When Zane Caplansky decided to supplement his Toronto deli with an accompanying food truck, he didn’t expect that one of the biggest obstacles to popularizing his “roach coach” would come in the form of insurance coverage. Back in 2010, food trucks were still a relatively rare occurrence in Ontario, and providers weren’t certain how to write policies for it.
Five years later, however, food trucks now line the curbsides of every major Canadian city, and brokers are becoming aware of the opportunities they provide in creating a comprehensive insurance package for valued clients.
Jerry Wiseblott, vice president of KRG, may be the pioneer who should be credited with that discovery.
“I got into food trucks because Zane Caplansky is my cousin,” Wiseblott said. “He decided to get into the business, and he turned to me to insure it, which wasn’t cheap at the time.”
Caplansky now heads the Toronto Food Truck Alliance, which boasts over 35 members, and Wiseblott says he has “food truck guys calling me every day.” Policies generally range between $4,000 and $5,000 per truck, and encompass commercial general liability, property and auto lines.
“There’s a few different components to the policy,” Wiseblott said. “It’s like a moving restaurant – you’ve got to insure the truck, which needs coverage as an auto policy, then there’s a restaurant portion because there’s appliances like a deep fryer inside of it. So there are a lot of different elements of coverage there.”
The notable benefits of providing food truck insurance, Wiseblott argues, isn’t inherent in standalone policies, but in selling policies as one component of an individual’s all-inclusive coverage.
Clients are “small business people and self-employed individuals who may need food truck insurance, but they also have cars, houses and wives and need life insurance, disability insurance and critical illness insurance,” he said. “I take the food truck policy and join it with all the other things they require.”
