Inland Marine Insurance

Brien Roche

Inland marine insurance coverage is a confusing term. It is a form of coverage that supplements marine coverage. Marine coverage applies to oceangoing vessels. Inland marine coverage applies to transportation on land. It is a form of property insurance. It covers materials and equipment while in transit or in a warehouse.

Types of Businesses That Might Want This Coverage

This coverage applies to several types of businesses. For instance, it may apply to construction businesses, food truck vendors, businesses that attend trade shows, businesses that ship materials or goods over land or businesses that store materials with a third party or for a third party, or businesses that do work at multiple sites.

What is Covered with Inland Marine Insurance

If you transport inventory between two business locations and your truck malfunctions and the inventory falls out standard commercial property coverage may not apply. However inland marine coverage should apply.

In general what is covered is property in transit, property stored offsite, property on movable vehicles, property that is part of the infrastructure, contractor’s equipment, or another person’s property stored at your site. For instance, a vending machine company that stores their machines long-term on other people’s property may want this coverage.

Installation coverage covers such things as items to be installed. If your business is installing new cabinets and they are damaged on the way to the site this coverage would apply.

Standard business property insurance protects assets stored at the main business site or up to about 1000 feet away. It doesn’t protect property stored beyond that distance or property in transit.

Motor carriers who transport household goods must maintain this form of coverage. Also, they must file their policy with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

What is Not Covered with Inland Marine Insurance

There are several things that are not covered by these policies. They include stationary property, vehicles, earthquake or flood damage, employee dishonesty, war, government seizure, and mysterious disappearances. Also not covered is property transported by sea or air, property damaged before shipment, or items being transported that simply were not well-made and are damaged as a result of that. Likewise, property kept permanently on your premises is not covered.

These policies typically do not cover items like money, securities, or contraband.

Inland marine policies usually only pay depreciated value. They do not usually pay the replacement cost. In addition, they require a schedule of what you want to be covered.

Different Forms of Coverage

Inland marine coverage may take many different forms. It may include Bailee’s customer coverage. For instance, if a customer’s property is damaged while in your care this coverage may apply. This would apply to dry cleaners, repair shops, and auto mechanics.

Builder’s risk coverage can protect structures under construction and materials used by a builder. Also, builder’s risk policies can be written to cover only structures. They usually cover property damage or loss to materials being used at a particular site or materials awaiting transport to that site. This coverage is normally written for a short term.

There may be installation coverage. This covers goods from the time of being loaded onto a truck until they are put to use.

Cargo coverage protects goods being transported or delivered to a client.

Accounts receivable coverage kicks in when a business is unable to collect from customers. Most often this is due to the loss or damage of the company’s account receivable records.

Inland marine coverage can be limited to named perils. Or it can be written as an all-risk policy. The latter coverage applies to all risks except those expressly excluded. For instance, such things as war, natural disaster, faulty design, or use of defective materials.

Let an Experienced Lawyer in the DMV Assist You

Call, or contact us for a free consult. For more info on insurance see the Wikipedia pages. In addition, see the post on this site dealing with insurance issues.