Auto Symbol 1 vs Symbol 2: Does Your Broker Really Need Any Auto? 2026

Symbol 1 is Any Auto: two words, no ownership test, no schedule. Symbol 2 is Owned Autos Only: the autos you own, plus non-owned trailers attached to power units you own for liability, plus autos you acquire after the policy begins. Both digits sit in Item Two of your declarations, under Covered Autos, and both pick up a truck you buy mid-term. The digit that does not is 7. The choice between 1 and 2 rarely decides a claim on its own: what decides it is whether symbols 8 and 9 sit next to your 2, because owned plus hired plus non-owned is the structure the UIIA and most broker packets accept at $1,000,000 combined single limit.

For the full ten-symbol list, start with our guide to commercial auto coverage symbols. If the symbols on your page are in the sixties, jump to the Motor Carrier section below.

What does form CA 00 01 actually say about symbol 1 and symbol 2?

Section I.A of the Business Auto Coverage Form is headed "Description Of Covered Auto Designation Symbols." In the current edition, CA 00 01 11 20, analysed line by line by FC&S:

• Symbol 1, Any "Auto." That is the entire entry. No qualifying sentence, no ownership test, no schedule.
• Symbol 2, Owned "Autos" Only. "Only those 'autos' you own (and for Covered Autos Liability Coverage any 'trailers' you don't own while attached to power units you own). This includes those 'autos' you acquire ownership of after the policy begins."

Symbol 2 draws its line at the title, with one carve-out written into the symbol: a trailer you do not own stays a covered auto for liability while attached to a power unit you do own. For drop-and-hook dry van work that does most of what people think they need symbol 1 for, though it does not reach physical damage on that trailer.

Symbol	What the form says, in short	Truck bought mid-term?	Rated where
1 Any auto	Any "auto." No further text	Yes, for a type already on the policy	Underwriting call, not a schedule
2 Owned autos only	Autos you own, plus non-owned trailers behind your power units for liability	Yes, for the rest of the term	Item Three, your own units
7 Specifically described	Only autos listed in Item Three with a premium charge	Only on replacement or a full owned schedule, plus notice within 30 days	Item Three, VIN by VIN

Does symbol 2 cover a truck you buy in the middle of the policy term?

Yes, and that is symbol 2's quiet strength. Section I.B says that where symbols 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 19 are entered next to a coverage, autos you acquire of the type described are covered for the rest of the term. Symbol 7 works the opposite way: a newly acquired auto is covered only if the insurer already covers all autos you own for that coverage or the unit replaces one that had it, and you tell the insurer within 30 days. So 1 and 2 behave identically here, and if your declarations show 7 on every line, the digit that threatens you is 7. Section I.C separately covers, for liability, a substitute auto you do not own while your own unit is out of service for breakdown, repair, servicing, loss or destruction; FC&S notes that this substitute coverage is excess over the owner's insurance.

One phrase in I.B matters more than it looks: "of the type described." FC&S reads it strictly: a fleet that has never carried a pickup does not automatically pick one up three months in, even under symbol 1, until the unit is added. Treat that as the insurer's position at claim time, not a curiosity.

Is symbol 2 plus symbol 8 plus symbol 9 the same as symbol 1?

Close, and the difference is a drafting seam rather than a price:

• Symbol 8 covers autos you lease, hire, rent or borrow, then removes any auto you lease, hire, rent or borrow "from any of your 'employees', partners (if you are a partnership), members (if you are a limited liability company) or members of their households."
• Symbol 9 covers autos you do not own, lease, hire, rent or borrow that are used in connection with your business, and expressly includes autos owned by those same employees, partners, members and household members, but only while used in your business or personal affairs.

The seam is the word borrow. Call a vehicle from a driver's household borrowed and symbol 8 has cut it out by name; call it merely used in your business and symbol 9 picks it up. That is an argument you have after the accident, about one word. Symbol 1 contains no such argument.

Typical scenario, an illustrative composite rather than a real client. Lukyan runs a two-truck LLC. The second pickup, used for parts runs, is titled to his wife: not an LLC member, but a member of his household. His policy shows 2 on liability, 7 on physical damage, no 8 and no 9. When that pickup takes a parking-lot hit, the first question is whether the LLC borrowed it. Adding 8 and 9 before renewal deletes the question.

Why the internet says "get Any Auto and you are covered for everything", and why that is only half right

Search for auto symbol 1 and most pages stop at "the broadest symbol." True as far as it goes. What the same pages leave out is that a symbol is not a coverage: it only tells one coverage row which vehicles it applies to. Five things symbol 1 does not do:

What people expect from symbol 1	What the form actually does	Where it says so
Covers every vehicle for every coverage	Applies only to the row it is entered on. A 1 on liability and a 7 on collision is common and leaves a rented tractor with no physical damage	Item Two is read row by row; FC&S notes that unless a symbol is shown beside a coverage, that coverage does not apply
Makes hired and non-owned endorsements unnecessary	For liability, yes: 1 already includes hired and non-owned autos. For hired auto physical damage you still need a symbol on the physical damage rows and a completed Item Four	FC&S 2023 analysis of symbols 1, 8 and 9
Automatically covers any new vehicle you buy	Only autos "of the type described" already on the policy. A first pickup in a tractor fleet is the classic gap	Section I.B and the FC&S reading of it
Wipes out the exclusions	All Section II exclusions still apply: expected or intended injury, pollution, racing, handling of property, movement by mechanical device, and the rest	Section II.B of CA 00 01
Makes the MCS-90 irrelevant	The MCS-90 sits on top of any symbol, pays the public a final judgment, then obliges you to reimburse the insurer for payments it would not have owed under the policy	MCS-90 form text

The practical consequence: an underwriter who is happy to write Any Auto on the liability row of a trucking risk will usually keep physical damage on symbol 7 or 2, because that is the row where the insurer wants a VIN list. Read your Item Two across, not down.

How much more does symbol 1 cost than symbol 2?

There is no standard uplift, and on a trucking risk there is often no offer of symbol 1 at all. What you can price is the pair that gets you most of the way there. Hired auto is rated in Item Four of the declarations on a cost-of-hire basis, non-ownership liability in Item Five on the number of employees and partners, and FC&S confirms that whenever symbol 8 or 9 is used those two schedules must be filled in. A carrier that owns everything it drives has both rating bases near zero, so the premium for adding 8 and 9 is usually small next to the argument they remove. The surprise runs the other way: an underwriter willing to give Any Auto for liability often refuses it on physical damage.

Why do brokers and shippers demand Any Auto on the certificate?

The clearest published example is intermodal, which reaches the drayage fleets on the Newark and Elizabeth port lanes directly, where many small carriers are Russian-speaking owner-operators. The UIIA insurance requirements published by the Intermodal Association of North America set out:

• Auto liability at a combined single limit of $1,000,000, commercial general liability at $1,000,000 per occurrence, no portion self-insured, and under Section F.6 30 days notice of cancellation, 10 days for non-payment.
• The auto policy "must be marked as either an 'Any Auto,' 'Scheduled and Hired' or 'All Owned and Hired' policy. An 'All Owned' or 'Scheduled Only' auto policy is not acceptable."
• Submission online on an ACORD 22, not the ACORD 25 most shippers ask for, with NAIC number and AM Best rating for every insurer, plus a hold harmless interchange endorsement on the auto policy. Any one of UIIE-1, CA 23 17 or TE 23 17B is acceptable, in its most current version.
• For policies with Knights Specialty, Trisura Specialty, Trisura Insurance, Accredited Specialty or Progressive (Progressive effective 01/22/2026), confirmation to the UIIA within 24 hours of the certificate that UIIE-1 or CA 23 17 version 11 20 is on the auto policy and that hired autos are covered.
• The UIIA system expires a policy at 12:01 a.m. on the expiration date, so a renewal uploaded that morning already leaves a gap.

Read the second bullet carefully: it does not insist on symbol 1. It rejects two narrow structures and accepts anything that includes hired autos, which is 2 plus 8 in certificate vocabulary. The motive is self-protection: if a scheduled-autos policy declines on a rented tractor, the plaintiff's next stop is the equipment provider or the broker.

Who is asking	Liability figure	Scope language	Source
FMCSA, non-hazardous property, 10,001 lbs GVWR or more	$750,000	None: the rule sets an amount, the symbol sets the vehicles	49 CFR 387.9
UIIA, intermodal interchange	$1,000,000 CSL	Any Auto, Scheduled and Hired, or All Owned and Hired; Scheduled Only rejected	UIIA insurance requirements
Amazon Relay	$1,000,000 per occurrence, including $50,000 trailer replacement, plus $100,000 cargo	Amount only, no symbol language published	Amazon Relay FAQ

The federal floor sets an amount and says nothing about scope. Under 49 CFR 387.9 a for-hire carrier of non-hazardous property in interstate commerce at 10,001 pounds GVWR or more needs $750,000; listed oil and most hazardous materials move it to $1,000,000, bulk hazardous substances and highway route controlled Class 7 to $5,000,000. Which vehicles are covered is the symbol's job, which is why a $1,000,000 policy on symbol 7 still fails a broker's review. The MCS-90 endorsement required by 49 CFR 387.7 reaches past the symbol, but only for the public: it pays a final judgment "regardless of whether or not each motor vehicle is specifically described in the policy," then you reimburse the insurer. The same section fixes cancellation at 35 days written notice, the number behind our page on a lapse and MC revocation.

What if your policy is a Motor Carrier form and the numbers are in the sixties?

Many trucking policies are written on the Motor Carrier Coverage Form, CA 00 20, which since ISO retired the Truckers form is the only ISO auto form built for trucking, per the Rough Notes analysis of CA 00 20. Symbol 67 matches 7 and carries the same 30 day rule, 71 matches 9, 79 matches 19. The rows below are where the forms diverge.

CA 00 20	Meaning	Nearest CA 00 01 symbol
61	Any auto	1
62	Owned autos only	2
64	Owned commercial autos only: trucks, tractors and trailers you own	4, Owned Autos Other Than Private Passenger Autos Only. 64 is the narrower of the two
68	Hired autos, excluding only private passenger type autos hired from staff, partners, members, agents or their households	8, but wider
69, 70	Others' trailers in your possession, yours in someone else's, under a written interchange agreement	No equivalent

Symbol 68 is the difference that matters to a small carrier. Per the FC&S analysis of CA 00 20, it excludes only private passenger type autos hired from your staff and household, so borrowing a driver's truck for motor carrier work sits inside 68 and outside symbol 8. The Rough Notes side-by-side of the two forms adds that the Motor Carrier form has six sections to the Business Auto form's five, and the extra one is Trailer Interchange, which is what symbols 69 and 70 switch on: see when trailer interchange coverage is required. The full numbering blocks, 1 to 9 and 19, 21 to 31, 41 to 50 and 59, 61 to 71 and 79, are listed in the IRMI glossary.

Where do you see these symbols, and what should you check before you sign?

Three documents, three vocabularies, and the mismatch is where compliance rejections come from. A carrier with 7 on every line gets an ACORD 25 with SCHEDULED AUTOS checked, the broker's system rejects it automatically, and the load offer stops moving. The current ACORD 25 (2016/03), published through the ACORD forms portal, carries five boxes on the automobile liability row: ANY AUTO, OWNED AUTOS ONLY, SCHEDULED AUTOS, HIRED AUTOS ONLY, NON-OWNED AUTOS ONLY.

Document	Symbol 1 appears as	Symbol 2 appears as	Symbol 7 appears as
Declarations, Item Two (coverage, covered autos, limit, premium)	1	2	7
ACORD 25 certificate, five checkboxes, no digits	ANY AUTO	OWNED AUTOS ONLY	SCHEDULED AUTOS
Broker or shipper contract, prose	"any auto"	"all owned autos"	"scheduled autos"

Second typical scenario, also a composite. Savely runs three tractors on drayage out of Port Newark with 2 on liability, 8 and 9 alongside it, and 7 on physical damage. His agent ticks ANY AUTO on the ACORD 25 "because that is what the broker wants." Six months later a broker's compliance reviewer pulls the declarations, sees a 2 where the certificate promised a 1, and freezes the account until a corrected certificate arrives: OWNED AUTOS ONLY plus HIRED AUTOS ONLY plus NON-OWNED AUTOS ONLY, which the same packet would have accepted on day one. A certificate never amends a policy; it only describes it, and describing it wrong costs a week of loads.

1. Copy the Covered Autos entry in Item Two for every coverage line, not just liability. Deductibles are not there: they sit on your own units in Item Three and on hired or borrowed autos in Item Four.
2. Confirm the five ACORD 25 checkboxes match those digits. A certificate never amends a policy, so ANY AUTO over an Item Two that says 7 loses in a claim: see our certificate of insurance guide.
3. List every vehicle that moves for the business but is not in Item Three: rentals, a spouse's pickup, an employee's car. Ask which symbol catches each.
4. Ask the broker in writing whether it accepts owned plus hired plus non-owned in place of Any Auto, and which box its system needs checked. Then ask your agent what those endorsements cost, and get the endorsement number rather than a promise on the phone.
5. Check the FMCSA filing separately: the symbol lives in the policy, the BMC-91 filing lives at FMCSA, and neither one proves the other.

TruckSafe is an independent comparison platform, not a licensed insurance agency. Nothing here is a quote, a binder or a promise of coverage. For a second pair of eyes on your declarations page before renewal, in Russian or English, call (315) 871-0833.