A pickup is an amazing tool. It provides for transportation of passengers and cargo. We can tow trailers with a pickup truck. We can put canopies, shells, and campers on it. A pickup truck can be used to haul trash to the dump and get a load of firewood or bark dust. If you own a pickup you become the best friend of the neighborhood. Your family is always calling you to come over and help pull out a stump, pick up some furniture, or help move an entire household. We use our pickups for commuting, camping, and just plain fun four wheeling. Lots of personal uses for the pickup and most of those driving activities are covered on a personal auto policy if they are a one ton or less.
What happens if you use your pickup and get paid for driving it? Say you are self-employed and drive your truck around to different job sites all day? Are you covered under a personal auto policy? Maybe not.
Contractors. Specialty contractors can't do a good job without a pickup truck. Ever observed someone using a station wagon to haul around a ladder and some paint to a job site? Just seems out of place. Yes, a station wagon might get the job done, but not like a pickup with a rack on the back. Plumbers, electricians, cement workers, carpenters, and brick layers almost always use a pickup truck. Status symbol? Nope. Utility! They get the job done! And pickups now come in more models and options than private passenger automobiles. Short-beds, long-beds, extra-cabs, two door, four-doors, cloth, leather, heated seats, surround sound stereo and entertainment systems for the passengers in the back. You name it, they got it. Does your private passenger automobile policy that you bought from an Oregon independent insurance agent cover you when you are out bidding and working a job? Maybe not.
Landscapers. Landscape maintenance crews love pickup trucks. You can throw debris in the back and pull a trailer behind with all the tools and chemicals. Landscape contractors bring in planting materials and tools to do the job using a pickup. They are handy for making quick trips to the nursery to pick up more plant material, fertilizer, bark dust, and sod. Pickups are big enough to haul pipe and other sprinkling system materials to the job site. A well designed commercial pickup insurance policy is essential to cover the kinds of risk the landscape "artist" faces on the job!
Farmers and Ranchers. You don't see a farm that doesn't use a pickup truck. In fact, it's probably a rancher that invented the vehicle. He needed some place to throw his tack in the back load up his horse in the trailer. Some say the pickup truck is nothing more than the modern day horse. It's no wonder we still measure the power of the engine of a pickup truck in horses. A pickup truck is an integral part of the farming and ranching lifestyle. Make sure that the auto insurance policy you buy fits that lifestyle covers your needs. Call us at InsureSource Agencies, LLC at 503-693-2852 or Pulse Insurance, LLC at 503-489-3143 for a review of your pickup's coverage.