With British Summer Time officially declared at the start of April, the UK is gearing up for the festival season. Be it the serpentine queues for loos at Glastonbury, straw hats and strawberries at Wimbledon or the summer Grand Prix at Silverstone, all these events require specialised solutions in logistics, food and drink. And importantly, insurance too.
As the sun shines and owner operators begin dusting off their transport and equipment, it’s worth noting that anyone involved in logistics and catering requires specialist vehicle insurance. And it’s a growing market too. For example, according to a report by MCA Insight, the UK street food market alone reached £1.2bn this year, up 9.1% from 2017, with farmers and food markets fast becoming a fixture in most UK towns and cities during the summer months.
Burger Van Insurance
Whether you serve hot dogs to festival goers or posh gourmet burgers at a racecourse, you’ll need the correct mobile catering van insurance to cover business risks. As your van remains an on-road motor vehicle, you’ll need motor insurance, usually comprehensive, third party fire and theft or third party only. This covers you in exactly the same way as a normal car policy if you have an accident or if the vehicle is stolen.
In addition to your normal vehicle insurance, you may also need public liability insurance. This covers you against legal costs and injury compensation claims for injury to the public or for property damage as a result of your negligence.
Remember that ordinary on location vehicle insurance won’t cover hot food vans because the truck is carrying materials such as flammable gas bottles, griddles, fridges and microwaves on board. It’s therefore imperative that you get the right type of vehicle insurance that is specifically intended for catering vehicles. You will also need to check that your licence is in the correct category too, as your food truck could be in the HGV category.
You can then bolt on the other business cover you might need, including employers’ liability insurance, stock insurance and legal expenses insurance for extra surety.
Tradex’s on location catering van insurance policy is designed for all types of catering vans, whether static, mobile or seasonal. It can cover your liabilities and your equipment including any produce you keep in the van. It offers cover whether you are just using your vehicle on a film set or at a stadium, or you're running a pop-up cafe. Tradex also arranges cover for new ventures and adapted vehicles and can offer group policies for other vehicles you have, including personally owned ones and those you use to deliver catering trailers.
Food Trailers Insurance
In recent years there has been an ever-growing trend in catering trailers. These are specially built or adapted trailers (often old horse boxes) designed and repurposed to be used as pop-up kitchens or shops. Towed trailer insurance protects you against the cost of any damage you may cause to property or members of the public while towing a catering trailer, both on the road and on private land and may also cover those valuable fixtures & fittings.
Other things to consider are:
- Stock cover – to safeguard against the cost of replacing those posh burgers in the event of a fridge malfunction
- Cash protection – to cover the cost of any potential losses through theft
- Legal protection – to cover you against legal costs
Tradex has devised a special policy for on location vehicles insurance which suitable for film crew gang carriers, catering vehicles, converted coaches, mobile toilets, generators and ‘film star’ mobile homes. You can be covered for liability risks, road risks and contents, or you can simply dovetail the insurance policy onto another contract for road risk only cover.