How to Insure a Mobile Mechanic
You’ve taken your skills and garage equipment on the road to fix your customers’ vehicles. Before you start offering your services, you’ll need to know that business liability insurance is a key part of your mobile mechanics insurance package. Why? It protects you financially from lawsuits.
As a mobile mechanic, you’ll need a customized insurance policy that covers you, your business, your customers’ vehicles, and any legal claims made against you.
Western Financial Group, a 100% Canadian company, can help you navigate your car, home, and business insurance during this period of economic uncertainty.
What is insurance for mobile mechanics?
Insurance for mobile mechanics protects mechanics who don’t operate from a fixed location, like a garage or workshop, and instead visit their clients’ homes and workplaces to work on their cars.
What mobile mechanics should consider when getting insurance
- Insurance that covers customers’ vehicles when test driving them
- Business liability coverage should you be sued
- Insurance that covers your equipment and tools
- Adequate insurance to cover your van/vehicle carrying your tools and equipment
How much does insurance for mobile mechanics cost?
There isn’t a set price to insure a mobile mechanic.
The following factors are usually considered when determining the cost of your business insurance:
- Areas that you serve
- Services provided
- Number of employees
- Years of experience
- Annual revenue
- Any past claims
Liability insurance is an essential part of your mobile mechanic insurance package. Here are the liability coverages that you need to help protect your business from lawsuits.
Commercial general liability (CGL) insurance
This is necessary liability insurance for mobile mechanics. Without commercial general liability insurance, you will pay costs related to third-party (customer/supplier) injuries or damage to their property out of your own pocket.
If you were sued, commercial general liability insurance would cover the legal costs to defend the claim against your mobile mechanic business in court, as well as costs to cover damages to compensate third parties whether you win or lose your case.
What kind of risks does commercial general liability insurance cover?
- Injury to a third party who is not your employee
- Damage to someone’s property
- Damage to rented property
- Medical bills if someone is injured
- Legal costs and settlement costs of liability lawsuits filed against you
- Liability lawsuits related to slander and libel
Cyber liability insurance
Do you keep client information online and take online payments? If so, your mobile mechanic business could be hacked by cyber thieves. Cyber liability insurance will help protect you.
Professional liability (Errors and Omissions insurance)
Professional liability insurance protects you against claims from your customers that allege negligence, misconduct, and failure to deliver services as promised. For example, it can help protect you against an error in repairing or servicing a vehicle as a mobile mechanic.
If you don’t have this type of insurance coverage you will be paying out of pocket for a lawyer, court fees and other related expenses.
Other recommended insurance for mobile mechanics
Garage liability insurance
Garage liability insurance helps protect your mobile mechanic business in case of property damage to your customers’ vehicles and third-party bodily injury resulting from its operations.
It covers damage to a customer’s vehicle due to an accident when you or one of your employees test drives a vehicle following a repair.
Garage liability insurance is a type of umbrella policy that provides coverage for the day-to-day operations of your mobile mechanic business. It adds a layer of protection to your commercial general liability (CGL) policy. Coverage includes bodily injury and property damage from direct operations, not covered under most commercial or business liability insurance.
Garage keepers insurance
This type of insurance covers damage to vehicles you are working on that you do not own. Garage liability insurance does not cover this so you need to have adequate garage-keepers coverage. If you are working on a customer’s vehicle and an accident occurs that causes physical damage to the car, your garage-keepers insurance will cover it.
Tools and equipment insurance
Tools and equipment insurance replaces or repairs damaged, stolen, or lost equipment and tools, accessories, or other property that you use in your work as a mobile mechanic.
Anything valued at less than $1,500 is considered a tool and anything above that limit is considered equipment.
Mobile property insurance
If you regularly move equipment to different work locations as part of your work, mobile property insurance provides coverage for property that you don't store at a fixed location, or for equipment routinely taken off site.
Mobile property insurance covers transit. It also covers theft that could happen due to property not being stored in a secure location, as opposed to commercial property insurance that covers property generally expected to be in a designated location.
Commercial property insurance
Commercial property insurance protects your mobile mechanic’s office or headquarters and its contents from damage or loss related to severe weather, natural disasters, theft, and vandalism.
Property you may need to insure as a mobile mechanic:
- Buildings and other structures
- Furniture, equipment, supplies
- Inventory, computers
- Documents such as payroll, accounts receivable
Pollution liability insurance
Pollution liability insurance covers clean-up costs, third-party bodily injuries (such as respiratory illness), or damage to a customer’s vehicle caused by pollution or toxic substances you use to do your work.
Why choose Western Financial Group?
- Made in Canada!
- Get the best car, home, and business insurance
- Personalized coverage to meet your needs
- Trusted advice
