Insurance for snow plow businesses is very important. If you own and operate a snow plow, you want to make sure you have the correct insurance. I am going to go over a couple basic ideas for snow plow businesses.
If you have a snow plow business, there are basically two ways we can operate. One of them is, I have a snow plow on my vehicle, I only plow for myself and my own properties and I’m not plowing for anybody else for money.
Under your typical commercial auto policy and a lot of times under a personal auto policy you do not need to do anything or add any coverage. Your liability is going to extend to your vehicle as long as you’re not plowing for money.
Let’s talk about the snow plow business that is plowing for money and going out and doing jobs for hire and for other people.
Very important, your personal auto policy most likely is going to exclude those types of activities. You are going to want to have a commercial policy that covers you for snow plowing operations.
There are a couple ends to it. We want to cover the truck for liability in case you injure somebody or damage someone’s property. This is the most important part of the policy for a snow plow company.
If you damage other property or injure somebody your liability is going to pick that up. Make sure you care carrying enough liability coverage. A good independent agent can help you figure out how much coverage you need.
The next thing is, do you need coverage for the truck and the plow itself? If it’s a newer vehicle and a newer plow setup those can get very expensive to replace. So if they are damaged or stolen you want to make sure that the insurance company would reimburse you for that.
That coverage would come under physical damage coverage. It is also sometimes separated out as collision and comprehensive coverage under the auto policy.
Talk with your agent about that. It’s usually based on the value of the equipment and the truck. But very important, if you want coverage for that you have to request that.
The other thing with this is hired and non-owned auto coverage. If you have a snow plow business and there are other people out plowing for you on your behalf using their own trucks, make sure you add a coverage called Hired. That is for vehicles that you hire and non-owned vehicles. That is for vehicles that you do not own that the liability from your policy extends to the operations for people that you hire.
Being from Wisconsin, we are very familiar with snow plow insurance. If you need help in covering your plow operations many times it is a landscape operation and then in winter they plow. We are very familiar with these types of operations, and we can help you with your coverage. Talk to a good independent agent. They can also help you as well.
