Are you looking for a way to protect your transportable business property financially? If yes, then inland marine insurance should be the best option for you. Inland marine coverage protects your business from any kind of damage or loss to machinery, equipment, products, or other property transported by land.
The coverage outspreads to property that is owned or in a business’ care connected to transportation, construction, fine art, and renewable energy. Inland marine is a branch of ocean marine coverage that covers property transported by sea. In this article, you will learn all that you need to know about inland marine coverage .
What is inland marine insurance?
Inland Marine Insurance is an insurance company that provides coverage for movable products, materials, or equipment. This include those used for transportation or communication. This type of policy also protects property owned by someone else that is stored at the policyholder’s location.
How Does Inland Marine Insurance Work?
In contrast to standard business property insurance, Inland Marine insurance fills the gaps in safety for your tangible assets. Property insurance only covers assets stored at your main business site and more than 500 feet away. It does not protect property stored beyond that distance or property that is being transported between business sites.
What Does Inland Marine Insurance Cover?
Inland marine coverage can assist in covering items that are usually excluded by standard property coverage, including high-value items. This coverage assists in paying for the repair or replacement of covered property that is damaged due to covered events. This is include theft, hail, fire, wind, or water damage. It may also protect from damage or loss caused by accidents, mishandling, or even missing property due to unknown reasons. Below are the lists of what inland marine coverage covers, and they are as follows:
- Solar panels and wind turbines.
- Property that moves or will be moved between locations.
- Bridges and radio towers.
- Electronics.
- Party and special event equipment.
- Property that is being transported.
- Fine art and collectibles.
- Medical diagnostic equipment.
- Computer, video, television, sound, or radio equipment.
- Trade show exhibits.
- Miscellaneous property.
The lists above are what inland marine insurance covers. As it has what it covers, it also has what it does not cover, which will be reviewed in the next unit.
What Inland Marine Insurance Doesn’t Cover
Inland marine policies can vary in their coverage, often excluding damage caused by insects, wear and tear, mold, floods, and earthquakes. They may also exclude vehicles, stationary property including desks and cabinets, property shipped by sea or air, and property damage that happens before an item is shipped.
- Your business vehicles.
- Property damage that happens before shipment.
- Damage from floods and earthquakes.
- Stationary property at your main location.
- Property shipped by sea or by air.
The lists above are things inland marine does not have coverage for.
Special Types of Inland Marine Insurance
There are different types of inland marine insurance policies, designed to cover specific types of property. The lists below are some examples:
Electronic Data Processing (EDP) insurance
This policy covers damage or loss to equipment used to process or store data, including tablets, desktop computers, laptops, and mainframes. It protects against a range of perils, including theft, fire, floods, and electrical disturbances.
Accounts Receivable insurance
This policy protects your business against financial losses that are caused by damage or destruction of your accounts receivable records due to a covered peril or your customers’ failure to pay invoices.
Contractor’s Equipment Insurance
This policy covers the loss, damage, or theft of a contractor’s equipment or tools, regardless of where the loss happens, e.g., at the contractor’s business premises, at a job site, or while in transit.
Builder’s risk insurance
This policy protects contractors from theft, damage, or destruction by a covered peril of materials, equipment, or provisions while in transit or awaiting installation at a job site.
Bailee insurance
This policy covers your business’s liability for damage to customers’ property that is in your care for repair, service, or storage. It is mainly applicable to businesses like dry cleaners, computer repair services, and pet boarding operators, where the business is acting as a custodian of someone else’s property.
Please note that, because inland marine insurance covers property that moves from one place to the other, it is frequently called a floater policy.
How much does inland marine insurance cost?
Inland marine insurance costs vary depending on the type of property being insured. The cost of insurance can be influenced by a lot of factors, like business size, type of business and property insured, coverage limits, and how often, how far, and in what conditions the property is transported.
Generally, all-risk policies that cover a variety of types of damage are more expensive than named perils policies that cover only particular types of damage stated in the policy. The best way to guess the cost of your inland marine insurance is to obtain quotes from different insurance providers and compare them.
