Fire Damage
A fire starts in your service bay overnight and damages a customer's vehicle parked inside while awaiting parts.
Coverage
Garage Liability and Garagekeepers Insurance for Gas Stations
Protect your customers' vehicles and your repair operations with comprehensive garage liability insurance for gas stations and garagekeepers insurance.
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Garagekeepers insurance protects customer vehicles that are in your care, custody, or control during repair or service. This is different from your own commercial auto policy, which only protects your station's vehicles. Garage liability insurance for gas stations is necessary for any gas station that has a repair bay, oil change service, or detailing operation to defend against pricey bodily damage claims.
What's covered
What Garage Liability Covers
Garage liability insurance and garagekeepers insurance cover your business from any unexpected physical loss or liability that occurs during standard operations:
Know the gaps
What It Doesn't Cover
Garagekeepers insurance maintains strict operational boundaries and does not cover:
Do you need it
Who Needs Garage Liability Insurance
Garage liability insurance for gas stations is required for any repair shop or service station that provides any vehicle detailing, oil change, tire rotation, or repair services. Any time a customer hands over their keys your station takes full possession of their car. Standard general liability insurance and Business Owners Policies (BOP) clearly exclude property in your care, custody, and control. If your station operates a service bay, review our dedicated guide for a gas station with auto repair shop to align your full coverage stack.
Pricing
What Garage Liability Insurance Costs
Garage liability insurance cost averages between $1,000 and $3,000 per year ($83 to $250 per month) according to commercial insurance benchmarks. Factors that affect the primary cost drivers are the number of total service bays, the variety of services provided, the average vehicle value, and the history of claims.
Review complete underwriting guidelines on our gas station insurance cost breakdown guide.
What a claim looks like
Example Claim
One of your customers parks their SUV in your station overnight for a scheduled transmission repair, and a thief sneaks through your station's fence and steals it. The owner's vehicle was stolen while in your garage's care, custody, and control, and you settled the claim for $24,000 under garagekeepers insurance. This coverage shields your business from significant out-of-pocket settlements if customer property is damaged on your premises.
How it fits
How It Fits With Your Other Coverage
Garage liability insurance sits on top of your commercial policy stack and helps to fill coverage gaps in your shop. While commercial auto insurance protects vehicles your station owns and workers' compensation covers technician injuries in the bay, garagekeepers insurance specifically protects customer cars in your custody. If your business is all about service bay operations, check out our complete gas station with auto repair shop operational guide.
The power of choice
We shop 30+ A-rated carriers so you don't have to.
- Travelers
- The Hartford
- Chubb
- Liberty Mutual
- Nationwide
- Zurich
- CNA
- Progressive
- Philadelphia Insurance
- Berkshire Hathaway GUARD
- biBerk
- AmTrust
- Employers
- Grange Insurance
- Columbia Insurance
- Encova
- Admiral Insurance Group
- Attune
- Coterie
- ERGO NEXT
- AmWINS
- CRC Group
- RT Specialty
- Burns & Wilcox
- Jencap
- Bass Underwriters
- Jimcor Agencies
- CharityFirst
Common questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my commercial auto policy cover customer vehicles I'm servicing?
No. Commercial auto policies strictly cover vehicles owned, leased, or operated directly by your gas station. Asking whether insurance covers a customer's car in my repair bay reveals why dedicated garagekeepers insurance is required.
Am I covered if a customer's car is damaged even if it wasn't my fault?
It depends on your policy structure. A direct primary policy pays for physical damage regardless of fault (such as extreme weather or severe vandalism), while a legal liability policy only responds if your station or staff is proven negligent for the loss.
Get Covered
Protect your repair bays and customer trust with dedicated garage liability insurance for gas stations and garagekeepers insurance tailored to your station's daily operations. Get your fast, free quote today from Insure C-Store.