Services
Document a loss
Support a claim
For carriers and employers
Service areas
Middle Tennessee
- Nashville
- Clarksville
- Murfreesboro
- Franklin
- Hendersonville
- Smyrna
- Spring Hill
- Gallatin
- Lebanon
- Columbia
- Brentwood
- Mount Juliet
- La Vergne
- Cookeville
East Tennessee
West Tennessee
Company Vehicle Accident Documentation in Tennessee
When an employee crashes a company-owned car, pickup or SUV, the employer, its insurer and the other driver all need the same facts recorded. Delator Claims Division provides neutral scene and vehicle documentation for businesses, risk managers, carriers, attorneys and other involved motorists.
- Coverage
- 95 of 95 counties
- Dispatch
- 24 / 7 / 365
- Metro response
- Under 60 min avg.
- Statewide
- 4-hour guarantee
What this service covers
A company vehicle crash raises questions an ordinary two-car collision does not. The vehicle may be shared among several employees, so damage from last month sits beside damage from yesterday. It may have been on a sales call, on the way home, or on a personal errand. It may be carrying ladders, tools or samples that shifted on impact. The employer usually learns of the crash by phone, hours later, from a driver who is shaken and has a stake in the account.
An independent field record gives the business something better than the employee's phone photos and a verbal report. DCD documents the vehicle, the location and the other vehicles where accessible, and delivers the package to whoever ordered it, typically the same day. The work does not assess the employee's conduct, decide whether the trip was within the job, or determine coverage. It supplies the physical facts those decisions will later rest on.
When a business or its insurer calls us
- A pool vehicle used by several employees comes back damaged and new damage must be separated from older, unreported damage.
- A risk manager wants an independent record before the employee, the supervisor and the other driver settle into different accounts.
- A take-home pickup was in a crash after hours and the location, direction of travel and contents are relevant.
- The other motorist's attorney wants the company's markings, equipment and vehicle condition recorded before the business repairs it.
- A small business without a fleet department needs a complete photo record to send to its commercial auto carrier.
What the record of a company vehicle includes
- Fleet identification
- Asset tags, fleet numbers, door logos, fuel card or service stickers, registration and VIN, tying the vehicle in the photographs to the employer's records.
- Old damage versus fresh damage
- Each dent and scrape photographed and described by apparent age, noting rust, dirt accumulation and weathering, with no opinion on which event caused it.
- Cab contents as found
- Work materials, paperwork, uniforms, personal items and food containers visible in the cab, photographed in place and listed without removing anything.
- Bed, racks and tool storage
- Pickup bed toolboxes, hitch equipment, rack fittings and unsecured items in the bed, including anything that shifted or left the vehicle during the crash.
- Telematics and camera hardware
- Presence and mounting of plug-in trackers, fleet dash cameras and driver-facing units. The data itself is requested by the employer from its vendor.
- Location context
- The crash location in relation to nearby job sites, customer addresses, the employee's reported route and the direction the vehicle was facing at rest.
From request to delivered record
- RequestCall dispatch or submit the request form with the location, loss type and urgency.
- DeployDispatch assigns the nearest available licensed field investigator through the statewide network.
- DocumentPhotographs, video, measurements and factual notes are captured once the scene is safe to work.
- PreserveFiles are timestamped, organized and kept in their original form with a record of who captured them.
- ReportThe package is delivered securely to the requesting party, typically the same day.
Shared vehicles and the problem of prior damage
Fleet sedans and pickups accumulate small damage that nobody reports: a creased bumper corner from a bollard, a scraped rocker panel, a cracked lamp. After a collision the other party's claim and the employer's own repair estimate can both sweep that older damage in. The clearest time to separate old from new is before the vehicle is cleaned or repaired, while fresh damage still shows bright metal, clean fracture edges and loose paint flakes and older damage shows oxidation and road film.
We photograph every panel, damaged or not, and describe each defect by its observable characteristics. If the employer has earlier inspection photos or a vehicle condition report, the two sets can be compared by the adjuster. Our notes do not attribute any item to a particular driver or date. The same procedure can be ordered outside a claim, as a baseline record when a vehicle is assigned to an employee or returned, and the method is identical.
Facts that bear on how the vehicle was being used
Whether an employee was working at the time of a crash is a legal and factual question for the employer, the insurers and sometimes a court. DCD does not answer it. The field record does capture things relevant to it that are otherwise lost: where the crash occurred relative to the employee's territory or job site, what was loaded in the vehicle, whether a trailer or equipment was attached, and what was displayed on the vehicle's exterior.
An outside record avoids putting a supervisor in the position of investigating a colleague, and the investigator documents the same things for every crash regardless of who was driving. Where an employer, self-insured entity or carrier needs more than documentation, such as recorded statements or a liability investigation, those services are available to them separately. For the other motorist or that person's attorney, the service is neutral documentation only, limited to what can be lawfully accessed.
On this assignment Delator field personnel record what is physically present: photographs, video, measurements and factual notes. They do not adjust, appraise or value the loss, do not determine coverage, cause or fault, and do not represent any party to the claim.
Delator Claims Division is not a law firm, an insurer or an engineering firm, and nothing on this page is legal advice.
Common questions about this service
Will you interview our employee about what happened?
Not as part of neutral documentation, which covers physical evidence only. Employers, self-insured entities, carriers and their counsel can separately request recorded statements or a liability investigation. Those are distinct services with their own scope, and they are not offered to claimants or policyholders.
Can you compare the damage to our earlier inspection photos?
We can photograph the vehicle from the same angles as your earlier set so the two can be laid side by side, and note visible differences. We describe what is present. Deciding which damage arose from this crash, and what it costs, remains with your adjuster or repair facility.
The vehicle is a take-home unit parked at the employee's house. Can you document it there?
Yes, with the employer's authorization as owner and at a time arranged with the employee, or wherever the employer has the vehicle moved. We do not enter a private residence or garage without consent. If the vehicle is parked in public view, exterior photographs can be taken from the public way.
Does the report say whether the driver was on company business?
No. The report records the location, time of our visit, vehicle contents and equipment, and any physical facts relevant to the trip. It does not conclude what the employee was doing or whether coverage applies. DCD is not a law firm or an insurer and gives no legal advice.
Available statewide, including
Every Tennessee county is covered. See the deployment map for typical response tiers by county.
Request documentation anywhere in Tennessee
Dispatch is staffed around the clock. For time-sensitive scenes, calling is fastest; the request form works for routine and scheduled assignments.