The essential guide to food trailer insurance
A food trailer is a commercial kitchen on wheels that spends most of its life detached from anything. Both halves of that sentence change what the policy has to do.
Detached is the normal state
A trailer is towed for a fraction of its life. It sits in a yard, waits on site between market days, and stands alone while you trade out of it. Cover has to respond in all of those states, and some motor-based wordings are weakest exactly when the trailer is stationary.
It is also when it gets stolen. A food trailer is a valuable wheeled asset that can be hitched and driven away in under a minute, so hitch locks, wheel clamps and where it is stored genuinely affect both cover and price.
The kitchen is the real value
Grills, fryers, refrigeration, extraction and the servery usually exceed the value of the trailer shell. They must be scheduled, because a settlement on the trailer alone does not put you back in business.
They are also the hazard. LPG next to hot oil in a confined space is why mobile food units are underwritten differently, and gas certificates, extinguishers and suppression systems affect whether terms are offered at all.
Liability is what gets you the pitch
Markets, festivals and venues almost always require public liability at a stated limit — commonly twenty million — before you can trade. In practice the certificate is a condition of the booking rather than an insurance decision.
Products liability matters too. If someone becomes ill, that is a products claim rather than a public liability one, and the two are usually bundled but worth confirming given what you sell.
Cover this article touches on
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Any advice on this website is general advice only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on it, consider whether it is appropriate for you and read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS).