Food Truck Insurance: Protect Your Truck & Business

Starting a food truck business, just like any business, comes with challenges. You have to get the right licensing, insurance and have a solid business plan. Food truck insurance isn't the same as regular commercial auto insurance or business insurance. Since you'll be running a mobile restaurant, you need to make sure you have the right coverage.

Food truck insurance includes far more than just basic coverage. Understanding what you need and the coverage you have will help you better run your new business. With the guide below, you will gain a better understanding of the coverage you need.

Types of Food Truck Insurance

Before we get into the coverage options for food trucks, it's important to understand the type of coverage you need. It's always a good idea to discuss your needs with a trained insurance broker who has experience covering a variety of business, including: food trucks, restaurants, and more. Depending on where you are in the process of opening your business, you may not need all of the business insurance options right from the beginning. However, you will need at least car insurance, if you own a food truck already.

food truck insurance coverage for new businesses

Business insurance to protect:

  1. Your Business
  2. Your Actual Food Truck (and its Equipment)
  3. Your Workers

These require different types of insurance:

  1. General Commercial Liability Insurance
  2. Commercial Property Insurance
  3. Commercial Auto Insurance
  4. Workers' Compensation Insurance

Ready to get a quote? Contact our expert business insurance agency here.

It's important to understand the terminology before looking into the different options. Some of the key terms include:

  • Deductible - This is no different than the deductible you have for homeowners insurance or car insurance. It's the amount you will pay if an accident occurs and you need to make a claim.
  • Premium - The premium will be the amount you pay every month, six months or year for the insurance policy.
  • Limit - Insurance coverage comes with limits. These limits are the maximum amount the insurance company will pay if you make a claim.
  • Claim - A claim is a request for payment after an incident has occurred.

You might be familiar with these terms from your auto or homeowners insurance. They basically mean the same thing when it comes to mobile food truck insurance.

Protect Your Food Truck & Business

Two types of insurance commonly used to for mobile food trucks: general commercial property insurance and general commercial liability insurance.

General commercial property insurance will cover any damage done to equipment or property you need to run your mobile food truck, such as:

  • Computer Equipment
  • Kitchen Equipment in your vehicle
  • Property you lease or own, such as a commercial kitchen
  • Your inventory
  • Any loss of income due to a covered claim

You won't have protection for your actual food truck from general commercial property or commercial auto insurance, however.

General commercial liability insurance will protect you in the event of a lawsuit due to:

  • Causing physical damage to someone else's property
  • Causing someone to get sick from your food
  • Any other negligent activity that causes bodily injury
  • Making false claims through advertising materials
  • Using a trademark for your business, which you don't own

With this type of insurance, you will be protected in the event something goes wrong. Even if you didn't do anything illegal, you could be sued and liability insurance will help to cover the coast of the lawsuit if you are found to be negligent.

Vehicle Insurance

What type of insurance is needed for food trucks? Along with general liability insurance, you will need to insure the actual food truck. This needs to be done on the day you actually buy the food truck, even if it will remain parked or in storage. Commercial auto liability insurance is similar to personal car insurance.

Commercial auto liability will provide:

  • Collision protection to repair damage if you get into a traffic accident or if someone hits your vehicle and you are unable to collect from them
  • Comprehensive protection for non-collision damage, such as theft, glass breakage, vandalism or fire
  • Medical protection for those involved in an accident
  • Uninsured and underinsured motorist protection in case you're involved in an accident with a driver without insurance or with low policy limits

In many cases, commercial auto insurance will include the ability to rent vehicles in the event of an accident. This will protect the actual truck, but it might not cover the equipment inside the food truck. Make sure you understand your limits and what's included so that you can adjust the overall business policy to fill in the gaps. You don't want to be caught unprepared, missing the proper equipment!

Employee Insurance

If you will be the only one working in your food trucks, you may not need workers' compensation insurance. However, if you will have employees and multiple food trucks on the road, you will need it to protect your employees in the event of work-related injuries. In some cases, workers compensation insurance will even cover volunteers working for you, such as a family member.

Don't skip workers compensation insurance because you think work related injuries don't happen with food trucks. Injuries can happen with any business and if something does happen, you'll be glad you have this protection in place.  And more importantly workers compensation insurance is often required by law.

Additional Coverage

While the three main types of insurance above may be enough, it's important to know all of your options. You may have the ability to add an umbrella coverage to your general liability policy, which will provide extra protection. This type of policy will provide additional protection you can attach to other policies in the event of an incident going above and beyond your limits.  And another reason to work with an experienced broker-there is EPLI, Cyber, Data Breach, Crime, Loss of Income and more policy limits available that you will want to discuss with your broker!

In addition, if you will run your food truck as a catering service in multiple cities, you may need a Certificate of Insurance for each of the venues you will be working at. This could also be the case when attending some festivals or other types of food events nearby. It's also important to let your homeowner’s insurance company know if you will be using your home as a home office, especially if you'll be meeting employees or clients there.

Before you hit the road and start selling your delicious meals to the masses, make sure you're fully covered. Get the right policies (general liability insurance, workers compensation, etc.) or you may be bankrupted by one simple accident. We don't want to scare you by talking about everything that could go wrong, but it's true that negative events do happen. Unfortunately this means you have to insure your business. Your food truck is crucial to the success of your business, make sure it doesn't get damaged in an accident. With the right coverage, you'll have peace of mind knowing you're protected no matter what might happen.

Food Truck Insurance Cost

How much does it cost to insure a food truck? The cost to insure your food truck will vary depending on many different factors. The best way to find out how much it will cost for your specific situation is to call our insurance company at 1-866-872-0156. We can work with you to get you policies that are affordable for your situation.

We can give you a free quote and the average cost on mobile food vendor insurance for your area. When you work with us, the final insurance policy and program will make sure you are protected for the long run. These policies will let you run your business day to day without having to worry about accidents. Your livelihood depends on your food truck, so make sure you can keep it mobile by having it covered properly.

Who is Balsiger Insurance?

Balsiger Insurance operates in many states throughout the United States. We currently have food truck owners insured throughout the country and have offices in Nevada, California, and Texas. We offer business insurance for food trucks in the following states: Tennessee, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, California, Florida, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Georgia, Arizona, Missouri, Montana, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, and Wisconsin.

Get A Free Quote

To get a free quote online, please contact our insurance agency here.

Sara Haneline, Agent
Luis Santos, Agent