Glossary

Combined single limit

One dollar cap per accident on everything a liability policy pays for injuries and property damage together, instead of separate caps for each.

Also called: CSL, single limit liability, combined single limit of liability

A combined single limit is one cap on all the damages a liability policy pays for a single accident, whether the money goes to injured people, to damaged property or to both. Commercial auto is where you meet it most. The ISO business auto form (CA 00 01) takes one "each accident" limit from the declarations, and $1 million is a common contract requirement.

The alternative is split limits, written as three numbers such as 100/300/50: $100,000 per injured person, $300,000 per accident for bodily injury, and $50,000 for property damage. Each bucket is separate, and an empty one cannot borrow from a full one.

Say a landscaper's truck (a hypothetical) causes a crash that seriously injures one person, with $400,000 in damages, and wrecks a storefront for $60,000. A $500,000 combined single limit pays the full $460,000. The 100/300/50 split pays $100,000 for the injured person and $50,000 for the property, and $310,000 is left uninsured.

Federal minimums for motor carriers are expressed the same way: $750,000 for most for-hire carriers of nonhazardous freight under 49 CFR 387.9. See commercial auto insurance: what it covers and what it leaves out for how fleets choose limits, commercial policy limits: per occurrence, aggregate and sublimits for the other limit types, and per-occurrence limit for the liability-policy equivalent.

Last reviewed October 10, 2026

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Related terms

Per-occurrence limit The most a liability policy will pay for all damages arising from a single occurrence, however many people are hurt or claims are made. Bodily injury Physical injury, sickness or disease suffered by a person, including death resulting from it; the harm that triggers liability coverage for injuries. Property damage In liability policies, physical injury to tangible property including its loss of use, or loss of use of tangible property that was not physically injured. Business auto policy (BAP) The commercial policy covering liability and physical damage for vehicles a business owns, hires or borrows, with covered autos chosen by numbered symbols. Aggregate limit The most an insurer will pay for all covered claims during a policy period, however many separate occurrences or claims there are.

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