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When they were little you couldn’t wait for your kids to go to school. Now that they’re older (and their toys are a lot more expensive!) it’s about time for them to get a job and keep themselves in CDs and designer jeans. The catch is, it’s hard for teens to find a part time job that will give them the flexibility to be both a high school student and a teen. Pizza delivery is a great option, but watch out! Your auto insurance probably isn’t going to cover them.

Make sure they’ve got the insurance coverage they need before handing over your car keys.

Ideally, your teen would be working for a company that knows enough to know they need to carry an insurance policy for their delivery drivers. What form this insurance will take depends on who they’re working for an, more importantly, whether they’re driving their own cars or a company vehicle. Most companies prefer to maintain company vehicles because it allows them to tell their auto insurance company exactly how many vehicles they’re going to have out on the road (maximum) at any given point in time.

If they don’t have company cars and their employees are driving their own vehicles companies are supposed to carry a non-owned auto insurance policy. What does that mean? It means that even though they don’t own the car their delivery driver is cruising around town in, that car is still covered by minimum liability insurance during work hours. This keeps the company from being held legally liable for negligence or other fun lawsuit if their employees let their auto insurance lapse. (It’s happened. Check it out.)

This still doesn’t solve the problem of what’s going to happen to you and your car if your teen is involved in an accident while they’re driving your vehicle. Since pizza delivery is considered to be a commercial enterprise your insurer isn’t going to touch any auto insurance claims you file for accidents that take place during work hours with a ten foot pole. Keeping that in mind, it would be an excellent idea for you to look into the cost of a commercial auto insurance policy.

You’re definitely going to pay more for a commercial auto insurance policy than you were for your family insurance coverage, but before you toss the idea aside and just order your teen not to get into an accident think about how much it’s going to cost to repair or replace your car after it’s been in an accident. Do you really have $10,000-20,000 lying around you have nothing better to do with?

Commercial premiums can make you cringe, but the benefits of having it if your teen is actually involved in an accident during work hours more than outweigh the expense (and remember, now that they have a job they can help pay for it!). Don’t you want to know your teen driver is covered every time they hit the highway?

Anthony M. Peck is the Senior Developer, Software Project Manager, and Director of Business Development for QuoteScout.com. For more information on commercial auto insurance visit them on the web at http://www.QuoteScout.com.