888-900-0205Ice Cream Truck Insurance
Owning your own ice cream truck lets you make money in a fun way. Traditional ice cream trucks travel slowly around family neighborhoods in the afternoon, stopping frequently for children and adults who want to purchase a treat. Some ice cream truck owners park in the same location each day and sell to kids and families playing in the local park for example, or to friends and family attending a kid’s sporting event.
No matter how your business uses its ice cream truck, you have made a hefty investment to acquire it and stock it with supplies. If the truck is damaged in an auto accident, or receives harm in another way, paying for the repairs or replacement may put a large financial burden on your company bank accounts. You can reduce the risk of potential losses caused by auto accidents and related perils by making sure you have the right types of insurance. Here are the standard types of commercial insurance coverage you should carry on your ice cream truck:
- Liability Insurance – Liability insurance pays other people when your truck causes them harm. If your ice cream truck is involved in an auto accident and is found to be responsible for the accident, your liability insurance will pay the bills that were generated for the accident victims. General liability insurance covers two primary areas of protection:
- Bodily Injury – Bodily injury coverage pays for the costs that arise when you hurt someone physically with your ice cream truck. If for example, your truck rolls over a customer’s foot as you’re pulling away from the curb, bodily injuries will pay for the associated medical expenses. If you’re in an auto accident and your truck was found to be at fault, then your bodily injury coverage will pay the medical bills and associated costs for the people who got hurt in the other vehicles. Bodily injury pays for standard medical costs such as hospital visits and doctor’s care. It also pays for recovery and rehabilitation, lost wages due to time off work, pain and suffering and funeral expenses.
- Property Damage – The property damage portion of your liability insurance pays to fix things you break or damage in an accident. If your ice cream truck is driving too closely to parked vehicles and accidently scrapes the side of one for example, the property damage portion of your insurance will pay to have that vehicle repaired.
Commercial liability insurance coverage has set maximum payout limits per policy. You select those limits when you set up your policy and you select the deductible amount for your policy as well. The insurance deductible is the amount that you pay out of pocket before the insurance policy benefits kick in.
Medical Payments – When your ice cream truck is involved in an auto accident the people in your truck can be physically harmed. Medical payments insurance pays for the cost of medical care and treatment for your truck driver and any passengers who were in the vehicle at the time of the accident. Benefits from this insurance coverage are paid on a no fault basis. That means that it doesn’t matter if your driver is at fault or the other driver is at fault for the accident. Medical payments coverage is not available in all locations however. Contact one of our licensed representatives and we’ll be glad to help you determine whether it is available for your company.
Physical Damage Insurance – Physical damages insurance protects your ice cream truck itself. If your truck sustains damages or is destroyed, without this insurance coverage you would have to pay for repairs or replacements on your own. By carrying physical damages protection however, you can ensure the least amount of loss to your truck – and your company bank account – as possible. This insurance is particularly useful protection for companies that lease their ice cream trucks, and companies that are still paying off the purchase of the truck.
- Comprehensive Physical Damage Protection – Comprehensive damage protection lets you provide the best possible protection for your ice cream truck. It covers the cost of repairs and replacement when your truck is damaged or destroyed in any number of ways. If a dust storm sandblasts your truck for instance, or hail puts dents all over it, or a tree limb falls on it, your comprehensive coverage will take care of the repairs. This insurance also protects you from losses caused by theft or vandalism, and just about any other potential hazard that is not a collision or roll over.
- Collision Damage Protection – Collision damage protection is specifically there to protect you from damages caused by rolling the vehicle, or by colliding it with other objects. If a wind storm causes your ice cream truck to overturn on the highway for example, or your driver accidently runs over a fire hydrant, collision damage protection takes care of the repairs.
- Specified Peril (CAC) – Specified Peril insurance is also known as Fire and Theft with Combined Additional Coverage (CAC). This is a non-collision level of protection that is limited to protecting you from just those potential hazards that are listed on your insurance policy.
Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist – When other drivers cause an auto accident with your ice cream truck, their insurance is supposed to pay for your damages. When the other driver does not have insurance however, they are referred to as uninsured. When the driver does have insurance but the coverage levels are not high enough to pay the full cost of damages to your truck, they are referred to as underinsured. If you are not protected from uninsured or underinsured motorists, you will have to pay for all damages and repairs to your ice cream truck out of your own pocket. By carrying this insurance protection however, your policy will pay for the repairs to your ice cream truck instead. It works very much like your liability policy by taking care of both bodily injuries and property damages. The key difference however, is that this insurance pays for the injuries and damages to you, your employees and your property since you were not at fault for the accident.
- Bodily Injury – As covered with Liability Insurance.
- Property Damage – As covered with Liability Insurance.
- Collision Deductible Waiver (CDW) – When you are not at fault for an auto accident but your insurance must pay for your repairs, you don’t want to have to pay any portion of the repairs out of your own pocket. When you carry uninsured/underinsured motorist bodily injury protection, you can prevent yourself from having to pay the insurance deductible by carrying a collision deductible waiver, or CDW.
Other Important Commercial Auto Insurance For Your ICE CREAM Truck Includes:
- Rental – If your ice cream truck is damaged in an auto accident and cannot be used until it is repaired, rental insurance can cover the cost of a temporary replacement.
- Towing – If your ice cream truck is damaged extensively in an auto accident you may not be able to drive it away from the scene. Towing insurance pays for the cost of towing it to another location.
- Reefer Breakdown – When the coolant system in your truck breaks down you can lose all of your inventory. Protect yourself from this loss with refer breakdown coverage.
- Cargo – If your ice cream truck transports cargo for clients or other companies, you can protect yourself from losses to that cargo with cargo insurance.
- Accessories – When you have expensive equipment installed in your ice cream truck, paying to repair or replace each item can be difficult on your company financially. Protect yourself from losses of expensive accessories such as radios, navigation units and other devices with accessories coverage.