FAQs: Insurance for Scooters

Transcription

Hey everybody, I’m Mike with Local Impact. I’m sitting down with Claude Singleton from Bray and Oakley Insurance Agency today. Claude, if you don’t mind, take a second and tell people who Bray and Oakley is and what you all do.

Very Good. Bray and Oakley Insurance Agency is an independent insurance agency in Lexington, Kentucky; Richmond, Kentucky; Pikeville, Kentucky; as well as Logan, West Virginia; Chapmanville, West Virginia; and Weston, West Virginia. We’re an independent, which means we can represent several different companies. We don’t represent just one which might limit you, the customer on what you can have. So we have several companies. We’re also a multi line Insurance Agency, which says we represent different kinds of insurance, auto insurance, home insurance, life insurance, and business insurance. So do a lot of different kinds of insurance using several companies, so we can help our customers better. We’ve been around since 1920. It’s a family owned business that’s been passed around for four generations. So we really enjoy what we’re doing. And we’re in Kentucky and in West Virginia, where you can find us.

Awesome, great. Claude, I see a lot of people nowadays driving scooters out on the road. If you don’t mind, could we just take some time to talk about scooters? And if you don’t mind, tell us what’s defined as a scooter.

Yes, it’s a pretty broad statement. Some scooters are little flimsy things that may be not motorized at all others might be electric. And then others are just small motorcycles. And what I’ll be talking about insuring really would be the small motorcycles. And we would use a motorcycle type policy for that. The other things that you might rent from the city and things. I don’t deal with those, I always tell people to be very careful. Check out the liability because what you do hurting people with that or getting yourself hurt. Read the fine print of the agreement that you’re signing off on. If you choose to use all those things, but I’m not working with that stuff. But what we do work with would be the motorized scooters, the small motorcycles.

Okay, so technically speaking is a motorized scooter. Is that defined as a vehicle? Is there a size range? How does that work?

That’s a good question. Depending on the state, you may be viewing us in a different state. But depending on the state where it is, there’ll be definitions locally about what size vehicles are allowed on the road. And in general, if it’s allowed on the road and is a motorcycle, you should insure it for liability purposes for hitting someone else, causing injuries to them or causing damages to their property, their car or whatever it might be that you’ve hit. Also, you might want to protect yourself for the physical damages to that scooter, you may have a loan on that scooter, and the bank will require you to have some kind of coverage on that, for physical damages to that. That’s called comprehensive and collision. And we’ll talk about that in more detail if you were to give us a call. But that would be if something happens to the vehicle from an outside thing, either windstorm or something or hailstones or tree falling on it or striking something. That’s what that kind of coverage is all about. That’s comprehensive and collision. There’s also something about medical insurance. If you are injured or someone riding with you is injured on a small scooter, it’s designed for one person, let’s make it one person. Sure. It can be a friend of yours with you or a friend of yours that does not have insurance. You really have got to be concerned about if someone is injured riding this scooter, will there be protection? And we will discuss all that with you. 

Great, great, so could I technically, can I cover my scooter under my homeowners insurance?

That’s a good question. It is possible with some companies to have a certain amount of coverage for that. But in general, if you get off of your property, which you will, then there’s diminished coverage, if any, there’ll be diminished coverage. Normally, for a vehicle that’s on the road, it has to be its own insurance, that can be either put on your auto policy, or a separate policy written just for the scooter itself. So it may go on your auto insurance just as an extra vehicle. It’s a road vehicle, it may just be added that way. Or you may choose to add a specialty type policy, a specific policy just for that scooter, and we’ll help you make that decision. Pricing is part of it and coverage is part of that. But all those things will come into our conversation. Takes a few minutes to do but we do give individual attention to that in each of our offices.

Awesome, awesome. So I hear you talk a little bit, it seems like I mean, what’s the liability of owning a scooter? And I guess what determines the cost of insurance for a scooter?

That’s a good question. The liability of you hitting someone else, that’s a concern. And we will recommend that you have a level of liability that you’re comfortable with. Part of that may be determined by price. But we’ll say, here’s the different levels, you choose what protection you want. And that is if you cause injuries to others, how much protection do you want from the insurance company to help you before you have to use personal funds to pay off injuries to those other people or property damage to their property. You can have the liability levels based on what you choose. If you’ve got good assets, good retirement, all these other things that you’re building up, you probably want to protect yourself pretty well. And it’s your choice to do that. We will just help you with the discussion of that. Regarding the comprehensive and collision insurance, that is the damages to the vehicle itself, to the scooter itself. That really depends on the price of the scooter. If it’s got all the bells and whistles, it’s newer, and you’ve got this big loan on it. It can be a higher premium, but it’s still not a not a monster premium. It truly is not a terrible premium. But it’s something that we will discuss with you and we’ll figure out what’s best for you.

Great. So I know that you said you’re in Kentucky. So I know you cover Kentucky and West Virginia. Do you know those two states? Is it required to have insurance on a scooter?

If it is a vehicle for the road, It would be required. Yes. If it’s a road vehicle it has to be on there. And perhaps added to your auto policy or maybe an independent policy. But yes, if it’s a road vehicle it has to be on there.

Great. Great. Is there anything else that you would add any advice to? Anything that you want to give to someone who owns a scooter currently or is thinking about buying one?

Well, I think the best thing would be to give us a call. We’ll discuss things with you and determine, help you determine what’s best. And we will give you options and you can figure out what’s best for you based on this advice. We do this every day. We talk with people and share with them. This is a limited forum, if you will. But the better thing is to have a conversation but give us a call and we at Bray and Oakley, we enjoy doing this.

Sure. Sure. Well, Claude, I really appreciate you taking some time out of your schedule today to talk about scooters and you know, really appreciate it. Thank you, sir. 

Thank you, Mike.