Hot Dog Cart Insurance: Cost & Quotes From $7

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Hot dog cart insurance is a short-term or long term insurance program for hot dog cart vendors. This isn’t an insurance policy that functions on its own. Rather, it’s composed of different business insurance policies such as liability insurance, property insurance, workers compensation insurance, and more. While you can get a generalized food cart insurance or mobile food vendor insurance for your hot dog stand or cart, consider getting a stand-alone commercial hotdog cart or hot dog stand insurance instead. 

If you are looking to start your own hot dog cart business or are already running one, having hot dog cart insurance ensures that your investment gets the best coverage, thus reducing the impact of risks that would otherwise cost you thousands of dollars or even put you out of business entirely. 

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Hot Dog Cart Liability Insurance 

There are two types of hot dog cart liability insurance that you will need for your hot dog cart business. These are:

General Liability Insurance for Hot Dog Carts

Hot dog cart general liability insurance protects your hot dog cart business from incidents and accidents involving third parties while the cart is stationary but still open to customers. 

Suppose a customer slips and falls on the pavement due to water or oil spilling from your hot dog cart. If they were to sustain any injuries, the general liability insurance sufficiently covers medical expenses. 

General liability insurance also helps if you damage the property of another person. Consider a situation where you’re selling in a farmers market or flea market, then your hot dog cart ignites in flames and damages nearby booths. If affected persons demand you take responsibility, you can use general liability insurance to provide reimbursements. 

The hot dog cart general liability insurance of many carriers doesn’t only cover personal injuries or property damage. General liability insurance can be added with optional policies. Such optional policies are:

• Rented premises liability coverage-If you’re renting a space for your hot dog cart, consider adding rented premises liability coverage to general liability insurance. This will refund costs if the rented space becomes damaged or destroyed due to a fire 

• Advertising injury coverage-Advertising injury coverage will cover attorney fees, administrative costs, and other legal expenses if you’re sued by a customer, another vendor, or any other third party for copyright infringement, slander, libel, and other related offenses 

• Liquor liability coverage-This can be added to general liability insurance if you sell alcoholic beverages aside from hot dogs. If a customer accuses you of causing personal injuries or property damage by serving excessive amounts of liquor, liquor liability coverage will cover the person’s losses and pay for your legal defense costs 

General liability insurance provides $1 million - $2 million coverage for personal injury claims and property damage claims. The amount of coverage from other exposures is taken from the same limit or have their own sub-limits depending on the insurance company. 

Do You Need Insurance To Sell Hot Dogs At Events?

Depending on the event organizers, you will need general liability insurance to conduct business in trade shows or festivals as a hot dog cart vendor.  You need to name the organizers as additional insureds so that coverage applies in case they take the blame for the personal injury or property damage you caused. 

Hot Dog Cart Product Liability Insurance

With product liability insurance, you’re covered in the event that product-related lawsuits are brought against you or your business. Specifically, the product liability cover cushions you in the event of foodborne illnesses, food poisoning, physical harm due to wares your hot dog cart provides to customers, or hot dogs contaminated with allergens or debris. 

Hot Dog Cart Vendor Commercial Auto Insurance

Do you use a hot dog cart that’s pulled by an automobile? Consider buying commercial auto insurance for the vehicle. After all, a personal auto insurance won’t suffice. Moreso, continuing to use a personal auto insurance on a vehicle that’s used for business purposes will lead to problems later on. 

Commercial auto insurance has the following coverages which take care of the following exposures associated with using a vehicle for business purposes:

• Auto accidents-Commercial auto insurance has auto liability coverage that will help if ever the vehicle you’re using to pull the hot dog cart causes an accident. Auto liability coverage will pay for the medical expenses of injured third parties. It will also reimburse the cost of properties that got destroyed or damaged. Finally, auto liability coverage will cover legal defense costs such as attorney fees, settlements, and administrative costs 

• Vehicle damage-Commercial auto insurance offers physical damage coverage which is available as a collision policy or comprehensive policy. Collision physical damage coverage will cover parts repair or replacement if your vehicle sustains damage after crashing into an object or another vehicle. On the other hand, comprehensive physical damage coverage will cover parts repair or replacement expenses if your vehicle is damaged by theft, fire, vandalism, and other covered perils 

• Rental expenses-Another inclusion in commercial auto insurance is rental reimbursement coverage. Rental reimbursement coverage will recoup losses if you need to hire another vehicle while yours is repaired 

• Uninsured/underinsured motorist-You can purchase uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage to get protection against the resulting expenses in the event you get involved in an accident caused by a driver without enough insurance or no insurance 

• Medical payments coverage/personal injury protection-Medical payments coverage and personal injury protection coverage will cover medical expenses after you caused an accident or got involved in an accident. Note that personal injury protection further pays for after-hospital visits, medication, and lost income compensation 

Auto liability coverage and MedPay/personal injury protection are primary inclusions in commercial auto insurance. In other words, these coverages will be automatically included once you purchase the policy. 

Note that you can’t use auto liability coverage to cover accidents resulting from your vehicle’s involvement in any criminal activity. 

Physical damage coverage-both collision and comprehensive-only covers stock parts. Any aftermarket or customized vehicle parts aren’t covered. Also, damage or destruction of vehicle parts due to rollovers is excluded. 

Contents Insurance for Hot Dog Cart Vendors

By design, there are going to be items on your hot dog cart that aren't permanently fixed onto the unit itself. That's where content insurance comes in. The latter covers these items and will often be labeled content coverage insurance. As you shop around, you will notice that most providers will give you an option of choosing between an actual cash value policy and replacement cost value. With the former, the provider will compensate you the full amount of the object in question. With the latter, the insurer will embark on replacing the said item, which will often attract a higher premium than actual cash policies. 

Commercial Property Insurance for Hot Dog Cart Companies 

Insurance companies will ask you to get commercial property insurance if you’re the owner of a hot dog cart business owning multiple carts and employing people. Commercial property insurance protects you against:

• Building damage-Commercial property insurance will cover repair expenses if the roofing, siding, walls, doors, windows, or any other structures of your hot dog cart business’s commercial building sustains damage due to fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils 

• Building destruction-If the commercial building of your hot dog cart business is destroyed by fire or extreme weather, commercial property insurance will pay for reconstruction costs so that you can resume business operations 

Workers Compensation Insurance for Hot Dog Cart Companies 

Accidents are inevitable, seeing as you and employees are handling fire and sharp objects within a confined space in what will often be high-pressure environments. If your employees were to get injured while on duty, workers' compensation insurance will step in to protect pay for your employees’:

• Medical expenses-If an employee sustains an injury or experiences the onset of a work-related disease at the job, workers compensation insurance will cover ambulance fees, surgeries, therapies, and other medical expenses

• Hospitalization-Workers compensation insurance will pay for hospital bills if your hot dog cart business’s employee is admitted to receive comprehensive medical care for a work-related injury or disease 

• Medication-You can claim workers compensation insurance to pay for the prescription medicines an employee needs for a work-related injury or disease 

• Rehabilitation-Insurance companies underwrite workers' compensation insurance in a way that it covers rehab expenses if an employee experiences an impairment due to a work-related injury or disease 

• Lost income compensation-Workers compensation insurance covers lost wages if your employee can’t work due to a work-related injury or disease. This is a weekly allowance equal to two-thirds or 67% of the average weekly wage. The employee receives this until he or she is fit enough to go back to work or until the amount/duration prescribed in the terms of the policy is satisfied 

• Death benefits-An employee of your hot dog cart business can die due to a work-related injury or disease. This is why workers' compensation insurance provides death benefits. In practice, it will cover funeral expenses and provide an allowance to dependents 

Note that in most states except Texas, you are legally required to have workers' compensation insurance to run your hot dog cart business. Failure to cover your employees with workers' compensation insurance is punishable by law. The following are the possible sanctions:

• Imprisonment in the country jail

• A fine double the amount you would’ve paid for workers comp premiums

• A fine multiplied by the days you didn’t get workers comp

• Stop-hold-order

• Revocation of the exclusive remedy

Workers' compensation insurance is an expensive policy. It’s cost is $1.50x$100/annual average payroll of your business. 

Pay-as-you-go workers' compensation insurance is a cheap option. This determines premiums based on your actual monthly payroll instead of the estimated payroll for a given year. And so, premiums are more accurate and less costly. 

Hot Dog Cart Company Employee Dishonesty Insurance 

Employee dishonesty insurance is very useful for your small hot dog cart company. It’s hard to track how much earnings each hot dog cart has for any given month. Moreover, management loopholes allow employees to siphon money from the company. Protect yourself against losses when employees commit dishonest acts-get employee dishonesty insurance. 

Employee dishonesty insurance will cover the money that your business lost when an employee or a group of employees do any of the following:

• Unauthorized use of business funds

• Fraudulent refunds

• Theft or destruction of money

• Social engineering

Hot Dog Cart Insurance Cost

Hot dog cart insurance cost depend on a couple of factors, including:

• The policies you choose for your hot dog cart business

• Unique risks that your hot dog cart faces

• The value of business equipment at the hot dog stand or the hot dog cart

• Key operational factors including location and the hours you spend on the road, among others

To keep your hot dog cart insurance premiums down, consider:

• Hiring the best staff which will require some background digging on your part

• Stringent adherence to best practices when it comes to safety and cleaning protocols

• Proactive preventive maintenance of the cart and stand

Here's a breakdown of the cost of the different insurance policies you need for your hot dog cart business.

Below is a breakdown of the cost of hot dog cart insurance from the best hot dog cart insurance companies in the market today: