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Food Trailer Insurance: Cost & Quotes From $11

Owning and operating a food truck might seem like an easy business venture, but it can actually be as complicated as running a full-scale restaurant. The most unique aspect of food trailers is that they are mobile, which changes the risk of doing business.

The change in risk changes the insurance you will need to adequately protect yourself from financial harm in the event of an incident. Since food trailers run on thin margins, food trailer insurance needs to be affordable.

Shopping for business insurance for food trailer is the only way to make sure you are fully covered with the lowest premiums. If you don't compare rates, you could end up paying too much or suffering financial harm if an accident occurs or a lawsuit is filed.


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Does a Food Trailer Need Insurance?

A food trailer needs insurance to financially protect the business owner in the event of property damage, bodily injury, or other harm that can be caused by the actions or negligence of a food trailer owner and employees.

As there are multiple types of risk involved in the food trailer industry, there are different insurance products appropriate for a food trailer business, including:

Some policies will offer food spoilage or loss of income as additional coverage on their policies. If the premium is affordable, this coverage can be instrumental for some mobile food trailers.

Do you need insurance for a food trailer? The answer is always yes. However, your mix of coverage is dependent on the risks you want to be covered and how much you are willing to pay for protection. It may also be required by state regulations, especially if you have employees.


Also read:

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Commercial Auto Insurance for Food Trailers

Commercial auto insurance provides protection to your food trailer in case of damage. It can also help cover costs if the food trailer caused a road accident and injured third parties or damaged property. Policies included in commercial auto insurance are:

  • Auto liability

  • Physical damage

  • Emergency roadside assistance


Food Trailer Auto Liability Insurance

Auto liability insurance covers legal fees and compensatory payments if your food trailer caused an accident and third parties got injured or had their property damaged as a result. Note that auto liability insurance is a state-mandated coverage. The minimum amount you need to get is $10,000 or $30,000. However, for the best protection, you need to have a $1 million auto liability for your food trailer.


Food Trailer Physical Damage Coverage

Physical damage coverage covers costs of windshield replacement, bumper repair, door replacement, and others. This coverage has two types; collision and comprehensive.


After a vehicular accident, your food trailer will incur damages. The job of collision physical damage coverage is to help you pay for the repair or replacement of broken bumper, dented car chassis, busted headlights or taillights, and more. Note that the policy doesn’t cover damage resulting from rollovers .


Comprehensive physical damage coverage, on the other hand, covers repair or replacement costs if the food trailer got damaged because of hail, windstorm, fire, vandalism, or theft.


You can choose not to get comprehensive insurance coverage. However, the best protection against physical damage is to pair collision with comprehensive insurance.


Food Trailer Emergency Roadside Assistance

If you’re selling somewhere far away, stalling, dead battery, gas leaks, and other related issues might cause you to get stranded on the road. And so, decide to get emergency roadside assistance even though it might seem that you don’t need it anytime soon.


Emergency roadside assistance helps you pay for the following services needed to get your food trailer moving if a road-related issue occurs:

  • Jump-start service

  • Gas delivery service

  • Towing service

  • Extrication service


Food Trailer Liability Insurance

Customers might accuse your food trailer business of causing personal injuries or property damage. That’s why there’s liability insurance that functions to help you. Liability insurance generally pertains to general liability insurance. However, it's actually a collective term that also pertains to employer’s liability insurance, employment practices liability insurance, cyber liability insurance, and other “liability” insurance products.


General Liability Insurance for Food Trailers

General liability insurance helps you pay settlements and legal fees if any of the following situations happen:

  • You failed to clean a spilled liquid in front of your food trailer. Someone passed by, stepped on the liquid, then slipped and fell

  • You’re serving hot food and accidentally spilled it on the customers face causing burns and other minor injuries

  • Your food trailer suddenly erupted in flames destroying the other food trailers and other commercial facilities nearby

It’s easy to understand how general liability insurance works based on the examples above. By having general liability insurance, you can easily shoulder the cost of personal injury claims and property damage claims against your food trailer business.


How about personal injuries resulting from food poisoning? Does general liability insurance cover this? The answer is no. Basic general liability insurance won’t cover claims resulting from food poisoning.


To cover such peril, you need to add or endorse product liability insurance to your general liability coverage. This policy covers property damage or personal injuries dealt by your food trailer’s food or other services to customers.


How much money can you get from general liability insurance anyway? For food trailer businesses, general liability insurance offers $1 million coverage. You can also find carriers having general liability insurance with a $2 million or $5 million policy limit. By the way, if you can’t get general liability coverage, then the alternative option is catering trailer public liability insurance.


Employer’s Liability Insurance for Food Trailers

Foodservice workers are very exposed to workplace injuries. The incident rate per 10,000 employees is 77.9. If your food trailer employs people, then assume that they’ll get injured sooner or later.


Injured employees can ask you for compensation. And if you don’t heed their request, a claim might be filed against your business. In connection, employer’s liability insurance can help you shoulder such claims.


So what is employer’s liability insurance? Employer’s liability insurance is a type of liability insurance that will help to pay legal fees and compensatory payments should employees accuse you of not providing employee benefits. Employee benefits don’t only include the failure to provide workers compensation insurance but also other state-mandated benefits such as travel benefits, dental benefits, maternal leaves, and life insurance.


In connection, employer’s liability insurance covers claims filed by:

  • Full-time employees

  • Part-time employees

  • Permanent employees

  • Seasonal employees

  • Contractual employees


The coverage doesn’t extend to claims filed by volunteers, if any are working for your food trailer business. This is because volunteers aren't part of the business payroll and they’re working out of their own consent. Nonetheless, volunteer claims can be taken care of by general liability insurance.


Employment Practices Liability Insurance

If not the failure to provide benefits, then employees file a claim because you allegedly committed sexual harassment, discrimination, exploitation, and other forms of wrongful employment practices in the workplace. Employer’s liability insurance doesn't provide coverage for these things, and what you’ll need is employment practices liability insurance instead.


Through employment practices liability insurance, you can pay legal fees and compensation if ever you got involved in the following situations:

  • Sexual harassment lawsuits

  • Wrongful termination lawsuits

  • Discrimination lawsuits

  • Worker exploitation lawsuits


Employment practices liability insurance is usually offered as an additional option to employment practices liability insurance or workers compensation insurance. This coverage has a $1 million up to $2 million policy limit.


Food Trailer Cyber Liability Insurance

Do you accept credit card payments and are running a POS system? If this is the case, understand that your POS system might be hacked and have stored sensitive information leaked.


Your customers can sue you for damages if their credit card information was breached and taken advantage of by a cyber-criminal. Costs you’ll pay for are:

  • Legal fees

  • Compensatory payments

  • Crisis management expenses

  • Fines


Cyber liability insurance helps you pay for such costs. This insurance policy covers the following types of cyberattacks:

  • MITM attacks

  • Phishing

  • Malware

  • Denial-of-service-attacks

  • Password attacks


So how much insurance money can you get from cyber liability insurance? Cyber liability insurance gives you $1 million up to $2 million. But for large businesses, carriers offer cyber liability offering $5 million - $10 million in coverage.



Workers' Compensation Insurance for Food Trailers

Workplace injuries such as cuts and burns are very common among food trailer workers. Not to mention, vehicular accidents can easily happen as there’s limited maneuverability.


Depending on which state your business is registered in, you might need to get workers compensation insurance as soon as you employ 1 or more individuals. Workers compensation insurance is very helpful. It will shoulder the costs of benefits you’re required to give if an employee dies or gets injured at work.


How does workers comp function? This insurance policy gives a weekly allowance to your employees for 500 - 700 weeks. The insurance money given depends on state workers comp laws. However, in general, insurance money is equal to two-thirds of the employee’s average weekly wage.



Commercial Property Insurance for Food Trailers

Finally, you will want to insure your investment in physical property, which means insuring the contents of your food trailer. Items that might be worth insuring include:

  • POS system

  • Ovens and cooking appliances

  • Refrigerators

  • Pots and pans

  • Utensils


The best way to insure the items above is through commercial property insurance. Policies included are:

  • Stocks and contents

  • Equipment coverage


Stocks and contents coverage reimburses you for the loss or damage of food and ingredients your food trailer is selling. This policy can be very useful when:

  • During the night, rats managed to invade your food trailer. The rats then ate all of the food inside and caused a significant loss

  • The food trailer got involved in an accident. Because of this, the food and ingredients inside got damaged

  • Your food trailer’s refrigerator suddenly became defective. As a result, the food and ingredients stored inside got rancid.

  • An arsonist set your food trailer on fire. The food and ingredients inside got burned.


Equipment coverage in commercial property insurance covers all of the installations in your food trailer. Examples are blenders, ovens, fryers, stoves, and more. This kicks in if damage occurs because of fire, theft, arson, vandalism, and other named perils.


Food Trailer Employee Dishonesty Insurance

Employees might pocket some of the payments by manipulating sales records, not putting the bills in the cash register, or transfer some funds from your food trailer business to a personal bank account. Imagine how devastating losses would be. And so, don’t forget to purchase employee dishonesty insurance.


Understand that employee dishonesty insurance works in two ways; it covers losses the moment you discover the employee’s crime or it provides reimbursement regardless of when the crime took place so long as the policy duration is still valid.


So which losses resulting from an employee crime does employee dishonesty insurance cover? The insurance policy takes care of the following:

  • Theft of cash - Your food trailer’s employee received cash from a customer and pocketed it

  • Use of your business funds for personal transactions - Your trusted employee in charge with stocks and other payments used the business’s credit card to buy his personal gaming computer

  • Falsification of sales records to pocket money - The employee falsified sales to cover the theft of large amounts of cash

  • Destruction of business equipment or inventory - A disgruntled employee intentionally destroyed the equipment installed in the food trailer as well as unserved food ingredients

  • Forgery - An employee copied a financial document of your company used to purchase materials

  • Social engineering - Your employee staged a robbery scene with some crooks to steal the money your food trailer business earned for the day

  • Theft of business equipment or inventory - An employee brought some food ingredients home or stole equipment like an oven, electric egg beater, etc.

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Food Trailer Insurance Cost

So how much is insurance for a food trailer? On average, food trailers pay $47.80 a month or $573.60 a year for a $1 million general liability insurance. 

 

But note that your actual premiums might be more expensive or cheaper as food trailer insurance companies will tailor your policies to meet your risks and budget. Every premium will be different based on the company you choose. 

 

The information below gives a general idea about food truck trailer insurance cost estimates taking into account the other policies you will be purchasing:


Cost per Month Cost per Year
Commercial auto insurance cost for food trailers $140 $1,680
Workers' compensation insurance cost for food trailers $100 $1,200
Business owner's policy (BOP) insurance cost for food trailers $110 $1,320


 

For further reference, here’s a table giving you an idea about how much the best food trailer insurance companies charge for a $1 million general liability insurance policy:


Monthly RateAnnual RateBest for
FLIP$24.92$299Food trailer insurance with dedicated custom limits
CoverWallet$31.83$382Any food trailer business looking for the best affordable mix of insurance coverage
Thimble$45$540Short term insurance for food trailers
Hiscox$47$564Professional liability and general liability insurance for food trailers with generous policy limits
Geico$51$612Commercial auto insurance for food trailers, as GEICO sources its business insurance from partner carriers
Progressive$57$684New food trailer businesses with no history or those who have had a few insurance claims

Concession Trailer Insurance Cost

Concession trailers are pulled behind a vehicle, while a food truck is generally a vehicle itself. Many of these terms are used interchangeably. If you are using a food trailer for intermittent concessions at local events, you should be able to get an affordable insurance policy. 

 

Maybe your food trailer is for catering. If so, you should be looking for mobile catering trailer insurance online quote instead of looking for insurance for a food cart that is parked in a pod. Similarly, coffee trailer insurance should be priced according to a specific risk category. A good insurance company knows how to assess specific risks in order to offer a good rate. 

 

A food concession trailer insurance policy should cost less. On average, concession trailer owners pay $32 a month or $384 a year for a $500,000 general liability insurance. 

 

There are fewer people served, so there is a lesser risk. Make sure your insurance agent or customer service representative knows how much coverage you want to get for your concession trailer for you to get affordable rates. 

Compare Cheap Food Trailer Insurance Quotes Online

Get all the best quotes from leading providers in a click of a button!

Best Food Trailer Insurance Companies

Many insurance companies only offer part of the coverage you will need for your business, which is why it is important to shop wisely and look at companies that have multiple offerings. The best insurance for your business may come from multiple locations, but it is convenient when you have one company managing all of the policies. 


Maybe you are wondering, "Where can I insure my food trailer? "  Here are some reviews discussing the pros, cons, and the pricing of the best food trailer insurance companies for a $1 million general liability coverage.   




CoverWallet Mobile Food Trailer Insurance


CoverWallet searches multiple companies to get you the best coverage at the best price, and it manages those policies from a central location. Your policy management is simple when you use this company. 


Pros

  • Assistance available 24/7

  • Allows you to compare food trailer insurance quote from multiple companies for competitive pricing

  • Knowledgeable representatives

  • Manage policies through the MyCoverWallet app

Cons

  • Not an actual insurance provider


Best for:  Any food trailer business looking for the best affordable mix of insurance coverage 

Average cost: $31.83  per month

Our rating: 10/10




Thimble Food Trailer Insurance

 

Thimble doesn’t have a stand-alone food trailer insurance product. However, you can get coverage through Thimble’s food vendor insurance which offers general liability insurance and professional liability insurance. 

Pros

  • Offers short term insurance policies for food vendors and food trailers

Cons

  • Doesn’t have a stand-alone food trailer insurance

 

Best for: Short term insurance for food trailers

Average cost: $45 per month

Our rating: 9/10

 



Hiscox Food Trailer Insurance


Just like Thimble, Hiscox doesn’t offer stand-alone food trailer insurance. However, you can still get insured through Hiscox’s small business retail insurance, which covers food truck/trailers. The concession trailer liability insurance policies included are professional liability and general liability with a $2 million policy limit. Business owners’ policy is also available but only in selected states of the US. 

Pros

  • Offers professional liability and general liability insurance for food trailers having $2 million policy limit

Cons

  • Business owner’s policy for food trailers is only available for selected states in the US


Best for: Professional liability and general liability insurance for food trailers with generous policy limits

Average cost: $47 per month

Our rating: 9/10



Progressive Food Trailer Insurance

Progressive is a well-known insurance company that has been in business since 1937. It's very popular for auto insurance but offers many other types of insurance. 

Pros 

  • Competitive pricing for high risks (good if you've had previous claims)

  • Easy quotes and policy issuance

Cons

  • Not as competitively priced for low risk

  • Lower customer ratings on claims handling


Best for: New food trailer businesses with no history or those who have had a few insurance claims 

Average cost: $57 per month

Our rating: 9/10



FLIP Food Trailer Insurance

FLIP (Food Liability Insurance Program) is an insurance company that only caters to the needs of small food businesses. This company’s food trailer insurance has dedicated custom limits. Coverage is sure to be given regardless of the nature of your food trailer’s business operations.

Pros

  • 24/7 access to policy documents

  • Covers all types of food trailer business operations

Cons

  • Only caters to the needs of small food businesses


Best for: Food trailer insurance with dedicated custom limits

Average cost: $24.92 per month 

Our rating: 8/10



Food Trailer Insurance Geico

GEICO  is a financially secure insurance company that is a good choice for consumers who are worried about their insurance company actually paying for claims. There's good reason it has been in business since 1936. 

Pros

  • Offers multiple policy options including general liability, workers' compensation, and commercial auto

  • Easy application process

  • Knowledgeable representatives available

Cons

  • Not the direct underwriter for business insurance policies

  • Commercial auto insurance is not always the least expensive.


Best for: Commercial auto insurance for food trailers, as GEICO sources its business insurance from partner carriers

Average cost:   $51 per month

Our rating: 7/10


Research & Compare Food Trailer Insurance Quotes Online 

The only way to make sure you have the right food trailer insurance is to do your research. To compare cheap food trailer insurance quotes online from the best companies in America, simply click the 'Get Quotes' button at the top of this page, fill in the information and complete the form, to receive the most competitive quotes online and the best coverage options from the best insurers!


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