Drivers

Vehicle-related hail damage often costs Canadians (and their insurers) a significant amount of money. Further, most homeowners in the country own at least one vehicle.

When it comes to protection of vehicles against hailstorms, the simplest, most common and most effective form of mitigation is to get vehicles under cover prior to a storm. Such cover can be permanent –as with carports and garages; or temporary, as with commercial fabric shade systems used to shelter open lot vehicle inventories like those found at car rental lots and auto dealerships in the southern U.S.

When use of permanent or temporary structures is not possible, custom car covers or blankets, such as the type used by owners of vintage cars, may be considered as alternatives. Though there are several manufacturers and sellers of car covers/blankets purported to be ‘hail resistant’, it is not immediately clear if any have been subjected to rigorous scientific hail testing, and currently no standards bodies have published standards for such products. Therefore, consumers are warned that they use such products at their own risk.

These products require the owner to deploy them ahead of a thunderstorm. While forecasting and warnings for severe weather continue to improve, a person should never jeopardize their own life-safety when attempting to use such a product.