Lawn Care Equipment

I am often asked by landscapers about the importance of equipment floater insurance. Why can landscape equipment not be covered by regular property insurance or other insurance?

Here are three facts to consider about your business operations:

• 1. Lawn Mowers and other equipment travel to the properties of multiple clients each day.
• 2. This equipment therefore has a higher risk of not only theft but other causes of loss and damage.
• 3. This equipment also includes some of the most valuable assets of your landscaping and lawn care business.

There are many insurance implications to this information.

A typical property insurance policy will only cover your equipment while it is in your office building or other place of storage. A commercial auto policy may cover damage to your trailers, but it will not protect your equipment while on the trailer. To protect this equipment with insurance, a policy needs to be written and rated to cover valuable items while away from the premises of a building.

Equipment floater insurance is a type of inland marine insurance. It is specifically designed to cover your landscape equipment and tools while located anywhere in the broad coverage territory. Virtually any type of mobile articles, tools, machinery, and equipment (other than motor vehicles designed for highway use) can be insured under an equipment floater.

The price of equipment floater insurance is a good value for your business with annual premium rates ranging from one to four percent of the total value of the insured equipment. Some insurance carriers also provide discounts when this coverage is packaged into one insurance policy with general liability or commercial auto coverages. Other premium discounts may be available for safe storage techniques, theft deterrent systems, claims history, and equipment maintenance procedures.

Due to all of the equipment floater insurance questions we are receiving, I plan on writing more articles on this topic in the upcoming months. If you have any specific questions about the coverage, please feel free to contact me directly or one of the other insurance agents at our office. We are also available to offer comparative insurance quotes to lawn care and landscaping businesses in Florida.

The Agent Articles section of BearWiseLandscapers.com allows our insurance agents to provide practical information for landscapers. These agents can also obtain quotes and establish a custom insurance program for your landscaping business through our access to a variety of insurance carriers. This agent article is filed under 3 Equipment Floater, and you can follow comments to it through the RSS 2.0 feed. Feel free to leave your own response below: