Workers' Comp Rates for Automobile Service or Repair Center & Drivers (Class Code 8380)

What's Included Under Class Code 8380

The NCCI-derived North Carolina Basic Manual lists 8380 as Automobile Service or Repair Center & Drivers with Hazard Group D. In practical underwriting terms, that means the repair-center exposure is the governing operation: vehicle inspection, maintenance, oil and fluid service, brake or muffler work, tire mounting when tied to the service operation, engine diagnostics, and similar mechanical work performed for customers.

Service writers and counter employees should not automatically be split into 8810 clerical. When their work supports the repair shop and they interact with the service operation, the shop classification normally absorbs that payroll. A separate clerical split is most defensible only when the employee performs exclusively office work in a physically separated office and the state bureau's standard-exception rule allows it.

The code also includes drivers connected with the shop operation. That can cover employees moving customer vehicles, picking up parts, or making shop-related trips. It does not turn a for-hire trucking or towing company into 8380; if hauling, towing, roadside assistance, or delivery is the employer's principal business, verify the specific transportation classification instead of relying on the auto-service code.

Boundaries: Tires, Gasoline, Body Work, Towing, and Dealers

Automotive payroll gets misclassified when every vehicle-related job is treated as one code. A general repair shop, a collision/body shop, a tire dealer, a transmission rebuild shop, a gasoline station, and an auto dealership have different risk patterns. Keep gross receipts and payroll by department when a business mixes services, because the audit may need to separate a repair bay from retail tire sales, body repair, or sales-only staff. The welding and cutting a shop's own technicians perform on vehicles — frame, exhaust, or collision work — is part of the auto-service exposure and is not split to welding or cutting NOC 3365; 3365 is the residual code for a business whose service is contract welding for others, not in-shop automotive welding.

California is the clearest example of why state mapping matters. WCIRB does not use NCCI 8380 for the same general repair-shop scope; its Automotive Industry Group uses Classification 8389 for automobile or truck repair facilities with no retail gasoline sales, Classification 8387(1) for automobile or truck gasoline service stations, and separate rules when tire sales exceed 10% of gross receipts or transmission repair is the primary operation. A California quote should be checked against WCIRB rather than copied from an NCCI state.

New York is another exception. NYCIRB maps automobile sales or service agency operations to Code 8391, including mechanical service and repair, service writers, full-service gasoline operations, car wash facilities, and certain parts departments. If you operate in New York, treat the NCCI 8380 page as a national comparison point, not as the final New York classification rule.

Common 8380 Audit Disputes

The first dispute is "service writer as clerical." A service writer who walks the bay, talks with mechanics, checks vehicles in, and writes repair orders is usually part of the repair-center operation, even if much of the job is paperwork. The clean split to 8810 usually requires exclusively clerical duties plus physical separation from the shop hazard.

The second dispute is "repair shop vs dealer." A shop that only repairs customer vehicles is different from a dealership that sells or leases vehicles and operates service, parts, lot, and sales departments. Dealer salespeople, lot attendants, service advisors, parts counters, and repair employees can be handled differently by state bureau manuals, so payroll records by department matter.

The third dispute is "incidental towing." Moving customer vehicles or picking up parts for the shop can fit inside the 8380 repair-center exposure. A business that principally tows vehicles for others, provides roadside assistance, or hauls vehicles to locations other than its own repair facility should be reviewed under towing or trucking classifications such as 7219 or the state-specific towing code.

8380 Workers' Comp Rate Range by State (2026)

As of 2026, the modeled workers' comp cost for class code 8380 (Automobile Service or Repair Center & Drivers) runs from roughly $3.70–$3.85 per $100 of payroll in lower-cost NCCI states such as Virginia and Utah to about $6.40 per $100 of payroll in Alaska, against a national reference base rate near $4.50 per $100 of payroll. 8380 sits in NCCI Hazard Group D, so it carries a meaningfully higher base cost than a clerical or sales code because mechanics work around lifts, tools, chemicals, and customer traffic. The per-state table on this page derives each figure from that national base rate adjusted by the state's relative cost level, so the numbers are filing-based estimates for comparison — not a bound quote, which still depends on payroll, the carrier's loss-cost multiplier, the employer's experience modification factor, and minimum-premium rules.

Several states do not classify auto-repair payroll under NCCI 8380 at all, so their figures here are modeled comparison points rather than the bureau's filed loss cost for that exact code. California's WCIRB uses 8389 for many repair facilities and 8387 for gasoline service stations; New York's NYCIRB maps the exposure to 8391; New Jersey uses 8397/8398; and Delaware and Pennsylvania place much of this exposure under 0815. Use Pennsylvania workers' compensation rates for that independent-bureau comparison. Ohio workers' compensation rates are a separate monopolistic-fund comparison, so check the BWC state-page rates before treating 8380 as a private-carrier NCCI quote. In those states, confirm the auto-repair rate against the state bureau's own classification before relying on an 8380 number.