Insurance for Mobile Catering Unit

We are in the process of purchasing a mobile catering unit from the UK. It's basically a mobile kitchen in a trailer and will be used to cater at events, such as horse shows, open-air concerts etc.

We have a jeep which we want to use to tow the unit to the various events, but have been told by our insurance company that they cannot cover us as the unit has a double axle.

I have contacted 2 brokers and a few other insurance companies, and they all say they cannot cover the mobile unit.

Does anyone know an insurance company that will cover such a unit or could anyone put me in touch with someone who owns one?

Thanks

Try O'Reilly Cullen insurance Brokers I know they insure some of the caterers at lansdowne rd

delgirl said:

We have a jeep which we want to use to tow the unit to the various events, but have been told by our insurance company that they cannot cover us as the unit has a double axle.

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Does your driving licence cover double axle tralers. eg EB or EC1?

Towger.

as long as the trailer can legally be pulled by your current vehicle and your licence covers you to do so, then your current motor insurers MUST quote you.

Towger said:

Does your driving licence cover double axle tralers. eg EB or EC1?

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The licence covers EB & EC1. They haven't even asked to see the licence. The problem is the existing insurance covers the jeep to tow a single axle trailer only. They won't budge on the double axle and have asked for 5 written diclinatures from other insurance companies and evidence of public liability insurance before they will even consider it.

Ravima said:

as long as the trailer can legally be pulled by your current vehicle and your licence covers you to do so, then your current motor insurers MUST quote you.

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What you mean by 'legally', Ravima. The jeep can tow up to 2000kg and the trailer weighs 1400kg, so it's well able to tow it.

We're buying it from the UK and the dealer there can't believe we're having such difficulty getting it insured. These units are commonplace in the UK and insurance isn't a problem.

We're still working with a broker recommended by F. Kruger and he's doing his best to have some sort of proposal for us by the end of the week. The unit's ready for collection on Friday, so fingers crossed.

Jonathan H said:

Try O'Reilly Cullen insurance Brokers I know they insure some of the caterers at lansdowne rd

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Hi Jonathan, I'll try them tomorrow just incase the other brokers don't come up with anything. Thanks for the info.

delgirl said:

The licence covers EB & EC1. They haven't even asked to see the licence.

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Have you talked directly to the underwriters or just front office who basically take the attitude 'If it is not on the computer id cant be done'.

Towger.

Towger said:

Have you talked directly to the underwriters or just front office who basically take the attitude 'If it is not on the computer id cant be done'.

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They won't talk to me, I have to go through the broker who are just passing messages back and forth.

Still struggling to get insurance for the jeep with part-time commercial use and to tow a twin axle unit. I had a small claim in 2003, about €900, and had NCB protection so let the claim go through the insurance co. Now this claim is showing up on my record and 1 company has told me they don't quote for anyone who has had a claim in the past 5 years. The fact that the NCB was protected doesn't seem to matter.

I've recently brought a catering unit from the uk into Ireland, in the shape of a double decker bus and have had no luck with Irish insurance either.. so in the end, I've kept the uk reg. and had no problem getting UK insurance. I paid an extra 20% and they issued a 12 month 'green card' which covers the 'business' in all EU contries.. the down side is we need to 'move' the bus out of Ireland twice a year. We also went down the road of gathering 5 refusals from insurance companies... but ended up being told, that because it was to be a buisness, they were under no legal obligation to quote us.
Good luck there.

Hi bryceodgers,

It's a tough one ok, but we're nearly there with the help of the knowledgeable folks on AAM!

F. Kruger recommended a broker - Robert Tyrrell of Campions Insurance Group, tel.062 - 61991, (they're also linked to the broker Jonathan H recommended) and he has found us an insurer and hopes that the documents will be completed tomorrow. He has another client with a similar unit insured with the same company. They will only insure the unit if they can also provide Public Liability Insurance.

The IOMST were also very helpful and put me in touch with another broker who will have insurance facilities in place for market traders and large mobile catering unit owners as from end of Jan or Feb. PM me if you want his details.

We had to change our towing vehicle to a commercial one as we couldn't get insurance to cover it for partial business use.

Thanks to everyone on AAM for their help!

I was going to suggest you visit the next game and ask some of the caterers who does their insurance, you might get more than one answer, always good to have options.

Hi SeanA,

There aren't many of [broken link removed] around and some owners are reluctant to help if they think you are going to compete with them. I suppose it's only natural.

Hi ,

Just brousing and would love to hear how you got on .

was the business successful ?