Insurance on Shopbot?

[Davo]

I cannot find a single company to insure the machine with, they all say they cannot insure it

Statefarm, farmers, Allstate

All said they can't

[coryatjohn]

If you have your shop in your home, you should be able to add it as a "listed" item. That's what we do.

[Davo]

Yea that's no longer an option for my, I rent now and the machine is in a storage facility

[coryatjohn]

I can see why you would have trouble getting insurance.

[tri4sale]

Are you trying to insure it against damage / theft while in storage or are you trying to insure it for business use issues?

[Davo]

Both, it operates out of this warehouse inside my trailer, so theft, fire, transport etc

[ken_rychlik]

How about auto insurance on the trailer rig?

[Davo]

My trailer is covered, but they said the contents probably won't cover the cost of the machine

[tri4sale]

Give Hiscox a call, they do a lot of small business insurance.

http://www.hiscox.com/

They do some insurance for my small business that a lot of the big names won't (or charge an astronomical charge for). You might run into issues if trailer is titled under personal name, not business name. You may need to look into an umbrella policy or a rider on the policy to cover the ShopBot.

[jTr]

If you have a Business Owner's Policy, you can simply attach an inland marine floater on your policy with a declared value for your machine by presenting the original purchase documentation. In doing so, you are also assuring reimbursement at replacement cost, ( or at least the original price paid), as scheduled property with a declared value will not be subject to Actual Cash Value assessment in the event of a loss.

Issue at hand is not the machine, but rather the circumstances. You simply need to present this to a prospective insurance provider with different terminology. From your description, sounds like you're no different than a mobile welder, food vendor, etc. As such, a BOP will include a general equipment value, Inland Marine scheduled items as described above, and some vitally important liability. (BTW, I hope you've set your business up in an LLC format while you're at it . )

Typically, an independent insurance agency with an emphasis on business coverage will have many more options and specialty markets available that are accustomed to your business format.

Final qualifier: If this is just a novelty and you're not actively operating a business, the game changes entirely. May be able to add a floater to a renter's policy, but cost may be prohibitive and indeed, you are way outside the box and can expect a continued series of rejections - the big carriers especially are not generally interested in venturing into unusual territory like this.

Margins and gray areas are where we all like to be- adventurous, cutting edge, coloring outside the lines/box, etc. Problem is, insurance companies live and die by the stats. No stats = no help.

Good luck with your venture,

Jeff

[kartracer63]

Ditto on the "Inland Marine" policy.

[ntraub01]

I "third" the Inland Marine policy! Because it is technically "mobile" the Inland Marine policy is the only way it will float. LoL

HOWEVER, they may balk at it because it is a tool and insurance companies HATE to insure mobile tools because there is so much worksite theft of "mobile" tools. We certainly don't ever have our SB in one of our trailers but we do have $10-$15k of tools we typically will take on an installation and we have to provide our insurance company with a list of equipment and note what is mobile and what isn't.

IF you can't get insurance be sure to do EVERYTHING YOU CAN to make your machine and trailer as hard to take as possible!! Put the whole thing up on blocks, lock the hitch, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. If someone knew what was inside and the value of it, it would make an EASY payday for somebody! But not me, I already have one!!

Good luck!

[Davo]

My insurance company tried everything and also the inland marine

They just come back and say all companies they talk with have no market for this coverage

How is Shopbot covering all their product in their own warehouse?

Surely there must be coverage, too many Cnc companies operating out there

[tri4sale]

My insurance company tried everything and also the inland marine

They just come back and say all companies they talk with have no market for this coverage

How is Shopbot covering all their product in their own warehouse?

Surely there must be coverage, too many Cnc companies operating out there

If you had the machine in a permanent location (owned or leased), then insuring it would be easy, no different than insuring any other equipment. Once you put it in a trailer and make it mobile, that's probably what is causing you issues, that the the high value cost of replacing the ShopBot if stolen or wrecked.

[bryan5358]

Try Hochheim Prairie Insurance. Don't know if they have the Houston area or not but I live in East Texas and have a sawmill and a self built portable backhoe insured thru them. I set the value and they added it to my policy. all you can do is see....
https://www.hochheim.com/hponline/cms-content/hponline/cms~public_site-main