Should you get inland marine coverage? Protecting your company’s assets, even when you’re on the go, is your top priority. Insuring them with this policy can provide peace of mind while you’re away from the office. When doing business away from the office, a standard policy may not cover the assets you need to protect. Those gaps can be filled by commercial inland marine insurance. This form of insurance can be perfect for your requirements.
Since “marine” and “inland” seem at odds with one another, the concept of Inland Marine insurance may be puzzling. So, what exactly does inland marine coverage protect against, and how can brokers best explain its value to their business clientele? To better understand this type of insurance, below is a summary.
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Definition of Inland Marine Insurance
Coverage for your company’s property while it is in transit to, or stored at, a place other than your main office or warehouse is provided by inland marine insurance. In addition, it protects the investment in unique assets that a standard commercial property policy would not cover.
No oceans or rivers are mentioned in this material, despite the marine title. Goods that are moved over land or stored off-site are the only ones covered by inland marine insurance.
Do You Need Inland Marine Insurance?
You should consider adding inland maritime coverage to your company insurance if you frequently transfer or store property away from your leading site.
These organizations frequently benefit from acquiring inland marine insurance:
- Freelancers and independent contractors who go from one job to another
- Establishments involved in the building trade
- Mobile caterers and restaurants
- Attendees of conventions, trade events, and exhibitions that run businesses.
- Companies that transport commodities by truck or train
- The unique property is required for certain businesses to function, such as animal hospitals that transfer patients and art galleries that need priceless works.
Purchasing a commercial property insurance policy is a must for any business owner. The contents of a commercial building and the building itself are protected by commercial property insurance.
But imagine you have to move products between two warehouses. Commercial property insurance may not cover damages to your stock if they fall out of a malfunctioning truck bed.
In a similar vein, conventional property insurance may not cover particular exceptionally expensive or rare possessions. That’s when inland marine insurance could come in handy.
What Does Inland Marine Insurance Cover?
In general, the following are included in inland marine insurance policies:
1. Property in transit
This refers to items moved from one place to another using ground transportation.
2. Property stored off-site
This category includes things you have stored away in a warehouse or similar facility.
3. Property on movable vehicles
A food truck, for instance, might benefit from having its cooking equipment and raw materials insured under an inland marine policy.
4. Property that provides the means of transportation
Businesses with bridges, roads, or communications towers may be eligible for inland marine insurance.
Customized protection for unique assets is available through inland marine policies. Dealers and galleries, for instance, have the added responsibility of securing the storage of works of art belonging to third parties. Veterinarians may need to transfer animals in need of medical care. In the long term, proprietors of vending machines often store their devices on the premises of others. All of these are scenarios for which inland marine insurance provides protection.
Depending on your industry and the specific perils you wish to cover, the name of your inland marine insurance policy may change. For instance, when moving a client’s belongings, you’ll need “bailee’s customer insurance,” a subset of inland marine coverage. Builder’s risk insurance protects tools and equipment used in the building trade and held in temporary storage.
What Does Inland Marine Insurance Not Cover?
Coverage under inland marine policies typically excludes:
- Commercial property insurance typically extends protection to stationary assets.
- Commercial auto insurance is required for any vehicle used in a business setting. But inland maritime insurance will cover the things you have in your car.
- As distinct policies, commercial flood insurance and commercial earthquake insurance are recommended for businesses located in earthquake and flood-prone areas, respectively.
- Ocean marine and air cargo insurance are necessary for transporting property over water or the air.
- In most cases, inland maritime insurance will only compensate you for losses or damages that occur during transport, not prior.
If you think your policy covers something, check the fine print.
How Much Does Inland Marine Insurance Cost?
The policyholder has a wide range of options regarding the cost of inland maritime insurance.
Insurance premiums for inland maritime risks may be affected by the following:
- Industrial scale.
- Organizational and property coverage details.
- Deductibles and coverage caps.
- When, where, and how does the property gets moved around.
- There is a price difference between “specified perils” plans, which only cover the harm listed explicitly in the policy, and “all-risks” policies, which cover a wide range of damage scenarios.
Getting quotes from different coverage companies and comparing them is the best approach to acquire a ballpark figure for the price of your inland marine insurance.
How Much Coverage Do You Need?
The amount of inland marine insurance needed is often confusing for business owners. The extent of a potential loss is challenging to foretell with absolute certainty. In any case, you may get the ball rolling by figuring out how much your insured belongings are worth.
If you’re a contractor and leave ten pieces of equipment in a storage yard, and each piece is worth $10,000, you’ll want to be sure you have inland marine coverage that will pay you up to $100,000 if anything happens to them. The amount of inland marine insurance needed might be cut in half if no more than five pieces of equipment are stored at any given time.
Various carriers offer inland marine insurance, including Travelers, Chubb, and State Farm. Since online business insurance carriers do not often sell inland marine insurance policies, you will likely need to deal with an agent to secure coverage.
Start by inquiring about inland marine coverage with your insurance provider if you currently have commercial property insurance, general liability insurance, or a business owner’s policy (BOP).
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Source: NerdWallet