No doubt, you have poured countless hours, and what seems like an endless amount of money to create your food trailer, concession trailer, or food truck business. It makes sense to protect those investments with a good loss prevention plan to prevent all those efforts from being ruined in an instant!
Loss prevention:
An often overlooked first step by many mobile food vendors…how do you prevent a loss from ever occurring?
This is a smart first step for savvy business owners. Insurance policies will have deductibles to encourage loss prevention and being shut down due to a loss is a huge burden worth avoiding.
1) Inventory your items. This can help recover stolen items and provide a guide to insuring for the proper amount. In the event a claim does occur, your preparedness will speed up the process.
2) Good lighting at night and visibility go a long way in protecting from vandalism and theft. Think solar lights, motion detecting lights, etc. There are also a plethora of inexpensive cameras/monitoring devices that are well worth the investment.
3) Take extra precaution in securing high theft items such as generators, cash, and computers. Keep them out of sight and secured when not operating.
Property Insurance:
Even the most cautious food trailer, food concession trailer, and food truck owners can suffer a loss. Unless you’re prepared to replace your truck, trailer, or equipment out of your own pocket, insurance is a smart way to transfer that risk to an insurance company.
1) Determining the proper value for your truck and trailer is step one. The amount you should insure your truck or trailer for is the actual cash value. In other words at the current value, not the value it would cost to buy a brand new truck or trailer. This total should include any equipment attached by bolt, pluming, or gas line. To read more check out our other blog post, What is the value of your food truck or trailer?
2) Your contents not attached to your food truck or food trailer are NOT covered by the coverage on your truck or trailer. These items can be listed under contents separately. If there are any items over 2500 in value, they will need to be reported to the insurance company.
3) Since insurance companies typically insure property at a specific location this can cause gaps in coverage for mobile food vendors. You want coverage for property that regardless if you are heading to an event or at your main location. The term used for property that moves locations is called inland marine insurance; it’s a must for a mobile food vendor.
4) If you upgrade or buy more equipment always notify your insurance carrier right away.
Common Mistakes:
1) Thinking your auto or home policy extends to your trailer for property coverage.
2) Having a policy that only covers you at the address listed on your policy.
3) Assuming contents not attached are covered with your coverage on the truck or trailer.
Insure My Food offers affordable insurance, made easy! We cover insurance for food trailers, food trucks, and mobile food vendors. We offer a one-page quick quote form. In addition, we created helpful blogs and resources just for you. Joel brings over a decade of insurance experience in helping you determine your proper food trailer insurance coverage.
