Congratulations…you just landed a great opportunity to serve food at a large office building lot, college campus, festival or movie studio. In the beginning, they may have asked if you had insurance and of course you said yes.

You put a ton of work into planning, organizing and promoting…then they say “oh by the way…here are our insurance requirements”.  Suddenly you see the nitty gritty details of what they consider “adequate” insurance to serve food at their property/event.

Too often I see building management or property owners using the same contract for a general contractor as they would for a food truck. A food truck should not be required to purchase $1,000+ of extra premium for an event they are profiting $1,000 on. I get it, the location/venue/event is protecting themselves. However, don’t hand a food truck the same contract as you would a plumbing/electrical/etc contractor.

So I advise all of you food trucks out there to get the insurance requirements up front before you are knee deep in the process. Also don’t be afraid to negotiate some the of coverages and limits down.

Good luck out there!

Matt Carlson is an Insurance Broker at Risk Strategies Company (RSC) and specializes in insurance and risk management solutions for food trucks/catering trucks and restaurants across the United States. He is a foodie and second generation commercial insurance broker. He provides his clients with General Liability, Auto, Workers’ Compensation and other coverages. Matt currently insures over 30+ food trucks across the country. Some of his more notable clients are Kogi BBQ and the Grilled Cheese Truck. Visit www.cateringtruckinsurance.com to download a quote application. You can also go to www.risk-strategies.com to learn more about the Top 100 national insurance broker he represents.