Food Truck Insurance

Food trucks have become increasingly popular in recent years, as they’re relatively inexpensive to open, fun to run, and can be highly profitable. Operating a food truck isn’t all fun and profit, though. This type of business comes with potential risks, and those risks should be taken seriously. Food truck insurance helps protect food trucks and carts from many of the perils they’re exposed to. Food truck insurance is a form of commercial insurance that’s uniquely drafted to meet the insurance needs of food trucks and food carts. Most policies include a combination of affordable coverages, which can usually be customized for a food truck or cart’s particular situation.

Since the coverages contained within policies can often be customized, food cart insurance policies don’t always provide the exact same protections. Nevertheless, there are several common coverages that policies frequently make available as either standard or optional protections.Available coverages may include: General liability coverage, which typically offers broad protection against a variety of common risks; business property coverage, which may help protect a vendor’s truck, cart or trailer, and their equipment; inland marine coverage, which might insure equipment while it’s being transported between sites; product liability coverage, which may provide protection from liability claims arising from food-borne illnesses that are spread by a vendor’s foods or beverages; commercial vehicle insurance, which vendors who have trucks usually need; and liquor liability coverage, which vendors who serve alcohol frequently need. These coverages can sometimes be purchased individually, but getting them through a package policy is more convenient. It also can provide significant savings, as many insurance companies offer discounts to businesses that purchase multiple policies together.

While there may be some exceptions, most food cart policies don’t include health, disability, or life insurance. If needed for employees or business owners, these coverages are usually purchased separately, through stand-alone policies.

Most businesses that serve food or beverages from a mobile truck, cart, or trailer should consider getting food cart insurance. A few examples of businesses that might need this type of insurance include: Gourmet food trucks, ice cream trucks and bicycles, hot dog and hamburger carts, concessionaires who go to festivals, carnivals, and fairs, and restaurants that have food trucks. Not only do these kinds of businesses frequently need a food cart policy to protect themselves from the risks they face, but they also often need coverage to get contracts. Without adequate coverage, vendors may have a hard time getting permits from municipal governments or spaces at festivals.

As is the case with most types of insurance, insurers take many factors into account when they set food cart insurance policies’ premiums. A few items they often consider include how many customers a vendor serves, where a vendor serves customers, what types of food and drinks a vendor offers, what type of truck, trailer, or cart a vendor has, whether a vendor has a history of filing insurance claims, and what coverages and limits a vendor chooses.