Do you own or plan to start a vending machine business? Probably, every day sees you contending with an endless to-do list, from buying goods to maintaining your machines and managing your employees.
It’s a good idea to insure your vending machine business. In this discussion, learn what vending machine insurance is, how much it costs, and more.
Why You Need Vending Machine Operators Insurance
Risks haunt vending machine operators like you. Here are some examples:
- A vending machine could injure a customer
- Your snacks, candy, or drinks could expire and result in food poisoning
- Your business location may experience a power outage, causing a loss of perishable foods
- A worker could get injured while fixing one of your vending machines
- Your vending machine could get stolen or damaged
These risks will result in extra expenses and lost income. This is why you need to get different kinds of vending machine operators insurance.
Vending Machine Insurance Coverage
Your vending machine business will find these vending machine covers useful:
- General liability insurance with products liability coverage
- Cyber liability insurance
- Commercial property insurance
- Commercial auto insurance
- Umbrella liability insurance
- Property in transit insurance
- Business owner’s policy
Vending Machine Liability Insurance
General liability insurance is the most common and highly recommended cover not only for a vending machine business but also food vendors, restaurants, cooking businesses, bakeries, farmers’ markets, and coffee shops.
Vending machine liability insurance is important for safeguarding your business from several claim-related risks, which are as follows:
Factors To Be Covered Under Vending Machine Liability Insurance
Bodily Injury: When a customer attempts to rock a vending machine that is jammed and it slips altogether on him/her hurting them, he or she can make a claim against you.
Property Damage: If, for example, a business vending machine suffers a current surge that shocks a customer and breaks their phone, they may want to be compensated for their loss.
Advertising and Personal Injury: If your equipment is no more than a poorly designed copy of someone else’s equipment, you may find yourself accused of his copyright and be unflatteringly called all sorts of names, which would “involve” a legal battle.
These and similar claims can be addressed by liability insurance which also compensates for the legal expenses and settlements emerging from such claims.
In connection, general liability insurance takes care of the following costs on your behalf:
- Medical payments
- Settlements
- Defense costs such as attorney fees, investigation fees, and administrative costs.
Cyber Liability Insurance
With most vending machines facilitating cashless payments, the use of smartphones and other devices is expected to increase which I’d also expose customers to cyber risks.
Cyber Liability Insurance is necessary because it protects against data breaches and cyber-attacks that could risk the implementation of any customer data.
The cyber liability insurance for vending machine businesses offers $1 million-$2 million coverage. You can use this to cover:
- Public relations costs for informing affected parties of the breach
- Expenses for professional help needed to contain the breach
- Lost income if you need to pause the operations of your vending machine business because of the breach
- Defense costs and settlements if affected customers sue you for the breach
Commercial Auto Insurance for Vending Machine Business
Do you use your personal car to transport business stock, goods, or workers? In this case, decide to get commercial auto insurance.
Commercial auto insurance offers the best coverage since it offers protection such as auto liability coverage, physical damage coverage, and personal accident coverage.
Auto liability insurance for vending machine business-It will help you pay third-party bodily injuries or property damage if you cause an accident while driving to the location where your vending machines are installed.
Personal accident coverage– It will help pay for emergency medical treatment and hospital bills if you get injured after the accident. If you have passengers, then this policy will cover them too.
Hired & non-owned auto insurance will cover indemnification, settlement, and defense costs if a vehicle you borrowed or hired causes an accident.
Commercial Property Insurance for Vending Machine Businesses
Commercial property insurance protects the properties integral to the operation of your vending machine business. In addition it provides $10,000-$165,000 minimum building coverage for vending machine businesses. Contents coverage, on the other hand, is $5,000-$60,000.
The building coverage of commercial property insurance recovers financial losses if the office of your vending machine business becomes damaged or lost because of:
- Fire
- Theft
- Vandalism
- Malicious mischief
- Riot
- Sprinkler leakage
- Lightning
- Weather
- Volcanic action
- Impact
- Aircraft
Vending machine prices aren’t cheap and this is why commercial property insurance is very useful.
Insurance companies allow you to add food spoilage endorsement to commercial property insurance. Food spoilage endorsement will recoup your losses if the perishable goods inside the vending machine spoil and become unsellable due to:
- Vending machine breakdown
- Vending machine contamination
- Power outage
How Much Money Can You Get from General Liability Insurance?
General liability insurance provides $1 million-$2 million you can use for each bodily injury or property damage claim.
On the other hand, it provides $500,000-$1 million for each advertising injury claim.
The product liability coverage of general liability insurance provides $1 million for each claim for food poisoning or food-borne illness.
Get all the best quotes from leading providers in a click of a button!
Vending Machine Business Interruption Insurance
Business interruption policy shoulders bills, wages, loans, and other operational costs, while your vending machines are out of commission. With this policy ready and waiting, your vending machine business can keep losses at bay and recover quickly.
Airport Vending Machine Insurance
Those who install their vending machines at the airport can opt to get covered through specialized airport vending machine business insurance. Policies included are:
- General liability with product liability coverage
- Commercial property insurance with equipment breakdown coverage
Workers’ Compensation Insurance for Vending Machine Employees
This coverage is very useful for your business and other related ventures such as food delivery businesses, pizza delivery businesses, wineries,
In addition ice cream businesses, breweries, delis, liquor stores, concessions, food trailers, and food cart businesses
So when do you get workers’ compensation insurance?When you get workers comp the moment 2, 3, or 5 people are working for you.
What specific things does workers’ compensation insurance cover? How workers comp insurance works differ from state to state. But generally, workers’ compensation insurance will help you pay:
- Employee hospital bills
- Employee medication
- In case of death, workers comp will help you provide death benefits to the deceased spouse and children
The amount of insurance money you’ll get from workers comp also varies from state to state. In general, workers comp pays two-thirds of the injured employee’s weekly average wage. Benefits last from three-seven years or until the employee is strong enough to work again.
Property In Transit Insurance for Vending Machine Businesses
Property in transit insurance is a stand-alone coverage or inclusion in commercial property insurance. But note that no matter how it’s offered, the policy functions the same way. This insurance for vending machine reimburses losses when the vending machine:
- Unloaded from the vehicle during the trip and got damaged
- Got lost while in transit
- caught fire while in transit
- You got involved in a vehicular accident, and the vending machine got damaged as a result
Commercial Umbrella Liability Insurance
In a lawsuit, your general liability insurance may hit the ceiling. Here’s where commercial umbrella liability insurance comes in to provide additional coverage.
For instance, if a court case costs $100,000 but the general liability insurance only gives you $50,000, the umbrella policy will be your savior and cover the extra $50,000.
Vending Machine Business Owners Policy (BOP)
You can qualify for a business owner’s policy (BOP). A business owner’s policy fuses different kinds of insurance into one comprehensive protection for your business.
Most BOPs combine general liability and commercial property insurance. On the other hand, some may offer more options, such as:
- Commercial auto insurance
- Employee dishonesty insurance
- Cyber liability insurance
- Workers compensation insurance
- Commercial umbrella liability insurance
Vending Machine Insurance Cost
Luckily, vending insurance costs don’t have to break your bank. On average, owners pay $38 a month or $456 a year for vending machine insurance offering a $1 million general liability policy.
Diverse factors come into play in determining the cost of vending machine insurance coverage. The following are the most common:
- The number of machines you need to insure
- The type of products you vend
- The number of workers you have
- Your business location
- Your chosen policy limits and deductibles
- Your chosen insurer
here’s a table showing the rates of the best vending machine insurance companies:
Monthly Rates | Annual Rates | Best for | |
NEXT | $17 | $204 | Best overall; Fastest general liability insurance for vending machine businesses |
CoverWallet | $25 | $300 | Vending machine insurance quotes comparison online |
Tivly | $29 | $348 | Comparing vending machine insurance quotes over the phone |
Hiscox | $33 | $396 | Business insurance with generous policy limits that can serve as vending machine insurance, and candy business insurance |
Get all the best quotes from leading providers in a click of a button!
Best Vending Machine Insurance Companies
NEXT
NEXT’s offers workers compensation, general liability, and commercial property policies. You can bundle your general liability and commercial property insurance in a BOP.
Average cost: $17 per month
Our rating: 10/10
Pros
- Best overall
- Issues an online proof of insurance instantly
- Great customer service and reputation
- Excellent rates
- Outstanding value for money
- Get a 10% discount if you buy two or more insurance policies for your vending machine business
Cons
- Couldn’t find any
CoverWallet
CoverWallet, with its partners, crafted a tailored vending insurance product that bundles general liability and commercial property policies.They offer easy policy management
Average cost: $25 per month
Our rating: 10/10
Pros
- Allows you to compare quotes online
- Offers its own insurance coverage by modifying the offers of its partners
- Online certificate of insurance
Cons
- CoverWallet’s vending insurance policies are underwritten by third-party companies
Tivly
They offer general liability, workers compensation, cyber liability, and commercial auto insurance to vending machine businesses.
Average cost: $29 per month
Our rating: 10/10
Pros
- Compare vending machine insurance quotes over the phone
- Call and get covered quickly
- Responsive customer service
- Takes you to partners if it can’t provide coverage
Cons
- Doesn’t issue online quotes
Hiscox
Hiscox doesn’t have an insurance product tailored for vending machines. Nonetheless, since the company insures a wide range of businesses, you can still get covered.
There are two options for getting insured with this company ; (1) insure your vending machines through Hiscox’s portable equipment insurance (2) qualify for retail insurance.
Average cost: $33 per month
Our rating: 9/10
Pros
- Offers generous policy limits starting from $1 million up to $5 million
Cons
- Doesn’t underwrite a specialized vending machine insurance