Are there holes in your commercial property coverage? If your business assets ever leave your front doors you may have a coverage gap. Luckily, inland marine insurance is there to protect your equipment, inventory, and business assets when they need coverage beyond your physical business address.
What Does Inland Marine Insurance Cover?
Inland marine insurance covers certain types of moveable property, such as a contractor’s tools and equipment that are transported from job site to job site, catering equipment that goes from one event to another, or a trade booth that is shipped around the country from one show to the next.
Inland marine covers:
- Mobile property: tools and/ or equipment that move from site to site
- Property in transit: goods being shipped or transported
- Property that stays in a moveable location: kitchen equipment inside a food truck
- Property deemed to be an “instrument of transportation or communication”: bridges or radio towers
Inland marine insurance covers the assets your business has invested in -- like equipment, inventory, and tools -- regardless of its location, provided it’s within your policy territory.
Who Needs Inland Marine Insurance?
There are many different types of business that face exposure from mobile property that can benefit from the coverage that inland marine provides.
Some of the businesses that can benefit from inland marine include:
- Agriculture and landscaping professionals
- Art galleries
- Bailees in possession of someone else’s property
- Broadcasters
- Caterers
- Contractors and construction professionals
- Data centers
- Dry cleaners
- Food truck owners
- Local internet providers
- Medical equipment sales
- Mobile pet groomers
- Oil and gas servicing
- Pipeline equipment
- Party and special event professionals
- Rental businesses
- Repair/ installation technicians
- Sales persons who carry merchandise
- Technology/ computer equipment
- Tradeshows
- Truckers
- Vending machine manufacturers
- Warehouse and logistics companies
- Wholesalers/ distributors
Customizing Your Coverage
An inland marine policy can be written on a scheduled basis, blanket basis, or a combination of the two. A scheduled policy lists out the specific items to be covered, while a blanket policy offers coverage to all qualifying equipment.
Inland marine coverage can also be written on a named perils or all risk basis. Named perils policies only cover risks specifically listed as covered, such as theft. All risk policies, on the other hand, cover losses from any peril that is not specifically excluded in the policy.
What’s Not Covered by Inland Marine?
Inland marine may cover many different types of mobile property and property in transit in many situations, but it’s not a blanket policy for anything that moves and has some limitations.
Inland marine typically won’t cover:
- Property intentionally damaged
- Items damaged after they’re shipped
- Items that haven’t shipped yet
- Damage to construction sites before construction begins
- Damage to automobiles
To find out if inland marine is the perfect solution to fill the gaps in your commercial property coverage, contact your insurance professional. Inland marine policies vary greatly and can be written in multiple ways to customize your coverage and your insurance professional can help you get a quote specifically tailored to your business needs.
If your business has assets that are on the go, there’s a good chance that inland marine is the right policy for you.