Vending Machine Insurance: Cost, Liability & Quotes

Despite their simplicity, vending machines are susceptible to risks exactly like other businesses. They can be broken into, stolen, or, worse, damaged. As a vending machine business owner, every day sees you contending with an endless to-do list, from buying goods to maintaining your machines and managing your employees. Insuring your vending machine business protects it from these risks and leaving you with peace of mind, no matter what happens. In this guide, you will learn what vending machine insurance is, its different coverage types, how much it costs, what are the best companies that offer it, and more. So keep on reading, because you are going to benefit from it.

Why You Need Vending Machine Operators Insurance

Risks haunt vending machine operators like you. Here are some examples:

• A vending machine could injure a customer
• Your snacks, candy, or drinks could expire and result in food poisoning
• Your business location may experience a power outage, causing a loss of perishable foods
• A worker could get injured while fixing one of your vending machines
• Your vending machine could get stolen or damaged

These risks will result in extra expenses and lost income. This is why you need to get different kinds of vending machine operators insurance. 

Vending Machine Insurance Coverage Types

Your vending machine business will find these vending machine covers useful:

• General liability insurance with products liability coverage
• Cyber liability insurance
• Commercial property insurance
• Commercial auto insurance
• Umbrella liability insurance
• Property in transit insurance
• Business owner’s policy

Type of Insurance	Coverage	Scenario
General Liability Insurance	Covers third-party claims of bodily injury or property damage, as well as advertising and personal injury.	A customer gets injured when a vending machine tips over due to improper installation.
Commercial Property Insurance	Covers physical damage or loss of the vending machine due to events such as theft, vandalism, fire, or natural disasters.	An airport vending machine is vandalized by passengers ahead of boarding, resulting in damage to its exterior and internal parts.
Product Liability Insurance	Protects against claims arising from defective or contaminated products sold through the vending machine.	A customer purchases a drink from the machine and experiences food poisoning due to improper storage temperatures or expiration.
Business Interruption Insurance	Compensates for lost income if business operations are disrupted or the vending machine is shut down for any reason.	A fire damages the vending machine’s location, making it impossible to operate for several weeks.
Workers’ Compensation Insurance	Covers medical expenses and lost wages for employees injured while servicing or operating vending machines.	An employee suffers a back injury while lifting a heavy vending machine for relocation or while trying to load the vending with products
Commercial Auto Insurance	Covers vehicles used to transport vending machines or products.	A delivery van carrying vending machine supplies is involved in an accident, causing damage to the vehicle.
Cyber Liability Insurance	Protects against data breaches or hacking attempts on machines with digital payment systems.	Hackers breach the payment system of a vending machine, stealing customer credit card information.

Vending Machine Liability Insurance (GL)

General liability insurance is the most basic requirement to cover your vending machine business. Vending machine liability insurance is important for safeguarding your business from several claim-related risks, which are as follows:

Bodily Injury: General Liability will cover your vending machine business from any bodily damage caused to others as a result of your vending machine business operation. This includes, for example, when a customer attempts to rock a jammed vending machine and it falls altogether on him/her and injures them, GL will cover its related expenses should the customer decides to file a lawsuit against your business.

Property Damage: General liability insurance for vending machines will cover any damage to a third party business which your vending machine business or operation has legal liability for. This can include damage caused by your products or employees. For example, if one of your employees visits your product supplier’s warehouse and accidentally causes damage to some valuable item.

Advertising and Personal Injury: General liability insurance for vending machines will also cover you from certain advertising related lawsuits and claims, such as false or misleading statements, privacy infringements and copyright infringements.

These and similar claims can be addressed by liability insurance which also compensates for the legal expenses and settlements emerging from such claims.

In connection, general liability insurance for vending machines also takes care of the following costs on your behalf:

• Medical payments
• Settlements
• Defense costs such as attorney fees, investigation fees, and administrative costs.

Cyber Liability Insurance

 With most vending machines facilitating digital payments through apps or independent systems, the use of smartphones and other devices is expected to increase, which may also expose customers to cyber risks.

Cyber Liability Insurance is necessary because it protects against data breaches and cyber-attacks that could risk the implementation of any customer data.

Cyber liability insurance for vending machine businesses typically offers $1 million-$2 million coverage. You can use this to cover:

• Public relations costs for informing affected parties of the breach
• Expenses for professional help needed to contain the breach
• Lost income if you need to pause the operations of your vending machine business because of the breach
• Defense costs and settlements if affected customers sue you for the breach

Commercial Auto Insurance for Vending Machine Business

Does your business operation use vehicles to transport business stock, goods, or workers? In this case, getting commercial auto insurance is a smart choice.

Commercial auto insurance includes coverages like auto liability, physical damage, and personal accident.

Auto liability insurance for vending machine business: It will help you pay third-party bodily injuries or property damage if you cause an accident while driving to the location where your vending machines are installed.

Personal accident coverage: It will help pay for emergency medical treatment and hospital bills if you get injured after the accident. If you have passengers, then this policy will cover them too.

Hired & non-owned auto insurance will cover indemnification, settlement, and defense costs if a vehicle you borrowed or hired causes an accident. 

Commercial Property Insurance for Vending Machine Businesses

Commercial property insurance protects the properties integral to the operation of your vending machine business. In addition it provides $10,000-$165,000 minimum building coverage for vending machine businesses. Contents coverage, on the other hand, is $5,000-$60,000. 

The building coverage of commercial property insurance recovers financial losses if the office of your vending machine business becomes damaged or lost because of:

• Fire
• Theft
• Vandalism
• Malicious mischief
• Riot
•  Sprinkler leakage
• Lightning
• Weather
• Volcanic action
• Impact
• Aircraft

Vending machine cost anywhere from $1,000 for a used machine to over $20,000 for specialized machines. The goods stored within a vending machine may cost anywhere from $200 to $1,000 and more, depending on what you’re selling in it, so having commercial property insurance is a smart idea.

Insurance companies allow you to add food spoilage endorsement to commercial property insurance. Food spoilage endorsement will recoup your losses if the perishable goods inside the vending machine spoil and become unsellable due to:

• Vending machine breakdown
• Vending machine contamination
• Power outage 

Vending Machine Business Interruption Insurance

Business interruption policy shoulders bills, wages, loans, and other operational costs, while your vending machines are out of commission. With this policy ready and waiting, your vending machine business can keep losses at bay and recover quickly.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance for Vending Machine Business

If your vending machine operation have employees, then depending on your state, workers’ compensation insurance will help covering:

• Employee hospital bills
• Employee medication
• In case of death, workers comp will help you provide death benefits to the deceased spouse and children

The amount of insurance money you’ll get from workers comp also varies from state to state. In general, workers comp pays two-thirds of the injured employee’s weekly average wage. Benefits last from three-seven years or until the employee is strong enough to work again.

Property in Transit Insurance for Vending Machine Businesses

Property in transit insurance is a stand-alone coverage or inclusion in commercial property insurance. But note that no matter how it’s offered, the policy functions the same way. This coverage reimburses losses when your vending machine:

•  Unloaded from the vehicle during the trip and got damaged
• Got lost while in transit
• caught fire while in transit
• You got involved in a vehicular accident, and the vending machine got damaged as a result

Commercial Umbrella Liability Insurance

In a lawsuit, your general liability insurance may hit the ceiling. Here’s where commercial umbrella liability insurance comes in to provide additional coverage.

 For instance, if a court case costs $100,000 but the general liability insurance only gives you $50,000, the umbrella policy will be your savior and cover the extra $50,000.

Vending Machine Business Owners Policy (BOP)

You can qualify for a business owner’s policy (BOP). A business owner’s policy fuses different kinds of insurance into one comprehensive protection for your business. 

Most BOPs combine general liability and commercial property insurance. On the other hand, some may offer more options, such as:

• Commercial auto insurance
• Employee dishonesty insurance
• Cyber liability insurance
• Workers compensation insurance
• Commercial umbrella liability insurance

Vending Machine Insurance Cost

Luckily, vending insurance insurance costs don’t have to break your bank. The average vending machine insurance cost is $37.5 a month or $450 a year for a $1 million general liability policy.

Diverse factors come into play in determining the cost of vending machine insurance coverage. The following are the most common:

• The number of machines you need to insure
• The type of products you vend
• The number of workers you have
• Your business location
• Your chosen policy limits and deductibles
• Your chosen insurer
• The cost and age of your vending machines

Here’s a table showing the rates of the best vending machine insurance companies:

	Monthly Rates	Annual Rates	Best for
NEXT	$17	$204	Best overall; Fastest general liability insurance for vending machine businesses
CoverWallet	$25	$300	Vending machine insurance quotes comparison online
Tivly	$29	$348	Comparing vending machine insurance quotes over the phone
Hiscox	$33	$396	Business insurance with generous policy limits that can serve as vending machine insurance, and candy business insurance

Best Vending Machine Insurance Companies

NEXT 

NEXT’s offers workers compensation, general liability, and commercial property policies. You can bundle your general liability and commercial property insurance in a BOP. 

Average cost: $17 per month

Our rating: 10/10

Pros

• Best overall
• Issues an online proof of insurance instantly
• Great customer service and reputation
• Excellent rates
• Outstanding value for money
• Get a 10% discount if you buy two or more insurance policies for your vending machine business

Cons

• None

CoverWallet 

CoverWallet, with its partners, crafted a tailored vending insurance product that bundles general liability and commercial property policies.They offer easy policy management 

Average cost: $25 per month

Our rating: 10/10

Pros

• Allows you to compare quotes online
• Offers its own insurance coverage by modifying the offers of its partners
• Online certificate of insurance

Cons

• CoverWallet’s vending insurance policies are underwritten by third-party companies

Tivly 

Tivly offers general liability, workers compensation, cyber liability, and commercial auto insurance to vending machine businesses. 

Average cost: $29 per month

Our rating: 10/10

Pros

• Compare vending machine insurance quotes over the phone
• Call and get covered quickly
• Responsive customer service
• Takes you to partners if it can’t provide coverage

Cons

• Doesn’t issue online quotes

Hiscox 

Hiscox doesn’t have an insurance product tailored for vending machines. Nonetheless, since the company insures a wide range of businesses, you can still get covered.

There are two options for getting insured with this company ; (1) insure your vending machines through Hiscox’s portable equipment insurance (2) qualify for retail insurance. 

Average cost: $33 per month

Our rating: 9/10

Pros

• Offers generous policy limits starting from $1 million up to $5 million

Cons

• Doesn’t underwrite a specialized vending machine insurance

FAQs

What should I look for in a vending machine insurance policy?

To get the best from a vending machine insurance policy, there are some things that you should look out for. These things include the reputation of the insurance providers, coverage limits and deductibles, personalization options, and coverage included in the policy.

Shake Off Risk, Rather Than the Machine

Getting vending machine insurance is a step in the right direction. You have the assurance that your business is protected and you won’t have to worry about financial risks and compensation costs. Don’t forget to read reviews about different insurance providers to decide which is best for you.

Barter Insurance helps you get vending machine insurance quotes from the best providers!

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