Food truck insurance: what to cover with a trailer
Liability, the trailer on the road, equipment and stock: what you must insure and what is worth insuring, in Ireland and across Europe. No made-up premiums.
Romain BarreauFounder of Food Truck Store · 5 min readFood truck insurance is the job everyone leaves until the week before opening, yet it is the first document a council or an event organiser asks to see. This guide covers what you must insure and what is worth insuring, in Ireland and across Europe, and what changes when you trade from a trailer. We don’t give premiums here: your insurer works them out from your own situation.
What a food truck should insure.
Apart from what the law requires on the road, the choice is yours: your liability to customers and staff, the trailer and its fittings, your stock and the income you lose after a claim. Councils and organisers will check some of it: Kildare requires every casual trader to hold public, product and employers’ liability insurance (Kildare County Council).
- Public and product liabilityCovers a customer who gets burnt or falls ill. It is the policy councils and organisers ask to see.
- Employers’ liabilityNeeded as soon as anyone works with you. Kildare requires it of every casual trader.
- Trailer and equipmentFire, theft and storm damage to the trailer, its fittings and any appliances you add.
- Stock and incomeYour stock if the refrigeration breaks down, and the income you lose while the trailer is off the road.
What changes when you tow a trailer.
Whether a trailer needs its own policy depends on the country, and in some countries on its weight. In Ireland, the RSA leaves insurance questions to your insurer (RSA), so declare the trailer before you tow it and ask how it is covered once it is unhitched on the pitch. The cover you need for trading is separate from your road cover.
Unhitched on the pitch: check how the trailer is covered.
Road cover, country by country.
The laws we checked vary widely (Transportstyrelsen, LVK, Royal Legislative Decree 8/2004, art. 2, Legislative Decree 209/2005, art. 122, Decree-Law 291/2007). Wherever you are, ask your insurer what your car policy covers when it tows the trailer.
- SwedenA trailer does not need compulsory traffic insurance of its own.
- FinlandEvery registered trailer, light ones included, needs its own traffic insurance.
- SpainThe BOLD 270 must have its own compulsory insurance. The AIR 220, at 750 kg, is exempt.
- Italy, PortugalThe trailer must be insured in its own right, whether it is hitched or not.
What the insurer will ask for.
An insurer prices your cover on the trailer, the kind of food business you run and where the trailer is kept at night. The more complete your paperwork, the sooner you get a quote.
- The trailer’s papers
Its European Certificate of Conformity, the invoice and the paperwork for its gas installation.
- Your business
Your business registration and exactly what you sell: hot food, ice cream or a bar.
- Where it stays overnight
A locked garage, a secure yard or the street.
- Your pitches
Regular pitches, markets and events.
A new trailer is quick to insure.
A new Food Truck Store trailer comes with its European Certificate of Conformity. The gas installation is fitted and inspected by a qualified professional in your country, under that country’s rules, and their paperwork goes in with the rest of your documents (Regulation (EU) 2016/426, art. 3(3)).
Compare quotes before you sign.
Ask several insurers to quote for exactly the same cover, so you are comparing like with like. Check the excess and the exclusions, such as theft without forced entry or equipment left in the trailer overnight, and make sure the insured value matches your invoice.
Insurance is one of your running costs: you will find every item in our guide to what a food truck costs, and the pitches that ask for proof of cover in our guide to food truck pitches. Start by finding your layout with the free Academy quiz.
Choose your trailer, then your cover.
What you insure depends on the trailer you choose: see our food truck trailers, from €11,500 excl. VAT, and find out what a 750 kg food truck trailer means for your driving licence.
Closed, hitched and insured.
Your questions answered.
Got another question? Just ask us ›On the road, you need your motor insurance, with the trailer declared to your insurer. For trading, councils can set their own requirements: Kildare, for example, requires every casual trader to hold public, product and employers’ liability insurance.
It depends on the country and on your policy. In Sweden a trailer does not need its own traffic insurance; in Finland, Italy and Portugal it must have its own, and in Spain so must the BOLD 270, while the AIR 220 is exempt. Ask your insurer how the trailer is covered, both hitched and unhitched.
It depends on the insured value, the cover you choose, where the trailer is kept at night and the insurer. To compare prices, ask several insurers to quote for exactly the same cover.
The same as food truck insurance: your liability to customers and staff, the trailer and its equipment, your stock and the income you lose after a claim, plus whatever road cover your country requires.
The trailer’s Certificate of Conformity and invoice, the paperwork for its gas installation, your business registration, details of what you sell, where the trailer is kept at night and where you trade.
By Romain, founder 
