Here is one that surprises a lot of business owners. The equipment attached to your work truck, the kind that turns a regular vehicle into a service unit or a rigged-up unit, is often not covered the way you would expect under your auto policy.
Many commercial auto policies exclude or strictly limit coverage for attached equipment. That can include things like a crane, a service body, a welder, compressors, or other gear mounted to the vehicle. Some auto policies do offer a bit of coverage for it, but it tends to be limited, and it is often more expensive than the better option. That better option is usually a Contractor's Equipment Floater, sometimes just called an equipment floater. It is built specifically to cover this kind of equipment, it tends to cover it more broadly, and in many cases it is cheaper than relying on the auto policy to do a job it was not designed for.
There is a second gap that catches people off guard. The contents of your vehicle are generally not covered by your auto policy. If your truck is stolen, the auto coverage may pay for the truck itself, but the tools, hand-held equipment, materials, and gear inside it are not part of that. For a trade or service business, the value of what is in the truck can rival the value of the truck. Losing all of it with no coverage is a hard hit, and it is avoidable.
The fix is to make sure your tools and equipment are properly covered under the right policy, typically a tools and equipment or contractor's equipment coverage is the best fit. The right setup depends on what you carry, what is attached, and how you work.
I am not raising this to add cost. Often it is the opposite. Moving attached equipment to a floater can be broader and cheaper than carrying it on the auto policy, and properly covering your tools closes a gap most people do not know they have until the worst day to find out.
If you run service trucks or rigged-up units, it is worth a quick review of where your equipment and tools actually sit across your policies. I am always happy to take a look and tell you straight whether you are covered the way you think you are.
Mandy Stierman, Founder and Principal Broker
Velocity Insurance Inc. | www.velocityinsurance.ca