What tire & wheel shops do
Tire and wheel shops mount, balance, rotate, and repair tires; install new wheels; handle TPMS sensors; and often run seasonal work like winter-tire swaps. It’s high-volume, quick-turnaround work — a shop may put dozens of vehicles back on the road in a day, each one leaving on wheels your crew just installed.
The exposures that come with it
The signature tire-shop exposure is the wheel-off / lug-torque claim: if a wheel is under- or over-torqued and comes loose after the vehicle leaves, the resulting accident is a serious completed-operations liability — the kind of claim that lands weeks after the invoice is paid. Beyond that, tire shops carry garagekeepers exposure from the constant flow of customer vehicles on the lift, expensive mounting and balancing equipment to protect, and seasonal staffing spikes that raise workers’ comp exposure. Note that road-hazard warranties are a customer product, not insurance — they don’t replace liability coverage.
Coverage that matters for tire shops
Garage liability with completed operations for the wheel-off exposure, garagekeepers for customer vehicles, property and tools for equipment, and workers’ comp. Coverage is general in nature and governed solely by the terms of the issued policy. See our tire shop overview for more.