Radius of Operation on a Commercial Auto Policy

What is radius of operation?

Radius of operation is the farthest a vehicle is operated from the place it is garaged, and an insurer uses it to put the vehicle in a rating band. It starts at the garaging address on the policy. The garaging address entry covers how that address is chosen, and the take-home van guide covers what changes when drivers park vans at home.

The Massachusetts commercial auto manual that Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers publishes (effective March 1, 2026) tells the rater to measure a straight line, not road miles, from the street address of principal garaging. It sorts vehicles into three classes:

Local. Not operated beyond 50 miles.
Intermediate. Operated beyond 50 miles but not beyond 200.
Long distance. Operated beyond 200 miles.

That is one published manual, and it has no NEMT class. Private insurers file their own rules state by state, so ask yours for its bands in writing before you assume these.

How does the insurer find out your radius?

It asks on the application. CRC Group’s professional liability supplemental application for NEMT (form dated 2025) asks for hours of operation, shifts, and the percentage of transports in three bands, 0 to 25 miles, 26 to 50 miles and 51 or more, which must total 100 percent. It also wants the number of transports in the last 12 months and the projection for the next 12. On the auto side, Progressive’s NEMT page lists location and travel radius among the main price factors. So radius can come up twice: as one band for each van on the auto policy, and as the share of trips in each band on a professional liability application. The guide to buying NEMT insurance shows where radius sits among the other questions.

What happens when a van runs 150 miles to a specialist?

Under the Massachusetts manual’s wording, a van operated 150 miles from its garage sits in the intermediate band. Here is an example. A van garaged in a mid-size town takes a stretcher rider 150 miles to a specialist. It has operated beyond 50 miles and not beyond 200. On a professional liability application like CRC’s, the same trip counts toward the “51 or more miles” share.

The manual’s band definitions say “operated beyond” and do not mention regular or occasional trips, so they do not say whether one long trip a month changes the band. Its 200-mile zone rule is different: it applies to the manual’s bus classes when a vehicle is “regularly operated” beyond 200 miles. A regular run to a transplant center 250 miles away would cross that line. A zone-rated vehicle is priced from the zone of its garage and the farthest zone its operations reach. Ask the underwriter how a few long trips a year are treated.

What does a longer radius do to the premium?

In the Massachusetts rate pages, the local and intermediate bands carry the same primary rating factors in every public class, and only the statistical class code differs. A social services automobile carries a 1.00 liability factor in both, and so does a limousine. Past 200 miles the manual prices zone-rated vehicles another way. Rule 74 starts from a base rate in the zone rating tables, set by the garage zone and the farthest zone reached, and multiplies it by the vehicle’s rating factors. The primary factor changes in that column too: bus N.O.C. falls from 1.15 to 0.95.

Private insurers set their own factors, so the only way to learn what a longer radius costs a NEMT fleet is to ask for quotes at both radii. Long-distance medical transportation pricing covers what to charge riders for those trips.

How to add long trips to your policy

Tell your agent before the first long trip, with the farthest destination and how often vans go. Then ask three things in writing:

Which radius band are my vans rated in today, and does an occasional longer trip change it?
Does any endorsement on my policy limit where vans may operate?
What will the premium be at the new radius?

The ISO business auto form (CA 00 01 10 13) bases the estimated premium on the exposures you said you would have and works out the final premium once actual exposures are known. If your real use differs from what you reported, the final premium can differ too, as the premium audit guide describes.

Counting long trips in HealthRide

Each completed trip in HealthRide carries GPS-recorded miles and timestamps, and the trip log exports as a spreadsheet or PDF from reports. Trip miles are road miles, not a straight line from the garage, but sorting the export by miles shows which trips to check against the radius you gave your insurer.

Frequently asked questions

What happens to coverage when a van drives outside its stated radius?

Nothing changes on the standard ISO business auto form (CA 00 01 10 13). Its coverage territory is the United States, its territories and possessions, Puerto Rico and Canada, and the form contains no radius term. Radius is a rating fact. An endorsement on your own policy could still limit where vans operate, so read the forms list.

What if my radius answer on the application turns out wrong?

It can cost you coverage. One NEMT professional liability application treats answers as legally material and has the applicant sign that incorrect information could void coverage. On the ISO business auto form, an insured who deliberately hides or misstates a material fact about the form, a covered auto or a claim voids the whole form.

Is this the same as the 150 air-mile hours-of-service rule?

No. Under 49 CFR 395.1(e)(1), a driver who stays within 150 air miles (172.6 statute miles) of the reporting location, and meets the release and rest rules, is exempt from logging duty status. That rule is about driver hours. It does not set an insurance band.

Radius of operation: the mileage band on your commercial auto policy, and what long medical trips do to it