Are you a contractor who’s constantly lugging tools from job site to job site? Or a landscaper schlepping mowers and trimmers from house to house or business to business?
If so, you need the right type of coverage to protect your supplies if they’re stolen or damaged in transit or at a job site. Without business insurance, you’ll be on the hook for the cost of repairing or replacing them.
Contractor tools and equipment insurance can help protect you. Here’s how.
What is contractors tools & equipment insurance?
Tools and equipment coverage — also known as inland marine insurance — helps protect the items you need to do your job anywhere you go.
So, if the tools you keep in a trailer or truck to take to job sites are lost, stolen or damaged, this type of coverage pays for replacements or repairs. Plus, it covers you no matter where your equipment is.
It protects tools you own, tools your employees use and employee clothing. Depending on the coverage option you choose, it may also cover tools you borrow (but not tools you rent).
At NEXT, tools and equipment insurance is available as an add-on to a general liability policy for contractors and cleaning businesses.
Tools and equipment insurance vs. commercial property insurance
Both tools and equipment and commercial property insurance can help protect the equipment you need to run your business.
So, how do you know which one you need?
Commercial property protects items that stay put at a specific location. Tools and equipment insurance protects stuff you move around.
So, let’s say you have your toolbox in the back of your truck when you stop for lunch on the way to a job site. If someone steals it while you’re eating, contractors tools and equipment covers you; commercial property wouldn’t because you’re outside of the covered property.
If you have equipment in a warehouse or office where you conduct business, and your equipment always stays on-site, you need commercial property insurance.
How insurance for tools and equipment protects contractors
Not sure tools and equipment coverage is right for you? Here are some examples of how it can help protect your business up to your policy’s limits.
Scenario 1: Burglary
Let’s say you run a family-owned handyperson business. You pay for a storage unit where you keep your tools and equipment when you’re not using them. You visit the unit to get some tools for your next job and notice the open gate.
Someone broke into your unit and stole everything. Tools and equipment insurance would help pay to replace what was stolen.
Scenario 2: Disaster strikes
Suppose you’re a general contractor working at a job site. You keep a generator on-site to power your crew’s tools. One night, a storm rolls through, knocking a steel frame that was still being secured onto your generator, crushing it.
Tools and equipment coverage will help cover a new generator so you and your team can get back to work.
Scenario 3: Vehicle theft, gear included
Let’s assume you’re a general contractor. You keep your tools and equipment in your work van, which you park outside your house each night.
You wake up one day to find that the van is gone — and so is everything in it. The police find your van later that day, but your tools and equipment are missing.
With a contractors tools and equipment policy, you’re covered. NEXT, for example, will reimburse you for the stolen items, plus batteries, spare parts and accessories, which other insurers often do not cover.
How NEXT helps contractors thrive
At NEXT, we make getting the insurance you need to protect your small business fast, easy and affordable.
In less than 10 minutes, you can complete an application, see your policy options and purchase coverage. Choose from general liability, workers’ compensation, professional liability, commercial auto, commercial property and tools and equipment insurance.
As soon as you make your payment, you’ll get immediate access to your certificate of insurance.
If you have questions during the process, our licensed, U.S.-based insurance professionals are available to help.
Get started with your free online quote today.
