What's Cookin'
As we approach a new year, it's a good time to think about your insurance coverage and insurance renewal. The easiest thing to do is to to do nothing, meaning just let your coverage renew without looking around for better coverage and better rates. Maybe a New Years' Resolution should be to spend some time to protect your most valuable asset, your truck and your business...
It probably seems like you pay a lot of money for your food truck insurance. You might be wondering where your hard earned dollars are going when you pay your food truck insurance every month or year... Our industry could do a better job of explaining what typically happens to the average insurance dollar you pay. This entry will attempt to explain just that.
At Insure My Food Truck, we understand that you are extremely busy business owners that want the best coverage for what may be your largest asset, but may not have the time to invest in comparing carriers. That's why we have developed this comparison to help give you an idea of what we do differently than that of our competitors. PLEASE CLICK IMAGE FOR FULL VERSION.
It sometimes amazes me to hear some of the reasons food truck owners provide about why they don't have insurance or only purchase minimal coverage. Mobile food vendors know they need appropriate coverage, yet they too can fall victim to believing some of the common myths about why insurance is not necessary. Here are five of those myths followed by facts that may help expel some misconceptions:
California is a BIG state. It's often debated whether Northern and Southern California should be divided into two states. Politics aside, you may or may not know that most insurance carriers really do treat the two independently. Southern California rates have been increasing and recently they are increasing very fast. There are many reasons for this, but primarily workers' compensation insurance...
You may not have a big staff, but you likely have a few employees – whether permanent, seasonal or temporary. Even family members hired to help out count as employees. Did you know that small businesses like yours are exposed to employment lawsuits? In fact, half of the lawsuits brought by employees are against small businesses.
We are always ranting about how food trucks with employees need to carry workers' compensation insurance (see our Duck Test entry). Beyond the legal requirement, doing good by your staff and ultimately protecting yourselves, food truck owners should consider the current state of the market. Insurance rates (especially workers' compensation) tend to fluctuate with the economy. Did you know that right now rates are possibly at the lowest point in 5-6 years?
We knew it was just a matter of time before insurance carriers caught on that gourmet food trucks are here to stay and are typically run by good business people. For the past four years most insurance carriers have been saying that they are not interested in insuring food trucks and that they are just not a "good risk". When we launched, we were fortunate enough to partner with an amazing insurance company that understands gourmet food trucks and understands risk.
