
Is commercial auto insurance legally required for mechanics?
Yes, it is mandatory to have auto insurance for any vehicle being driven in Canada, and commercial vehicles are no exception. Any business-owned or broker-owned vehicle used for commercial purposes must be covered by commercial auto insurance. Personal auto will not cover a collision during commercial use.
Do I need garage automobile liability insurance even if my mechanics aren't driving customers' vehicles?
You may not be taking your customers' vehicles for rides around town. Still, you do likely need to move them from place to place occasionally, even if it's just a few feet away, and that presents an opportunity for accidental damage. But as any mechanic knows, it's entirely possible to damage a vehicle that is just sitting there and not being driven. That's why it's important to have garage automobile liability with your mechanic insurance.
It's easy to think you won't need garage automobile liability because you know what you're doing and will be careful, but that's not realistic—accidents happen. It only takes one small slip-up to cause serious physical damage when you're working with expensive, complex machines.
What is the difference between Garage Liability Insurance and Garage Automobile Liability Insurance?
They're not the same, though it's understandable that they're often confused with each other as they have similar names and similar purposes. Garage liability insurance is similar to commercial general liability insurance because it offers you liability coverage against costs related to third-party bodily injury and third-party property damage. It can also include additional endorsements, such as product liability if you manufacture and/or install parts in customers' vehicles.
Garage automobile liability, on the other hand, is third-party automobile coverage. An example of a situation where this type of coverage would be needed is if a mechanic were to take a customer’s vehicle for a test drive and have an accident with a third party and cause third-party property or bodily injury.
Both types of coverage are important additions to mechanic insurance to ensure you have the proper coverage for events in which you could be found liable.
