Service Technician Insurance – What Kind and at What Cost

Whenever you budget the expenses of your business, Service Technician insurance must be high on the list because you can’t always know exactly what could happen in the future.

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With the protection provided by insurance against accidents and all the other types of insurance we will tell you about, you can protect your business and yourself in case something unwanted happens.

Like any business owner, for your Service Technician enterprise, you must consider how much financial liability you are taking on.

Business Insurance for Service Technician

If your Service Technician business runs without proper insurance, you are taking a tremendous chance not just of losing some money but of a complete wipe-out.

This is because the laws in every state are very strict in enforcing liability on the owners of businesses for the results of their actions. 

In this article, we are giving very general guidelines for growing businesses to explain what the main kinds of insurance that you need are, and where we can, a rough guide to how much you can expect to pay.

The question is, can you afford to NOT have insurance for your Service Technician business?

What this means, for any Service Technician business owner, is that if some customer claims that your business caused them some physical or economic damage, a court can award damages far beyond the total size of your business.

Your Service Technician business is not sheltered by laws in the same way as states are, where legislation can place a “cap” on the maximum level of liability.

In some states, like Texas, there are specific monetary levels that limit the amount a court can award in any case against the state.

In a court case, it’s purely the privilege of the jury to award whatever amount they deem appropriate, even sometimes giving a plaintiff more than they have sort.

When you are running your Service Technician operations, you can’t deny responsibility for the consequences of your actions.

Even more importantly, unless you have spent beforehand the money necessary to have your business running as a limited liability company, all of that liability belongs to you as an individual.

What does Service Technician insurance protect you from?

For your Service Technician business, the most important sorts of insurance are designed to cover the risks to your business from accidents, from unexpected events, and from mistakes.

Also there are some official kinds of insurance that various states require.

In the next few paragraphs, we will describe the most important points any Service Technician business owner should remember when negotiating the insurance needed.

The main categories of insurance for your Service Technician businesses are liability insurance, commercial insurance, asset insurance and workers compensation insurance.

Liability insurance

General liability insurance

Any Service Technician business is dealing directly with other people, and that means you usually have the danger that some accident can happen to them themselves or else something of theirs can be spoiled.

In such a case, they can sue you for compensation.

General liability insurance policy for your Service Technician business covers you against claims coming from injury to customers or damage to their property.

It protects your Service Technician business from the claims themselves and in addition to any follow-on court costs and legal fees of the lawsuits.

In many cases, it should help you to qualify for extra business from city and state organizations, where contracts demand proper liability insurance.

The average level of general liability insurance for your Service Technician business would be with a cap of $1 million for a single event and a total of $2 million for the whole year.

See the table in the costing section below for average prices of general liability insurance for your Service Technician insurance operations.

Professional liability insurance for your Service Technician business

In the event where a customer alleges some negligence, errors, or omissions in how you conducted your Service Technician business for them, you can quickly be involved in a law suit.

Even if the lawsuit against you is judged in your favor, the cost of defense can be high, and the impact on your reputation can be damaging.

Most small Service Technician business should have enough professional liability insurance to cover a single claim of $25,000, with annual cover of $50,000.

See the table in the cost of Service Technician insurance section below for average prices of professional liability insurance for your Service Technician operations.

Product liability insurance

Whatever goods you sell or advice you give about the goods, you are running a risk that clients may claim that what you delivered didn’t meet your description of function, or that your guidance was basically incorrect.

You need to understand the particular laws of product liability in your own state.

For example, in California, all businesses in the supply chain can be held responsible for injuries caused by products claimed to be defective.

To cover yourself against any possible lawsuit, you need Product liability insurance for Service Technician

Only you can estimate exactly how much insurance you need.

Best advice is to contact experienced insurance agents, brokers or company representatives for support.

Commercial insurance

Commercial vehicle insurance for your Service Technician business

Be careful! – almost all policies for private vehicle insurance do not cover any happening like theft or accidental damage when the van is being used for business purposes.

The best way to make sure that your vehicle is insured for both its own value, and the valuable contents, is by taking out a direct commercial vehicle insurance package.

Commercial van policies guarantee the value of any vehicle in case of accident, malicious damage, fire, or theft.

In addition, in case of any accident, the car itself, the content and any legal bills, medical expenses, and property damage is insured if your car is involved in a collision.

Most states, other than Virginia and New Hampshire, require this type of insurance.

The necessary value of the insurance is worked-out for the depreciated value of the vehicle, and your declared level of cover of contents. 

Tools and Equipment insurance

Since your Service Technician business needs unique and costly equipment, you can appreciate how much it can cost to replace it in case of any damage, loss, or theft.

The gear may be subject to malicious damage, deliberate fire, theft, other such unforeseen acts.

As well, acts of nature like lightning strikes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other highly damaging natural events can destroy your whole business in one stroke.

Unless you can afford to immediately replace such specific gear quickly out of your own pocket, you must have full-level equipment insurance so that you can immediately buy whatever needed to keep your Service Technician business running.

It is hard to advise how much equipment insurance you need – it’s really dependent on how much you have invested in your Service Technician business’ equipment.

Commercial Property insurance

Any Service Technician business that owns or rents space in a building should have a commercial property insurance policy.

If you own the property, you certainly have a substantial capital investment, as well as a big liability if there’s a mortgage.

Any physical building location should carry insurance coverage for the value of the premises and contents against accidental occurrences like fire and storms, and against man-made damages like theft and vandalism.

If your Service Technician business works in areas of high risk, like California or South Carolina, supplementary coverage may be needed for earthquakes and hurricanes or tornadoes.

In other states like Washington, where unlimited cold snaps can cause damage to outer coverings of Service Technician business premises, there is a need for more supplementary cover than in warmer climes.

Because the level of cover depends mainly on the value of the property, it’s not possible to say what cover your need, but we have been able in the table in the cost of Service Technician insurance section below to give some estimate of the average prices per million dollars of property insurance for your Service Technician business.

Temporary insurance by month, week or day for your Service Technician business

Is your Service Technician business working part-time or casually, or is the level of business variable?

Using short-term insurance makes perfect sense. Business insurance by the month, day, or week – temporary insurance for Service Technician – are special policies where you can cover a specific period when you want to be covered.

By only paying for that period of cover, you will save by having less premiums but still having the same risk cover.

The important feature of short-term insurance is that you purchase the cover for a defined period – a specific date, or a week or month starting on a specific date, for example for 30 days beginning on the specified date.

When you are expecting periods of better business activity, get the existing cover improved.

Talk to your insurance agent, broker or the company’s representatives to see what options you have.

Business Owners Policy BOP for your Service Technician business

You have the chance to combine most of the important kinds of small business insurance in one policy that is known as the business owner’s policy – BOP.

A BOP merges commercial property and public liability insurance by incorporating these coverages into one insurance policy, which can save you money.

BOP insurance will cover you if any claims of injury or property damage are made.

It is often the right choice for small and medium-sized Service Technician businesses, such as yours.

There are some limits that will rule whether BOP is suitable for your own business.

BOPs will not cover your professional liability or commercial vehicle risks.

Also, the size of your business will rule whether you are eligible to take out BOP cover.

The usual business that is allowed to take a BOP policy must have less than one hundred employees, and under five million dollars in annual turnover.

As well, you must separately take out the mandated worker’s compensation, health and disability insurance as determined for your state.

Workers Compensation insurance for your Service Technician business employees

In many states, it is mandatory to have workers compensation insurance when your Service Technician business has one or more employees.

Workers compensation insurance covers the business against any costs that arise if an employee experiences an injury or becomes sick as a result of work.

The benefits cover medical expenses, death benefits, lost wages, and vocational rehabilitation.

Failure to meet a state’s laws in this regard can leave you as the employer obliged to pay penalties levied by the states.

Some states, such as North Dakota, Ohio, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming only permit coverage from the government-run monopoly state funds.

In these states, you cannot take out your workers compensation obligations from private insurance providers.

Workers compensation rates are computed based on the employee’s pay, and usually come out at around $1.00 per $100 per month.

However, you must refer to the relevant authorities in your state.

Average costs of these types of insurance

Although every Service Technician insurance need is unique, there are enough examples of usual quotes from insurance companies for us to give rough guidelines, including what are the cheapest rates offered.

Of course, you should always check with an agent what’s relevant for your business.

The list below is of annual premiums we have collected for the main types of insurance your Service Technician businesses needs.

Types of insurance Price range
Equipment insurance $410 – $1445
General liability insurance $635 – $940
Commercial vehicle insurance $1985 – $3135
Public liability insurance $250 – $565
Commercial insurance $1145 – $2495
Product liability insurance $235 – $730

Cost of insurance for your Service Technician operations depends on many different factors.

We have estimated these figures for small self-employed Service Technician businesses.

In larger states like Texas, premiums are generally about 20%-30% higher than national averages, while in smaller states like New Mexico, they usually are about 20%-30% lower.

The location and size and type of your Service Technician business can have a big effect on the cost of different policies.

You should talk to professional insurance agents and brokers, or insurance company representatives.

In addition you can let the internet do the work for you by searching for insurance companies near where your business is located.

Another useful source of information is the local Better Business Bureau in your town.

FAQ

What is small business insurance for Service Technician operations?

This is a general term used to describe standard insurance policies designed to protect Service Technician business owners from risks like bodily injury, property damage, claims of negligence.

Does my Service Technician business have to have insurance?

Some of the forms of insurance are not mandatory for you to open your business, but they can protect you from risks in your business operations.

Several other forms are required by state law, such as workers compensation and vehicle insurance.

What does a small Service Technician business insurance policy cover?

Liability insurance provides protection against lawsuits or claims filed by a client for bodily injury, property damage, or negligence.

The precise cover will vary based on your own operations.

See the table in the costing section above for average prices of the best policies for Service Technician insurance.

How much will Service Technician business insurance cost?

On top of the size of the business, some other factors, such as location and claims history, are used to determine your policy’s cost.

You should discuss with professional insurance agents and brokers, or insurance company representatives.

You can search for more information insurance for Service Technician, in the search box below, and follow the relevant links.

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