Why Do Restaurants Need Restaurant Insurance?

Why Do Restaurants Need Restaurant Insurance?

Restaurant insurance is vital to the success of a restaurant. The possibility of accidents occurring in your business and on the premises are great. To see what I mean, check out these statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Food Services and Drinking Fatalities, Injuries, and Illnesses report and the injuries, illnesses, and fatalities report.

  • 120 – fatalities in the food services and drinking places industry
  • 69, 950 – incidents involving work place accidents resulting in loss of work
  • 10 – average median days away from work due to injuries
  • 168 – cases per 10,000 full time employees

These statistics are alarming and demonstrate why restaurant insurance is so important. Accidents such as fires, slip and fall incidents and even people who get sick from eating your food can be covered by your insurance.

What is Business Insurance?

All businesses need insurance coverage in order to protect them from potential losses due to slip and fall incidents, fires and so forth. Having restaurant insurance also prevents business owners from losing property completely. Property unlikely to be recovered after a fire, severe weather incident or other unexpected event are personal items, expensive equipment and business vehicles. With the proper restaurant insurance coverage, a claim can be filed to recover losses including any medical expenses occurred by employees and customers.

Having insurance avoids being sued!

When a business owner fails to obtain and maintain business insurance, that person opens him or herself up to being liable for any judgments being settle against him or her and their business. The judgment can garnish wages, bank accounts, and some small businesses may be held personally liable for debts through person assets. As you can see, obtaining the right restaurant insurance coverage can protect your from liability claims.

Types of Business insurance you can obtain

There is more than one type of business insurance available, however several of these may be packaged together into one lump policy. It is up to the business owner and their insurance agent to decide which plan is right for them. Below is a list of some of the different type of insurance available.

Property and Casualty Insurance

Whether you are renting or leasing the physical location of your business, property insurance will cover it when flooding, fire, theft, tornado and or an earthquake occurs. Casualty only covers the operation of the business, which of course is grouped with property insurance.

Commercial Auto Insurance

This insurance type covers your business due to any loss or damage to company vehicles as well as damaged that may have occurred from the company’s vehicle to others.

Liability Insurance

Liability insurance covers you if someone decides to sue you for negligence. A prime example of this would be in a slip and fall incident due to factors within your control or beyond your control.

Business Interruption Insurance

This insurance comes in handy when a business’s normal operations are interrupted and cash flow and profits becomes abnormal. This could be due to severe weather events, for example, if you harvest orange crops and Souther Florida is hit by an unexpected storm that destroys your crops, you may or may not be able to recover your losses.

Health Insurance

Health insurance is needed to cover yourself as well as your employees when in need of medical care.

Life and Disability insurance

Life and Disability insurance will be needed in the event of death or disability of key owners, partner and employees may occur. Read more about Key Man Insurance.

Worker’s Compensation Insurance

If you have employees, it is required by law to participate in the worker’s comp program. This insurance covers employees who are injured on the job.
These insurance plans can be combined but it would be cheaper to find a plan that offers the types of insurance coverage needed instead of purchasing them separately.