What Insurance Do Toronto Mobile Auto Spas Need?

June 13, 2024 / 5 mins read

Your mobile auto spa goes directly to your customers to clean, polish or restore the interior or exterior of their vehicles. A customized insurance package will protect your Toronto mobile auto spa from financial losses due to third-party (customer or supplier) claims.

When you’re providing your mobile auto detailing services, there’s potential for damage to cars, mishaps, or other incidents that could lead to legal or expensive damage claims against your Toronto mobile auto spa.

If you own a mobile auto detailing business located in Toronto, Greater Toronto Area (GTA) or anywhere in Ontario, your Western Financial Group business insurance expert will give you top-notch commercial insurance advice and ways to save on insurance as a Toronto mobile auto spa owner.

What is insurance for Toronto mobile auto spas and auto detailing businesses?

Insurance for Toronto mobile auto spa owners and mobile auto detailing businesses is a package of insurance coverages that provide financial protection against lawsuits alleging damage to customers’ cars/property or injury, as well protection against reputational harm.

Auto detailing insurance for your Toronto mobile auto spa helps you deal with unexpected accidents or legal issues that irreparably harm your business.

How much does insurance cost for Toronto mobile auto spa businesses?

There isn’t one price to insure a Toronto mobile auto spa detailing businesses.

The following factors are usually considered when determining the cost of your Toronto mobile auto detailing insurance:

Your location(s)
Services you provide
Your equipment
Annual revenues
Number of employees
Any past claims

As a Toronto mobile auto spa operator, here’s how insurance protects you from the risks associated with your business:

While cleaning the exterior of a customer’s vintage car, you accidentally scratch one of its doors. Your commercial general liability (CGL) insurance can help cover repairing the damage to the scratched door.
Your Toronto client list and their credit card information was stolen by cyber thieves. Cyber liability insurance can help you recover financially from a cyber-attack.
Your tools and equipment for your mobile auto spa were stolen from your Toronto business’s storage warehouse. Tools and equipment insurance will help cover the cost to replace them. Any item valued at less than $1,500 is considered a tool. Anything valued above $1,500 is considered equipment.
A client says the chemicals that you used to clean and buff her car, killed some plants and a patch of her lawn. Pollution liability insurance helps cover costs to clean up pollution caused by your auto cleaning work. It can help pay for clean-up costs, civil fines, and any emergency response expenses.

Insurance coverages for Toronto mobile auto spa operators:

Commercial general liability (CGL) insurance: This is necessary liability insurance for Toronto mobile auto detailing businesses. Without commercial general liability insurance, you will pay costs related to third-party injuries or damage out of your own pocket.

If you were sued, commercial general liability insurance would cover the legal costs to defend the claim against your Toronto mobile auto detailing business in court, as well as costs to cover damages to compensate third parties.

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

You should also make sure that any subcontractors you work with have their own CGL insurance. If a subcontractor damages property or causes a third-party injury at a mobile auto spa job, you could be held liable.

Garage liability insurance: This type of insurance provides coverage for damage to a customer’s vehicle while in your care, custody, and control. It’s also designed to compensate your customer if you had to take the vehicle to your auto detailing shop and it gets stolen from those premises.

Tools and equipment insurance: It provides financial protection for any transportable tools or equipment that your Toronto mobile auto spa uses to do work.

Tools and equipment Insurance can provide reimbursement to repair or replace tools if they are lost, damaged, or stolen. Insured events apply to tools and equipment that are vandalized, stolen, lost, or damaged by fire or flood.

Any item valued at less than $1,500 is considered a tool. Anything valued above $1,500 is considered equipment.

Pollution liability insurance: Pollution liability insurance helps cover costs to clean up pollution caused by the work that your Toronto mobile auto spa business does. It can help pay for clean-up costs, civil fines, and emergency response expenses.

Commercial property insurance: Commercial property insurance can provide financial coverage in the case of a fire that destroys or damages your auto detailing office/headquarters and its contents.

Commercial property insurance also protects your Toronto office or place of business and its contents from damage or loss related to severe weather, natural disasters, theft, and vandalism.

Equipment breakdown insurance: It provides coverage for property damage from the sudden and accidental breakdown of insured equipment not automatically covered by a standard commercial property policy. You’ll need to have a list of the equipment at your business and how much it’s worth.

Mobile property insurance: If you regularly move equipment to different work locations as part of your Toronto mobile auto spa detailing business, 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.

Cyber liability insurance: Do you keep client information online and take online payments? If so, your Toronto mobile auto spa business could be hacked by cyberthieves. Cyber liability insurance will help protect you.

Without cyber insurance, you will have to pay out of your pocket for the cost of restoring your computer 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 your Toronto customers affected by a breach.

What do I do if my Toronto mobile auto spa has 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.

Here’s an insurance checklist for your Toronto mobile auto detailing spa:

Do you have the best Toronto business insurance rate that suits your work?
Do you have the right amount for your deductible and regularly review it to make sure it’s the right amount for you?
Are you or your employees using personal vehicles for work?

Ask your Western business insurance expert to help you get the right coverage at the right value to protect your Toronto mobile auto spa business.

Western Financial Group has licensed BUSINESS INSURANCE EXPERTS to get your Toronto mobile auto spa business the right insurance package. Our experts are available now to help you navigate the business insurance journey to protect your mobile auto detailing business.

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