Vending Machine Insurance: Cost, Liability & Quotes From $11

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 not surprising for you to forget how devastating an unfortunate event can be. Like when running a wine business or a distillery, something bad might happen if not now, then soon.

So, 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

• A supply-chain issue happened. Your vending machine is out of products customers can buy. As a result, you have to stop your business for a while

These risks will result in extra expenses and lost income. This is why you need to get different kinds of vending machine operators insurance.

What Types of Vending Machine Insurance Do You Need?

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 your primary defense against a customer's claim for:

• Bodily injury - A customer was buying food from the vending machine, and it got stuck. Instead of asking for your help, the customer rocked the vending machine. As a result, it fell toward him. The customer was crushed and sustained injuries

• Property damage - Your vending machine released an electrical surge. Upon getting electrocuted, the customer dropped their phone, and it got broken as a result. The customer wants you to refund the value of the broken phone

• Advertising and personal injury - Your vending machine's custom graphics copied the elements found in other vending machines owned by another individual. At the same time, the aggrieved person also accused you of stating defamatory remarks to interrupt his business

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, administrative costs, etc.

Similar to groceries, caterers, vendors, and juice bars, insurance companies allow vending machine businesses to add product liability coverage to their general liability insurance. Product liability coverage will take care of defense costs, medical payments, reimbursement for property damage, and settlements if a customer files a claim for:

• Food poisoning

• Food-borne illnesses

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.

Cyber Liability Insurance

Can customers pay for your vending machine using a credit card or a mobile wallet such as Paypal or Venmo? Even though the feature is very convenient, it might also lead to data leaks if someone gains access to the vending machines’ system.

You will face extra expenses if important and confidential information is leaked. If you’re worried about this exposure, then get cyber liability insurance.

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.

There’s no problem if you continue getting covered with personal car insurance. However, once the carrier finds out that you’re using your personal car to restock the vending machine or collect earnings, your premiums might suddenly spike. Furthermore, coverage isn’t comprehensive.

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 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 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.

Physical damage coverage will take care of the damages to your vehicle. This policy comes in two forms; collision coverage and comprehensive coverage.

• Collision coverage takes care of damage after you’ve collided with a vehicle or object while driving, hence the name.

• Comprehensive physical damage coverage, on the other hand, takes care of costs if fire, theft, vandalism, weather, and other covered perils damage your vending machine business’s vehicle.

Let’s say you want to deliver a vending machine to another location. However, your car is an SUV, and it can’t be used for the job you want to do. And so, you rented a pickup truck to transport the vending machine. Will your commercial auto provide coverage to the rented vehicle? The answer is no.

Your commercial auto insurance only covers the auto you own. That’s why if you want to get coverage for a rented or borrowed vehicle, then consider getting hired & non-owned auto insurance.

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. Let’s discuss how this policy works.

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

The stocks and contents coverage of commercial property insurance will reimburse your losses if the vending machines, other equipment, and the goods to be sold become damaged or lost due to the perils we mentioned above. 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 Commercial Property Insurance Do You Need?

How much coverage to get from commercial property insurance depends on the value of the business property you want to insure.

Remember that commercial property insurance provides $10,000-$165,000 minimum building coverage for vending machine businesses. Contents coverage, on the other hand, is $5,000-$60,000.

Vending Machine Business Interruption Insurance

Let’s say your vending machines got utterly damaged. Since you don’t have the money to get it replaced, you went ahead and had it repaired. What’s tricky is that repairing the vending machine will take at least two months. This means that your business won’t produce revenues, and you might incur significant losses.

In such a case, there won’t be any problems if you purchase 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.

Workers' Compensation Insurance for Vending Machine Employees

Do you employ people to maintain or restock the vending machine? If this is the case, consider getting workers' compensation insurance. Workers' compensation insurance pays your employees if they get injured while working.

This coverage is very useful for your business and other related ventures such as food delivery businesses, pizza delivery businesses, wineries, ice cream businesses, breweries, delis, liquor stores, concessions, food trailers, and food cart businesses

So when do you get workers' compensation insurance? It depends on the location. There are states that require you to get workers' compensation insurance the moment you employ 1 individual. Others, on the other hand, require you to 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 emergency treatment

• Employee hospital bills

• Employee medication

• In case of death, workers comp will help you provide death benefits to the deceased spouse and children

• Rehabilitation (if needed)

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.

Vending Machine Business Employee Dishonesty Insurance

Your employees can steal from you or vandalize the vending machines. If any of the two happen, you’ll suffer losses. And so, don’t forget to get employee dishonesty insurance.

To get employee dishonesty insurance, you’ll have to purchase crime insurance. However, it’s also possible to find carriers that offer employee dishonesty insurance as a stand-alone policy.

So what does employee dishonesty insurance cover? If you decide to purchase this policy, you’ll get coverage for:

• Employee theft

• Destruction of money or the vending machines

• Fraudulent transactions

• Forgery and alteration of your business’s financial documents

• Fraudulent manipulation of your vending machines (e.g. the employee accessed your vending machine’s memory and gained access to credit card data and other sensitive information

• Social engineering fraud

Employee dishonesty insurance is available in two ways:

• If availed as a “loss discovered” policy, employee dishonesty insurance will pay losses resulting from an employee crime that happened during the policy’s duration, regardless of when the crime took place

• If availed as a “loss sustained” policy, employee dishonesty insurance will only pay if you file a claim during the time the crime took place. In a nutshell, a “loss sustained” employee dishonesty coverage won’t cover undiscovered crimes in the past

Property In Transit Insurance for Vending Machine Businesses

Do you keep moving your vending machines from place to place? Your commercial auto insurance won’t cover the damage to your vending machines if they get damaged during the trip. And so, decide to get property in transit insurance.

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

• The vending machine got lost while in transit

• The vending machine 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

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

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

To further give you an idea of vending machine insurance costs, here’s a table showing the rates of the best vending machine insurance companies: