What Toronto Businesses Need Drone Insurance?
Toronto businesses that use drones face the risk of lawsuits due to potential accidents. Drone insurance helps protect companies that use drones and commercial drone operators from having to pay the costs of property damage and bodily injury out of pocket to third parties.
Drone insurance is a type of liability insurance and you will need a separate policy to cover any damages resulting from drone use.
Wherever you are located in Toronto, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), or anywhere in Ontario, your Western Financial Group business insurance broker will get you commercial coverage that uniquely protects your business.
Western is a trusted, national insurance brokerage that has partnered with Canada’s top insurance companies to provide commercial insurance. We work with our insurance partners to find the best coverage for your needs.
We make the process easy by getting insurance quotes for you and giving you policy coverage options that you can choose for your Toronto business’s specific needs.
What is a drone?
The technical name for a drone is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). The term drone is widely used as the term for both of these classifications.
What is drone insurance?
Drone insurance is specialized insurance that protects businesses that use commercial drones.
A drone insurance policy should cover:
- Third-party bodily injuries
- Third-party property damage
- Equipment repairs or replacements
- Medical fees
- Legal expenses
- Court-awarded costs
What Toronto businesses need drone insurance?
If you use a drone commercially, you’ll need a drone insurance policy. Here are some businesses that would need drone insurance:
- Drone services companies
- Surveyors
- Commercial inspectors
- Home inspectors
- Security companies
- Realtors
- Film production
- TV production
- Media and entertainment companies
- Photographers/Videographers
- Special events companies (3Concert producers)
How much does drone insurance cost?
The cost of drone insurance for your Toronto business will be specific to your business and what it does. Typically, your business would have a $1million coverage limit, if not higher.
Liability insurance is an essential part of your commercial insurance package. Here are the liability coverages that you need as a Toronto commercial drone operator to protect you from lawsuits.
What’s in a drone insurance package for Toronto businesses?
Typically, a drone insurance policy will include the following coverages:
Commercial general liability insurance
Drones can malfunction and crash into someone’s property and cause injury. Without commercial general liability insurance, you will pay costs related to third-party (customer/supplier/member of the public) injuries or damage to their property out of your own pocket. You might hear it called commercial drone liability insurance.
If you were sued, commercial general liability insurance would cover the legal costs to defend the claim against your Toronto 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
Drone equipment insurance
Drone equipment insurance provides financial coverage to repair or replace drones your Toronto business owns. If your drone gets damaged in the course of work, this type of insurance can provide some financial coverage to repair or replace the drone.
Professional liability insurance
Professional liability insurance helps protect Toronto businesses that use drones from claims of negligence when they are performing their duties. It’s also called errors and omissions insurance.
In the case of a negligence claim, for example, a commercial drone operator with E & O insurance would have the policy pay for some or all of the claim costs.
This type of insurance would help pay for legal expenses should your drone fail to capture a specific area when flying over a land mass and your client sues you for the mistake.
What other insurance coverages do you need as a Toronto drone operator?
Cyber liability insurance
You keep sensitive financial information and data belonging to your clients and your Toronto drone business could be hacked by cyberthieves. Cyber liability insurance will help protect your firm financially should there be a cyber-attack.
Depending on the size of the data breach and the information that was taken, the customers who are affected can hold you liable and sue you for damages.
Commercial property insurance
Commercial property insurance provides financial support to replace or cover repairs to your Toronto drone business if it is damaged by a flood, fire, or severe weather. It also covers vandalism and theft.
Commercial property insurance also covers the firm’s contents such as computers, furniture, tools, equipment, and inventory. Commercial property coverage also extends to protect others’ property that is under your care.
Business interruption insurance
This type of insurance supports you when your Toronto business operate due to a covered loss.
There are a number of losses that can force your firm to shut down. Some examples are:
- Damage to your equipment from fire or vandalism
- A major reduction in revenue due to a client/supplier facing losses of their own
- A disruption in your supply chain
Business interruption insurance can help with these expenses:
- Payroll
- Rent
- Utilities
- Property taxes
- Alarm monitoring
- Relocation of your business
Commercial auto insurance
Note that if you are using your car for your job as a commercial drone operator, it won’t be covered by your personal car insurance policy. You will need commercial coverage as part of your insurance package.
What do I do if I have a claim against my Toronto drone business?
- 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:
- 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?
Western Financial Group has licensed BUSINESS INSURANCE EXPERTS to get you the right insurance coverage as a Toronto commercial drone operator. Our experts are available now to help you navigate the business insurance journey to protect your Toronto business.
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