Hello all. First post here. I've started the process of making my "side hustle" more of a legit business. I knew insurance wouldn't be the easiest thing to find but I'm hitting dead ends here. Getting coverage for anything more than welding pipe fence seems almost imposable. I've finally heard from a broker that has 2 companies that deal with welders but there's a book long list of restrictions, which most don't hinder what I'd be doing but the main one for me is trailer hitches. My big thing is building flatbeds for trucks. I've built them here and there the past 10 years or so but the liability has been in the back of my mind with the last few I've done, especially with me wanting to make it a real business and not just a hobby for extra cash. I was quoted around $2500 a year and I don't have the specifics in front of me or even remember the insurance company but I believe it was just general liability $1mil. I talked with the agent about trying to find someone who will cover such a thing because I planned on that being my bread and butter. She is going to call around and see what she can come up with. Most other brokers just said they couldn't help and a few suggest building flatbeds that incorporate the factory bumper hitch and gooseneck hitch from a manufacturer (B&W) that is bolted to the truck frame and independent of the flatbed but I'd rather not do that unless there's absolutely no other option. I know the way I build them is rock solid and am not against an engineer getting involved to stamp my plans. I did go to trade school 13 years ago but have worked at the same place for the last 10 years and they don't care about certs here so haven't kept up on anything but not against recertifying and keeping up on it. Does anyone here actually have insurance that doesn't restrict against flatbeds, trailers and the like? If so who are you dealing with? I also know this insurance will not be 2500 bucks. I'm expecting a pretty big cost to come out of it if I can even find coverage. Thank you.
Atkinson2126
Just someone who deals with multiple companies. Similar to an independent agent. I’m located in Idaho. We do have a farm policy but I didn’t think of running under that. I insure everything through State Farm but was told they don’t do welders. However I did get a hold of my agent there today and he said he should be able to come up with something for a welding shop. Manufacturing flatbeds maybe not though.
I did find that most companies don't like mobile work. The few I've actually got quotes from (for general welding not flatbeds) usually don't want anymore than 15-20 percent mobile. Which is fine for me because that's not where I want to focus my time but I do get asked to do mobile quite a bit and every now and again I will. There are lots of companies building beds so I wouldn't think it's the hardest thing to find coverage for or they're not being honest with their insurance but with all the advertising I'd think that's not the case. And I'm not talking the huge companies of Bradford, CM, Hillsboro, etc. There seems to be a lot of smaller volume bed builders. I think one issue is I've been looking for general liability coverage and maybe would have better luck shopping for a product liability policy first. Then ad general or business owner coverage with that. I understand why a general liability won't cover a manufactured product. I don't want to mess around with paper stating I did something for someone as an employee and am not liable. I don't know if that would hold up at all but the main reason I wouldn't want to go there is if the insurance sees you doing something they specifically say not to, they will drop your coverage. I just want to cover my business for the work I am doing and not worry about it.
For my day job I'm the maintenance and project manager at a mine and when I need contract help they're covered under us as well but I tried to get a previous employee who was doing his own thing to come help for a month and even though he would have been insured under us, his insurance said if he stepped on the premises to work they would drop him because the business is still insured under them either way. It was because of the conveyors and crushers. If that's true or not I don't know but that's what I was told. Is your insurance OK with you building flatbeds and trailers? $10,000-$20,000 is more what I expected something like this to cost. I am hoping for cheaper but as long as it's under $20,000 a year it would still be worth it to me.
This article covers a lot of your questions and it seems they can provide a quote- might be worth the call or e-mail to them.
https://www.landesblosch.com/blog/welding-insurance-coverage-for-your-business
https://www.landesblosch.com/blog/welding-insurance-coverage-for-your-business
Thank you. I’ll give it a read. That is actually the company that has helped me the most so far. They’ve got a company that will give me coverage but trailer hitches are still a no go. However the lady helping me is still trying to find some way to make something work. Whether it’s stamped plans, or some other thing. I’m going down the road now of possibly doing everything the same, except just don’t weld receiver on. And change my gooseneck from using the b&w flatbed weld in hitch to just a plate with a hole in it. That way they can bolt a ball in if they want but it’s not coming from me that way. I like the b&w so that a customer can use a flatbed companion hitch like I do but I understand most people just use a gooseneck.
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