Most detailers buy commercial general liability, tick the box, and assume they're covered.
Then they burn through clear coat on a customer's hood with a rotary, submit a claim, and find out that CGL specifically excludes damage to property in their care. The vehicle they were working on is the one thing the policy doesn't cover.
That exclusion is the single most important thing to understand about insuring a detailing business.
General information to help you have a better conversation with a broker — not insurance advice. Coverage wording varies enormously between insurers.
The four coverages, and what each actually does
Commercial general liability
Covers third-party bodily injury and property damage arising from your operations. If a customer trips over your extension cord, or your pressure washer cracks a neighbour's window, this responds.
This is the baseline. Municipalities often require it for a business licence, and commercial customers will ask for a certificate.
What it does not cover: damage to the vehicle you're working on. That's the exclusion above, and it's standard.
Care, custody and control
Sometimes sold as garage-keepers legal liability, sometimes as a bailee endorsement. Names vary; the function doesn't.
This is the coverage that responds when you damage a customer's property while it's in your possession — burning paint, cracking a trim piece, staining an interior, scratching a wheel, damaging the vehicle while moving it.
For a detailer this is the coverage that matters most, and it's the one most commonly missing. If you take away one thing: ask your broker specifically, by name, whether you have care, custody and control, and what the limit is.
Think about the limit in terms of the most expensive vehicle you'll ever have keys to. Coating work on a $120,000 truck means a $50,000 limit is not enough.
Commercial auto
Your personal auto policy almost certainly excludes commercial use. If you're driving to jobs with equipment in the back, that's commercial use.
This matters in two directions. Obviously, a claim on a work trip can be denied. Less obviously, if you ever move a customer's vehicle — reversing it out of a garage, repositioning it in a lot — you need coverage for driving a vehicle you don't own.
Detailers who work at dealerships or with fleets move other people's vehicles constantly and rarely think of it as driving.
Tools and equipment
Extractor, polishers, pressure washer, generator, steamer. Add it up honestly and most working detailers carry $10,000–$20,000 of gear in a vehicle that sits in driveways all day.
Theft from vehicles is the realistic risk, and a standard policy may limit or exclude equipment left in an unattended vehicle overnight. Worth asking about explicitly.
What it costs
There are enough variables that any number is a rough guide: revenue, whether you have premises, your limits, your claims history, whether you handle high-value vehicles.
As a general shape, a solo Alberta mobile detailer might expect somewhere in the region of $800–$2,500 a year for a package with CGL plus care, custody and control, with commercial auto separate and depending heavily on your driving record and vehicle.
Two things move that number more than anything else:
- Your care, custody and control limit. Going from $50,000 to $250,000 costs real money, and is worth it if you touch high-end vehicles.
- Whether you do paint correction and coatings. Machine polishing carries more risk than washing, and underwriters know it.
Get three quotes. The spread between brokers on essentially identical coverage is often surprising.
Where detailers get caught out
Describing the business vaguely. "Car washing" and "paint correction and ceramic coating application" are different risks. If you described the first and are doing the second, a denied claim is a real possibility. Tell your broker what you actually do, including the machine polishing.
Assuming the customer's insurance covers it. It doesn't. Their policy is not there to pay for damage caused by a contractor they hired.
Working at commercial sites uninsured for it. Dealership lots and condo parkades often require specific limits and want to be named as an additional insured. Sort this before the conversation, because "let me check with my broker" loses you the contract.
Not updating coverage as you grow. The policy you bought when you were washing cars in driveways is not the policy you need when you're coating $90,000 trucks and employing someone.
Employees and subcontractors. The moment someone else works for you, both your liability picture and your WCB obligations change. That's a separate conversation, and worth having early.
What commercial customers will ask for
If you want fleet, dealership, or property-management work, expect to produce:
- A certificate of insurance showing CGL, commonly at $2,000,000
- Proof of care, custody and control coverage with a stated limit
- The customer named as additional insured, sometimes
- A WCB clearance letter if you have employees, and occasionally even if you don't
None of this is difficult. All of it takes a few days to arrange, which is why having it ready is what separates you from the detailer who lost the contract while waiting on a broker.
The unglamorous advice
Insurance is the least interesting money you'll spend and the reason a single bad afternoon doesn't end your business.
Ask your broker three questions:
- Do I have care, custody and control coverage, and what is the limit?
- Does this cover machine polishing and coating application specifically?
- Am I covered driving a customer's vehicle?
If the answers are yes, yes, and yes, you're in reasonable shape. If your broker hesitates on any of them, get another quote from someone who insures trades and mobile service businesses regularly.
Looking like the business you're insuring
Insurance, a licence, and a GST number are what let you say yes to commercial work. What closes it is looking organised — a certificate you can send the same day, proper numbered invoices with terms, and a booking system that doesn't lose appointments.
PayDash handles that last part: booking with deposits, invoicing with Alberta GST calculated automatically, net terms for commercial customers, and a pay-now link on every invoice so the shop can pay the day it arrives.
See how PayDash works for detailers →
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