Commercial Auto Symbols 1, 2, 7, 8, and 9: How to Read the Covered-Auto Codes

The numbers beside each coverage on a business auto declarations page are shorthand for which vehicles that coverage applies to. Read across the row, not down the page — and read the definition out of your own form, not a chart.

Somewhere on a business auto declarations page there is a narrow column of single digits. They sit beside the coverages — one next to liability, maybe a different one next to collision — and most people who own the policy have never been told what they are.

They are covered-auto symbols, and they are doing more work than their size suggests. Each one identifies which category of vehicles a particular coverage applies to. Not which losses are covered, not who is protected, not how much. Which vehicles, for that coverage row.

Which produces the trap this article exists to close: a policy can show different symbols for different coverages. Read the number beside liability, conclude something about the policy as a whole, and you may have just read past the fact that physical damage is written against a different — often much narrower — set of vehicles.

The 60-second reading method

Read across the row, then down into the documents. In order:

1. Find the coverage row. Liability. Medical payments or personal injury protection. Uninsured and underinsured motorist. Comprehensive. Collision. Each is its own line.
2. Read the symbol shown for that row. Only that row.
3. Look the symbol up in your policy’s own form, by form number and edition. Not in a chart, not in this article, not in a competitor’s table.
4. Check the schedule the symbol points to, if it points to one.
5. Read the endorsements, which are where symbol treatment gets modified.
6. Compare all of that to what the vehicles actually do, which is the step everybody skips.

Two warnings before any of the sections below. The issued policy controls, not this page. And carrier-proprietary forms and custom symbols exist — Texas commercial forms are not standardized, which is exactly why TDI publishes a form review checklist for commercial auto rather than a single approved wording. If your form’s symbol table does not match what you read here, your form is right.

What a covered-auto symbol does and does not do

A symbol designates a category of autos. That is the entire job.

It does not settle any of the following, all of which live elsewhere in the policy:

The symbol answers	The symbol does not answer
Which category of vehicles this coverage applies to	Who is an insured
Whether a vehicle falls in that category, once you check the schedule	Whether a particular loss is covered
Which coverage row you are reading	What the limits are
—	Which exclusions and conditions apply
—	What the territory is
—	How endorsements modify any of the above

So the sentence to keep in your head while reading the sections below is “if your policy uses this symbol” — because none of the labels that follow is guaranteed to be the label in your form.

Symbol 1: commonly “Any Auto”

The broadest of the categories, and the one most often over-read.

“Any Auto” describes the category of vehicles the coverage attaches to. It does not mean every loss is covered, every coverage is included, every driver is an insured, or that you have — a phrase worth putting in quotation marks and then leaving there — “full coverage.” Exclusions, conditions, limits, and who-is-an-insured provisions all still apply and all sit elsewhere in the form.

Which coverage rows a given form permits Symbol 1 against is a question for that form. Do not generalize it from a chart, including the ones that look authoritative.

Symbol 2: commonly “Owned Autos Only”

This is the symbol where paperwork alignment becomes the whole issue.

Three facts have to agree and often do not:

• the entity that holds title or the lease;
• the named insured shown on the policy;
• what the business believes it owns.

An owner who bought a truck personally and uses it entirely for the business, or a business that reorganized into a new LLC without updating the policy, is the ordinary version of this problem. Neither is exotic and both are found by reading two documents side by side.

Newly acquired and replacement vehicles are the other question that lands here. Provisions covering vehicles acquired during the term exist, they vary between forms, some carry notice requirements, and they can be modified by endorsement. We are not going to publish a day count. Anyone who does without naming your form and edition is quoting one policy at you and calling it a rule.

Symbol 7: commonly “Specifically Described Autos”

Here the schedule is the boundary. The coverage applies to the vehicles listed, which makes the accuracy of that list a live insurance question rather than an administrative one.

Work through the schedule looking for:

• VINs, and whether they are correct and complete;
• vehicles sold or disposed of that are still listed;
• vehicles acquired that were never added;
• effective dates for each unit;
• garaging location and stated use, per vehicle;
• endorsements attached to specific units.

What this article will not tell you is that an omitted vehicle is uncovered. That conclusion depends on the form’s own provisions and on the facts, and it is exactly the sort of statement that is easy to write and wrong often enough to matter. What is safe to say: an inaccurate schedule is a question you want to have found before a loss, not after one.

Symbol 8: commonly “Hired Autos Only”

The category associated with vehicles the business rents, leases, hires, or borrows.

Three things get conflated here constantly and are worth separating on paper:

• Where the vehicle came from — a rental company, a leasing company, another business, an individual. Forms can treat these differently.
• Who is authorized to drive it, under the policy and separately under the rental agreement. These are two different lists and they do not automatically match.
• Liability arising out of the vehicle versus damage to the vehicle itself, plus loss of use, administrative charges, and deductibles. Seeing Symbol 8 on the liability row says nothing about physical damage to the rented vehicle.

The operational version of that decision — what to check before someone rents a car on the company card — is worked through in hired and non-owned auto in Texas. This article stops at the declarations page on purpose.

Symbol 9: commonly “Nonowned Autos Only”

The category associated with vehicles owned by employees or others and used in the business.

What Symbol 9’s presence does not establish, on its own:

• that the employee is an insured under the policy;
• that the employee’s own vehicle has physical damage protection from your policy;
• what the employee’s personal auto policy does or does not do;
• which policy responds first;
• how owners, partners, members, or household members are treated, which varies.

The employee’s own personal auto policy is a separate document with separate answers, and Texas personal auto forms handle business use with wording that varies and carries exceptions — TDI’s personal auto filing checklist is the reason to read the actual form rather than assume either result.

And the vocabulary warning that belongs on every page about this: non-owned auto is not non-owner insurance. One is a commercial covered-auto category; the other is a personal auto product for someone who owns no car.

Why Symbols 8 and 9 do not finish the analysis

They are the entry point, not the answer. After identifying that a policy shows 8, 9, or both, there is still:

• who is an insured, for each of those categories;
• the endorsements attached, which is where much of the real scope sits;
• exclusions and conditions that apply to the coverage regardless of symbol;
• other-insurance provisions, which speak to priority;
• limits, which are not implied by a symbol;
• the actual facts of any given trip, driver, and loss.

A declarations page can show 8 and 9 and a business can still have a gap it does not know about. That is not a criticism of the symbols; it is a description of what shorthand is.

Five reconciliation tests

Each row ends in documents and a question. None ends in an outcome, because an outcome requires your form and your facts.

Situation	Documents to pull	Question for the agent
A vehicle the business owns is not on the schedule	Declarations, vehicle schedule, title or lease, purchase date	Which symbol governs each coverage row, and what does the form say about vehicles acquired during the term?
A sold vehicle is still listed	Schedule, bill of sale, disposal date	What is the process for removing it prospectively, and does anything else on the policy reference it?
An employee uses their own car for work	Declarations rows and symbols, endorsement schedule, employee’s own policy	Is a non-owned category shown, for which coverages, and who is an insured under it?
A short-term business rental	Declarations rows and symbols, endorsement schedule, the rental agreement	Liability and damage to the rented vehicle are separate — which document answers each, and who is an authorized driver on each?
A vehicle was acquired or replaced mid-term	Declarations, schedule, acquisition documents, endorsements	What does the form provide for newly acquired or replacement autos, and is there a notice requirement?

Questions to ask before you rely on a symbol

Take this list into the review:

1. What is the exact form number and edition, and does the carrier use any proprietary wording?
2. Which symbol is shown for each coverage row, individually?
3. Does the schedule match the vehicles we actually have, today?
4. Does the named insured match the entity that owns or leases them?
5. What endorsements are attached, and do any of them modify a symbol or add a custom one?
6. What does the form provide for newly acquired, replacement, or temporary substitute autos?
7. Who is an insured under each category shown?
8. Where does liability end and physical damage begin on this policy?
9. If something here is wrong, how do we correct it prospectively?

Two things sit outside all of this and are worth naming so they do not get read into a symbol. Freight or a customer’s load is a cargo question — the truck and what is in the truck are separate policies. Customer vehicles in your care are a garage question, and no covered-auto symbol on a business auto policy is the answer to it.

The policy itself — what a commercial auto program carries and how one is placed in Texas — is on our commercial auto insurance page. This article is one column of that policy, and it is the column that decides which vehicles the rest of the page is talking about.

Common questions

What are commercial auto coverage symbols?

They are numbers shown beside each coverage on a business auto declarations page, identifying which category of vehicles that particular coverage applies to. They are shorthand for a definition written in the policy form, and the issued form, its edition, the schedules, and the endorsements control what each one actually means on your policy.

What is Symbol 1 on a business auto policy?

On commonly used business auto forms, Symbol 1 is labeled Any Auto. Verify the label and the definition in your own form rather than from a chart, and read it in the coverage row where it appears. Any Auto describes a category of vehicles — it does not mean every loss, every coverage, every driver, or unlimited protection.

What does Symbol 2 mean?

Commonly Owned Autos Only. It points at vehicles the named insured owns, which makes the entity on the title, the named insured on the policy, and the lease facts worth reconciling. How newly acquired or replacement vehicles are treated is written into the form and varies, so treat any grace period you have heard about as a question rather than a rule.

What is Symbol 7 on a business auto policy?

Commonly Specifically Described Autos — the vehicles actually listed on the schedule attached to the policy. This is the symbol where the schedule itself becomes the coverage boundary, which makes stale VINs, sold vehicles still listed, and newly bought vehicles not yet listed worth checking at every renewal and after every purchase.

What do Symbols 8 and 9 mean?

Commonly Hired Autos Only and Nonowned Autos Only. They are the covered-auto categories associated with vehicles the business rents, hires, or borrows, and vehicles owned by employees or others and used in the business. Seeing them on a declarations page does not by itself resolve who is an insured, whether physical damage is included, or which policy responds first.

Can liability and physical damage show different symbols?

Yes, and this is the single most useful thing to know about reading them. A policy can display one symbol beside liability and a different one beside collision or comprehensive. That is why the reading method is across the row rather than down the page — the answer changes coverage by coverage.

Does Symbol 7 give every newly acquired vehicle the same grace period?

No universal rule exists to quote. Newly acquired and replacement vehicle provisions, and any notice requirement attached to them, are written into the specific form and can be altered by endorsement. Find the provision in your own policy and confirm it with your agent rather than relying on a day count from an article.

Sources: TDI — Commercial automobile policy form checklist; TDI — Commercial Auto Biennial Report, 2024; NAIC — Small Business Insurance; TDI — Personal automobile policy checklist. Verified 24 August 2026.

General information about Texas filing rules, not legal advice and not a quote. Requirements change; confirm your own through the Texas DPS License Eligibility system before acting. Published 24 August 2026.