Are My Tools
Covered in My Truck?
Usually not, by either policy you are thinking of. Commercial auto insures the truck, not what is in it, and your property policy stops 100 feet from the yard and specifically excludes property in a vehicle.
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The longer answer
With the sources, so you can check us.
The property form draws a hard line
The standard form covers business personal property “located in or on the building or structure described in the Declarations or in the open (or in a vehicle) within 100 feet” of it. Past that, you are on an extension.
And the extension is small and carved out
The off-premises extension states “the most we will pay for loss or damage under this Extension is $10,000,” and that it “does not apply to property: (a) In or on a vehicle.” For a trade that keeps every tool on a truck, that removes most of the point.
Auto physical damage insures the vehicle
The truck is the covered property. The pumps, hoses, reels and inspection cameras riding in it are contents, not the covered auto. Neither policy is wrong; they simply stop short of the same equipment.
Which is what inland marine is for
A contractors equipment floater covers machinery and tools wherever they are, including rented and borrowed equipment where that coverage has been elected. Note it is usually optional rather than automatic.
Sources: ISO CP 00 10 10 12 (Building and Personal Property Coverage Form), IRMI, inland marine coverage
What this means for your business
- The standard form covers business personal property “located in or on the building or structure described in the Declarations or in the open (or in a vehicle) within 100 feet” of it. Past that, you are on an extension.
- The off-premises extension states “the most we will pay for loss or damage under this Extension is $10,000,” and that it “does not apply to property: (a) In or on a vehicle.” For a trade that keeps every tool on a truck, that removes most of the point.
- The truck is the covered property. The pumps, hoses, reels and inspection cameras riding in it are contents, not the covered auto. Neither policy is wrong; they simply stop short of the same equipment.
- A contractors equipment floater covers machinery and tools wherever they are, including rented and borrowed equipment where that coverage has been elected. Note it is usually optional rather than automatic.
Answered by Septic Cleaning Insurance Group
We only write this trade, and we read the policy before we sell it. More on the operations we insure and the coverage behind them.
Straight answers, no insurance-speak
Only if that coverage was elected, because rented or leased equipment is an optional coverage with its own declared limit. Meanwhile the rental contract has usually already transferred the entire risk of loss to you on delivery.
No, and those waivers say so in their own terms. A waiver limits what the dealer will pursue you for, usually with a deductible. It does nothing for equipment you own or for your liability.
Actual cash value is the default and pays depreciated value, which on a ten-year-old vacuum pump can be far below what a replacement costs. Replacement cost is available when selected, typically paid only after you actually replace the item.
Possibly not. These answers describe standard forms and common rules; your policy may carry endorsements that change the result either way. Send the declarations and endorsement schedule and we will tell you what your form does.
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Send the declarations and endorsements. We will tell you what your form does, not what a standard form does.
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