Food Truck Business Insurance

Food truck business insurance is a set of policies designed to cover the risks of operating a mobile food business. It can help protect the vehicle you drive, the cooking equipment that keeps service running, the customers who order at your window and the employees who work alongside you.

For a food truck, the common risks it can financially protect you from include:

• Grease fires and burns from open-flame cooking in a confined truck or trailer kitchen
• Customer injuries around your service window, where crowds gather on uneven pavement or near traffic
• At-fault accidents while driving your truck or towing a trailer between locations
• Theft or vandalism of your truck overnight at a commissary lot or street parking
• Equipment breakdown: a failed generator or faulty fryer that forces you to close for the day
• Employee injuries from lifting, burns or heat exhaustion in a compact, high-temperature mobile kitchen

Food truck insurance requirements vary by state, city and contract. Commercial auto insurance is usually the first legal requirement because driving a vehicle is a part of the operation. Once you hire your first employee, you'll also likely need workers’ compensation in most states, but this depends on your location.

General liability insurance is not always required by state law, but it is often required by venues, festivals, farmers' markets, commissary kitchens or private clients. These groups may also require a certificate of insurance, an additional insured endorsement or specific liability limits before allowing your truck to operate on-site.

Before buying coverage, check the requirements for your state, city, event, venue or commissary kitchen.

The types of food truck insurance you should get depend on how your business operates. A food truck that drives daily, has employees and works large events will need a broader coverage bundle than a part-time food cart or weekend pop-up vendor. So, at the end of the day, your coverage needs are tied to the actual risks you face based on how you operate.

To give you a one-to-one connection between your most likely risks to consider and the coverage that solves for them, I've broken it down in the table below:

Some food truck businesses may also need additional coverage. For example, a truck that serves alcohol will likely need liquor liability insurance, and if you serve out of a trailer, you may need specific trailer coverage and commercial auto coverage for the towing vehicle. You may also need food spoilage coverage if you want to fill gaps related to business interruptions caused by inventory loss.

Food truck business insurance costs on average for a typical startup bundle, including general liability and commercial auto insurance, are $406 a month or $4,862 per year without considering bundling discounts. However, this is only a national benchmark, and pricing will vary based on your vehicle's details and your company's revenue, payroll, number of employees, claims history and operating location/s. You may also need more coverage types depending on your operation and how it develops, further increasing costs.

To give you a basis point at the coverage level while you compare quotes, I've provided costs by policy below:

• General Liability: $147 monthly ($1,759 annually)
• Commercial Auto: $259 monthly per vehicle ($3,103 annually per vehicle)
• Workers' Comp: $34 monthly per employee ($408 annually per employee)
• Commercial Property: $37 monthly ($439 annually)
• Cyber Insurance: $77 monthly ($929 annually)

I have also provided a business insurance calculator below for food truck insurance costs to provide a more specific estimate.

Use the scenarios below to decide whether you need to check requirements, compare costs, review coverage types or get matched with providers.

MoneyGeek can match you to the insurer that best fits your food truck's business insurance needs. Once you're matched, you can get quotes directly on their website, all in under 10 minutes.