For many Ohio contractors and tradespeople, a work truck or van is basically a shop on wheels.
Think about everything you carry from job to job: drills, saws, ladders, testing equipment, hand tools, materials, generators, compressors, and specialty equipment. It doesn’t take long for the value of everything inside your vehicle to add up.
So here’s an important question:
If your work truck were damaged, stolen, or involved in an accident, would your insurance cover everything inside it?
The answer may not be as simple as you think.
Commercial Auto Insurance and Your Tools Are Two Different Things
Commercial auto insurance is primarily designed to protect your business vehicles and address liability associated with their use.
That doesn’t necessarily mean all of the business property riding inside the vehicle is covered by the auto policy.
Suppose you’re an electrician with $12,000 worth of tools and testing equipment in your van. If the van is involved in a covered accident, your commercial auto policy may provide coverage for damage to the vehicle.
But the tools inside may need a different type of insurance.
This distinction is especially important for contractors, plumbers, HVAC companies, landscapers, electricians, and other Ohio businesses that regularly transport valuable equipment.
How Can You Protect Tools That Travel With You?
Depending on your business and policy, inland marine insurance may be used to protect tools and equipment that move between locations.
The name can be confusing. Inland marine insurance isn’t just for businesses anywhere near the water. It can help insure certain business property that travels with you rather than staying at one permanent location.
For a contractor or tradesperson, that might include:
- Power and hand tools
- Portable machinery
- Testing and diagnostic equipment
- Equipment transported to jobsites
- Specialty tools
- Other eligible mobile business property
Coverage varies by policy. Limits, deductibles, exclusions, valuation methods, theft provisions, and other conditions can all affect how your property is protected.
That’s why simply saying, “I have tools in my truck,” isn’t enough.
Your insurance agent should have a good idea of what you’re carrying and how much it would cost to replace it.
How Much Is Actually in Your Work Truck?
Here’s an easy exercise.
Walk out to your truck or van and imagine you had to replace everything inside it today.
Not just the expensive pieces of equipment. Include all the smaller items you’ve collected over the years:
Drills. Batteries. Chargers. Extension cords. Ladders. Hand tools. Testers. Safety equipment. Materials. Specialty tools.
Individually, some of those items may not seem significant. Together, they could represent thousands—or tens of thousands—of dollars.
Ask yourself:
Could my business comfortably replace all of this tomorrow?
If the answer is no, it’s worth making sure you understand how your insurance would respond.
What About Shelving, Racks and Other Vehicle Upgrades?
The loose tools in your vehicle aren’t the only thing to consider.
Many businesses customize their trucks and vans to make them more useful for the job. You may have added permanent shelving, ladder racks, refrigeration equipment, generators, compressors, lifts, cranes, tool storage systems, or other equipment.
Those upgrades can substantially change the value of your commercial vehicle.
If you’ve made significant modifications since purchasing or insuring your vehicle, your insurance agent should know about them.
You don’t want to discover after a serious claim that the vehicle your insurance company knew about isn’t the same vehicle you’ve invested thousands of dollars upgrading.
Your Tools May Not Always Be in the Truck
Business property can also move around.
Maybe your tools spend Monday in the van, Tuesday at a jobsite, and the weekend in a storage unit. Perhaps you keep extra equipment in a detached garage, trailer, warehouse, rented storage space, or another building.
Where your property is kept can affect how your insurance applies.
That’s another reason it’s important to give your insurance agent a clear picture of how your business actually operates—not just the address of your main office.
If you’ve added a storage location, purchased a trailer, accumulated more equipment, or changed where you keep your business property, it may be time for a coverage review.
Your Business Changes. Your Insurance Should Keep Up.
A contractor might start with one pickup truck and a few thousand dollars in tools.
Five years later, that same business could have multiple vehicles, specialized equipment, trailers, employees, and tens of thousands of dollars in property moving between jobsites.
But if the insurance hasn’t been reviewed along the way, the coverage may not reflect the business as it operates today.
That’s where working with a local independent insurance agency can help.
Let The Agent Insurance Services Review Your Business Insurance
At The Agent Insurance Services, we help Ohio business owners take a closer look at their commercial insurance and understand how their vehicles, tools, equipment, and other business property are protected.
If you operate out of a truck or van, take a few minutes to estimate what it would cost to replace everything you carry.
Then give us a call.
We’ll help review your current commercial insurance, identify questions or potential gaps worth addressing, and shop available insurance options to help you find coverage that fits the way your business operates.
Your work truck gets you to the job. Let’s make sure you’ve thought about protecting what goes to the job with you.
Contact The Agent Insurance Services today to request a commercial insurance review.