How Insurance Protects Your RV Repair Businesses
Your customers are passionate RVers. They count on you for servicing and repairs so that they can get out on the road.
What if something unexpected happens while a customer is at your RV repair shop? What if their recreational vehicle is damaged? When you get an RV insurance package you can confidently operate your recreational vehicle repair business.
Is your RV repair business in Uxbridge, Caledon, Milton, Mississauga, Vaughan, Orangeville, or other cities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Are you located in Oshawa, Hamilton, Barrie, Kitchener-Waterloo or St-Catharines-Niagara?
Your Western business insurance expert will give you top-notch advice and ways to save on a customized RV repair insurance package to protect you and your business.
What kind of RV insurance package do I need?
Without the right package of insurance for RV repair shops, you’d need to pay out of your own pocket to cover any mishaps or lawsuits, which could put your business at financial risk.
Go over the types of coverages you need in detail with your Western business insurance expert to make sure your Ontario RV repair business is covered for the risks that you face.
A recreational vehicle (RV) can be a motor home, fifth wheel trailer, camper van, tent trailer, or any other type of mobile vehicle used as a temporary living place. Tell us about your RV repair business.
Your RV repair package helps protect you from these 3 claims:
1. A customer is walking through your RV garage and slips and falls on a wet floor, injuring their back. The customer files a personal injury lawsuit against your business. Commercial General Liability Insurance, also known as slip and fall insurance, could help cover the medical expenses and legal fees.
2. An employee is test driving a customer’s RV after a repair but gets into an accident causing damage to the vehicle. Your Garage Keepers Insurance protects your RV shop in case a customer’s property is damaged while in your possession.
3. A thief breaks into your RV repair business and steals a large quantity of tools. Your tools and equipment insurance will help cover the costs to replace your stolen tools.
How much will my RV insurance package cost?
Here are factors that will influence the cost of your RV business insurance:
- Years of experience
- Annual revenue
- Number of employees
- Past claims
Here’s an insurance check list for your RV repair business:
- Do you have the best business insurance rate for your business?
- Do you have the right amount for your deductible and regularly review to make sure it’s the right amount for your business?
- Is your number of employees up to date?
- Are you using your personal car for business purposes?
At Western, we will save you time and money by doing the insurance shopping for you to find the right RV insurance package that suits your business at the right value for you.
What’s included in my RV insurance package?
Commercial General Liability Insurance (CGL): This type of insurance protects your RV repair business against common claims like third-party property damage (damage to a customer’s RV) or bodily injuries if a customer visiting your RV repair shop slips, falls, and is injured. CGL may cover a customer’s medical expenses and your legal fees, regardless of the outcome of a lawsuit you face.
CGL is probably the most important insurance coverage for your recreational vehicle repair business. Without this type of insurance, you may have to pay out-of-pocket for legal claims against your business and any property damage that occurs.
An RV business owner can carry at least $2 million in CGL coverage or more, depending on the size of your shop and the work it does.
Give your Western business insurance expert all the details about your Ontario RV repair business so that you get the right amount of CGL coverage to protect it.
Equipment Breakdown Insurance: Your Ontario RV shop can have expensive equipment for your work.
Equipment breakdown insurance provides coverage for property damage from the sudden and accidental breakdown of insured equipment not automatically covered by a standard commercial property policy.
Tools and Equipment Insurance: This type of insurance may pay to replace or repair your lost, stolen, or damaged equipment and tools that you regularly at your RV repair shop.
Anything valued at less than $1,500 is considered a tool and anything above that amount is considered equipment.
Professional Liability: This type of coverage 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 recreational vehicle.
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.
Commercial Property Insurance: Commercial property insurance can help keep you protected from property losses, such as theft or vandalism.
You may want to add earthquake insurance, sewer backup, or flood coverage extensions.
You’ll need to do an inventory of all your business property to determine how much commercial property insurance you will need.
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Property you may need to insure:
- Buildings and other structures
- Furniture, equipment, supplies
- Inventory, computers
- Documents such as payroll, accounts receivable
Business Interruption Insurance: You may want to consider adding business interruption insurance to your RV business insurance package. It can mean the difference between reopening your businesses or closing shop permanently.
Here are some examples to show you how business interruption insurance can help you: A sudden fire at your RV shop could knock out your power. Vandals could damage your RV shop, requiring major repairs. A tree could fall on your roof causing it to collapse.
As a result, your income may be stopped or reduced while you take care of repairs, your bills, payroll, and other ongoing business expenses.
If there is an insured loss at your Ontario RV business that’s severe enough to prevent your RV business from being open, the expenses associated with getting your business running again will be covered.
Of note: This type of insurance usually covers vandalism, fire, wind, flooding, and other risks (Make sure to understand what your policy covers).
Cyber Liability Insurance: You have your customers’ names, addresses and credit card information. What if your computer system is hacked and cybercriminals steal this information and then clone it and sell it on the dark web?
Without cyber insurance, you will have to pay out of your pocket for the cost of restoring your system. You may also be liable for damages to third parties whose information has been stolen and you may have to pay for notification expenses to inform customers affected by a breach.
Ask your Western business insurance expert how cyber insurance can protect your Ontario RV business as part of your as part of your RV insurance package.
Pollution Liability Insurance: Are you using any toxic substances?
Pollution liability insurance covers clean-up costs, third-party bodily injuries (such as a respiratory illness), or damage to a customer’s RV caused by pollution or toxic substances you use to do your work.
Commercial Crime Insurance: Employees can sometimes be thieves. This type of insurance protects you against theft by employees, including any losses resulting from forgery or fraud. It can be purchased as a standalone policy, or it can be added to your existing CGL policy.
Commercial Auto Insurance: If you have a business car or RV that you use for your RV repair business, it won’t be covered by your personal car insurance policy.
You will need commercial coverage as part of your recreational vehicle insurance package.
Garage Keepers Insurance: This coverage protects your RV shop in case a customer’s property is damaged while in your possession.
It protects your shop while your customers’ RVs are kept at your garage for maintenance or services, or storage and parking in the event of fire, theft, vandalism, explosion, or lightning. It reimburses customers should your RV business be legally liable for damage to their vehicles.
Garage Liability Insurance: Garage liability insurance helps protect your RV repair business in the case of property damage to your customers’ RVs and bodily injury resulting from operations.
For example, it covers damages to a customer’s RV due to an accident when one of your employees was test driving 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 RV shop. It adds a layer of protection to your garage’s commercial general liability policy. Coverage includes bodily injury and property damage from direct garage operations, not covered under most commercial or business liability insurance.
Ask your Western business insurance expert to go over the differences in Garage Keepers, Garage Liability and Commercial General Liability Insurance to help you understand how they can protect your recreational vehicle repair.
What do I do if I have an insurance claim?
- Contact your broker immediately after any business-related mishap. Waiting to file a claim can confuse insurers about the severity of the damages to your business.
- Know your policy so that when you contact your broker you are familiar with what will be covered or not.
- Document the damage. Take photos right away and write down what happened.
- Do not throw away damaged goods after taking photos. Keep the physical evidence so that your adjustor can see it.
- Do not invite lawsuits. Don’t say anything that could be used against you, especially if you aren’t sure what happened.
- Be honest about what your damaged property is worth. Damaged commercial property is generally valued according to its actual cash value or replacement value.
Western Insurance has licensed BUSINESS INSURANCE EXPERTS to get you the right insurance package if you have an RV repair business. Our experts are available now to help you navigate the business insurance journey to protect you and your recreational vehicle repair business.
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