Summer road trip insurance checklist for drivers in the Mountain West

A summer drive out of Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City or Boise means distance before anything else: hours of interstate across the Mojave, a climb over a mountain pass, two-lane highways through country where the next service is an hour away and the phone signal is optional. The car is loaded, a trailer or a boat may be behind it, the house is empty, and the trip may end in another state or across the border into Canada or Mexico.

The auto policy travels with the car and works in every state, but its edges show on a trip: who else may drive, what a trailer does to liability, what happens to the belongings in the back, and what changes at an international border. The home policy is quietly at work on the house left behind and on the luggage in the car. This checklist takes the trip in order, from the week before departure to the drive home, and says what to do at each stage and which policy is responsible when something goes wrong.

What a summer trip does to the household's risk

The exposures a long drive adds, beyond the ordinary commute.

• Heat and distance: tyre failures on hot asphalt, overheating on a long grade, and breakdowns in places where a tow is long and expensive.
• Unfamiliar roads: mountain passes, wildlife at dusk, gravel surfaces, and drivers who are tired from a full day behind the wheel.
• Towing: a boat, a camper or a utility trailer changes the car's braking, sway and length, and adds property that may not be insured.
• Loaded vehicles: luggage, electronics, bikes on a rack and sports equipment, all of it visible at every fuel stop and motel lot.
• A house left empty in the hottest weeks, with the air conditioner and the irrigation running unattended.
• Other drivers at the wheel: a partner, an adult child, a friend sharing the driving, or a rental car in a destination city.
• Borders: Canada honours a US auto policy in most respects; Mexico does not, and a separate Mexican liability policy is needed from the moment the car crosses.

What the auto policy covers on the road

Liability, collision and comprehensive coverage follow the car across all fifty states and into Canada, and the policy adjusts its liability limits upward if the state where a crash happens requires more than the policy's own limits. Anyone who drives the car with your permission is covered as a permissive user, subject to any named-driver exclusion on the policy; a friend sharing the driving is fine, an excluded household member is not. A crash in an at-fault state such as Arizona, Nevada or Idaho is handled by the at-fault driver's liability coverage; a crash in a no-fault state such as Utah starts with each driver's own personal injury protection, and a policy written elsewhere is deemed to provide it.

Comprehensive coverage pays for the blown windshield from gravel, the deer strike, the hail in a Colorado afternoon and the theft of the car from a motel lot. Collision pays for the car after a crash or a slide off a mountain road, regardless of fault. Roadside and towing coverage pays for a tow to the nearest shop, which on a rural highway can be a long way, and rental reimbursement pays for a car while yours is repaired, though usually with a daily limit that assumes a city rental rather than a resort one. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is the part that pays your own injuries when the other driver has little or nothing, and on a highway carrying drivers from every state, it is the line to check before you leave.

Where the auto policy stops

Luggage, electronics, bikes and anything else in or on the car are not covered by the auto policy. They are personal property, insured by the homeowner or renters policy under its off-premises provision, at the policy deductible and often a reduced limit for property away from home. A household without a homeowner or renters policy has no coverage for the contents of the car.

A trailer, a boat on its trailer or a camper is covered for liability by the tow vehicle's policy while it is attached, on most forms, but its own physical damage is not covered unless the trailer is scheduled on the auto policy or insured under a boat, RV or trailer policy. Once unhitched at a campsite, even the liability extension may end. A rented car in a destination city is covered by your auto policy's liability, collision and comprehensive on most personal policies, less your deductible, but the rental company's loss-of-use and administrative charges and the diminished value claim it may raise are not covered on every policy; a credit card benefit or the counter waiver fills that. In Mexico, none of the US policy's liability coverage is recognised by the authorities, and a Mexican policy is the only thing that keeps a driver out of custody after a crash; some carriers extend physical damage coverage a short distance into Mexico, but that does not replace the liability policy.

The week before

A short list, most of it paperwork.

• Read the declarations page: confirm collision, comprehensive, uninsured motorist, towing and rental reimbursement are on the car you will drive, and note the deductibles.
• Check who will drive, and confirm none of them is excluded on the policy. If an adult child who no longer lives with you will share the driving, ask whether they need to be listed.
• Schedule the trailer or confirm the boat and camper policies are active with physical damage coverage; ask whether liability follows the trailer once unhitched.
• Photograph what is packed, especially electronics and bikes, and check the off-premises limit on the home or renters policy.
• Buy a Mexican auto policy for the whole stay if the route crosses the border; do it before you leave, not at the crossing.
• Service the car, check the tyres cold and carry water, a shade cloth, a basic tool kit and a printed insurance card with the roadside number.
• For the house: set the air conditioner to a safe temperature rather than off, shut the water main if nobody will be checking, and ask a neighbour to look in; a summer absence longer than a month may need to be reported to the home carrier.

On the road, and if something goes wrong

Drive the distance in daylight where you can, stop every two hours, and treat wildlife hours at dusk and dawn as a reason to slow down on two-lane roads. Keep the car locked and the load out of sight at every stop; a motel lot in a tourist town is where luggage disappears. If the car is towing, add following distance and brake early on descents.

For a breakdown, call the roadside number on the card, give a mile marker and accept the tow to the nearest capable shop; keep the receipt and the estimate. For a crash, move to safety, call the local police, photograph the scene and every vehicle, exchange information and report to your own carrier the same day, whatever state you are in; your carrier will handle the differences between at-fault and no-fault rules. For a theft from the car, photograph the damage, file a police report and report the glass to the auto carrier and the contents to the home or renters carrier as separate claims. In Mexico, call the Mexican policy's number first and wait for its adjuster before agreeing anything.

A worked example

Suppose a Las Vegas family drives to Yellowstone towing a $12,000 camper, with two laptops, a camera and four bicycles worth $6,000 together in and on the car. Their auto policy carries collision and comprehensive with $500 deductibles, towing, and rental reimbursement at $40 a day. The camper is scheduled on the policy for physical damage. Their homeowner policy has a $1,500 deductible and an off-premises limit for personal property.

For example, on a highway in southern Idaho a tyre fails and the car and camper leave the road. The car needs $7,000 of repair, the camper $4,000, and the family spends nine days in a rental car at $70 a day while the car is repaired. Collision pays $7,000 less $500 for the car and $4,000 less a separate $500 deductible for the camper. Rental reimbursement pays $360 of the $630 rental bill, the rest is theirs. The bikes on the rack, damaged in the slide, are a personal property claim on the homeowner policy; at $6,000 less the $1,500 deductible and subject to the off-premises limit, the family collects $4,500. Had the camper not been scheduled, its $4,000 of damage would have been uninsured. The figures are illustrative; the two decisions that mattered were scheduling the camper and carrying rental reimbursement.

The decision points

Before a long summer drive, four questions. Is everything being towed insured for its own physical damage, or only for liability while attached. Does the auto policy carry towing and rental reimbursement at limits that fit a rural tow and a resort rental. Is there a homeowner or renters policy behind the belongings in the car, and does its off-premises limit cover them. And does the route cross into Mexico, in which case a separate policy is required for the trip. If the answers are all satisfactory, the recommendation is to check the tyres and go. We review the declarations page against the route at no cost and quote any change across the carriers we represent in Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Idaho.