Having the right stump grinding insurance is crucial. But what are the insurance requirements for stump removal companies?

Insurance Requirements for Stump Removal Services

While insurance requirements for businesses vary from state to state, there is one type of insurance that every stump grinding business will need: general liability.

General Liability

General liability is the most important insurance for stump grinding services. Some states or local jurisdictions may require this insurance. Even if they don’t, customers or contractors will likely require it.

A general liability insurance policy will provide a wide range of coverages, including:

• Bodily injury
• Medical payments
• Property damage
• Legal defense
• Personal and advertising injury

If a customer is hurt while you’re performing your work, general liability can cover the cost of their medical care. If you happen to damage a customer’s property while on the job, then your policy can also cover the cost of repairs or replacement.

Most experts recommend obtaining a $1 million general liability policy to mitigate risk.

While general liability is one of the most important insurance policies you can obtain, it doesn’t cover all of your risks. These policies do not cover:

• Commercial auto accidents
• Damage to your own business’s property
• Employee illness or injuries

For this reason, it’s often advised that stump grinding businesses obtain additional insurance policies to help cover these risks.

Other Types of Coverage Stump Grinder Removal Services Need

In addition to general liability insurance, stump grinding removal services should also consider the following insurance policies:

Commercial Property

If you run your business out of commercial space, then you should have commercial property insurance.

Commercial property insurance can protect against damages or losses caused by:

• Theft
• Windstorms
• Lightning
• Fires

Commercial building insurance will also cover your business’s physical assets, such as your:

• Building
• Inventory
• Personal property
• Furniture
• Tools
• Equipment

In some cases, commercial property insurance will include business interruption insurance, which will help replace your lost income if your business cannot operate due to a covered peril.

A policy like this will also cover business-owned assets that are stored on-site.

Commercial Auto

If you have company vehicles that you or your employees use to get to and from jobs, you will need commercial auto insurance.

Commercial auto insurance will cover the cost of repairs, medical expenses, lost equipment and liability claims if one of your business’s vehicles is involved in an accident while on the job.

A commercial auto insurance policy can cover:

• Bodily injury liability to pay for another party’s medical expenses.
• Collision, which will cover the cost of repairs to your vehicle if it’s in an accident with another vehicle or object.
• Property damage liability to pay for damage caused to another party’s property.
• Comprehensive coverage, which will help pay for damages caused by fire, theft or another natural disaster.
• Medical payments coverage, which will cover medical expenses for employees and passengers if they are injured in an accident.
• Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, which will help you pay for your employee’s medical expenses or repair your vehicle if the other party leaves the scene of the accident or doesn’t have enough liability coverage.

Inland Marine

Business tools, especially stump grinders and related equipment, are expensive. Your commercial property insurance is designed to protect your tools when they’re onsite. Once your tools are offsite, the policy may:

• Limit coverage
• Exclude coverage

When your business property, tools or equipment are damaged while off-premises, inland marine insurance will cover them.

Workers’ Compensation

Depending on the state where your business is located, you may be mandated to have workers’ compensation insurance, also known as workers’ comp. This insurance is only required if you have employees, and it protects both your business and your workforce.

First, workers’ comp will pay for any legal representation if you’re sued by an employee.

Secondly, the following coverage is provided to your employees:

• Medical coverage
• Percentage of lost wages

However, the policy only provides these benefits if the employee is injured on the job.

The insurer you work with may offer a business owner’s policy (BOP), which will include many types of insurance in one, including:

• General liability
• Business interruption
• Commercial property insurance

Many BOPs are customizable, so you can add additional insurance options to them. Bundling your policies together into one package will often save you money on your premiums.

How Much Does Stump Grinding Insurance Cost?

Stump grinding insurance has many moving parts. If you opt for higher policy limits, your premiums will rise. However, when we add up all of the following annual premiums, you can determine the average insurance cost range:

• General Liability: $400 – $1,500+
• Commercial Property Insurance: $750 – $3,000+
• Commercial Auto Insurance: $600 – $1,800+
• Inland Marine Insurance: $170 – $800+
• Workers’ Compensation: $500 – $800+

If you add all of these up, you may be paying between $2,400 and $7,900+ per year. Of course, the costs will rise if you have multiple commercial vehicles, large buildings, more employees and more.

However, obtaining enough insurance and having the right policy in place will allow you to grow your stump grinding business with as low of risks as possible.

Working with an insurer that has experience in stump grinding insurance will allow you peace of mind that your business is safe from liability claims, employee injuries and accidents.

To mitigate these risks, tree service businesses should have adequate insurance. Let’s look at the types of insurance tree service businesses should have and their coverage options.

What Insurance Should A Tree Service Have?

Every tree service business should have insurance. The risks are too high to go without adequate coverage. These businesses are often called upon to carry out dangerous work, such as:

• Clearing trees for new construction
• Clearing fallen trees caused by storms or from railroad tracks
• Removing tree stumps
• Trimming bushes and branches near street signs and power lines

Any one of these activities can easily result in severe injuries, liability claims and damage to other people’s property. For tree services that want to obtain government contracts, insurance is a standard requirement.

Tree Trimmer Insurance Coverage Options

There are several types of tree service insurance that every tree service should obtain.

General Liability

Every business should have general liability insurance, which covers:

• Personal injury
• Bodily injury
• Property damage

If someone is hurt or property is damaged while performing your services, liability will cover the cost of medical care and/or repairing or replacing property.

Professional Liability

Many tree companies also provide consulting services or tree care advice. Professional liability insurance will provide coverage for claims of negligence, bad advice or poorly recommended services that lead to damages or losses for the customer.

Loss of Income Insurance

Loss of income insurance, also known as business interruption insurance, provides coverage if your business is forced to shut down because of a covered peril. This policy will cover your ongoing costs as well as employee pay if you need to operate out of a temporary location.

Commercial Property Insurance

If your business operates out of a physical location, then you’ll need commercial property insurance.

Commercial property insurance will protect covered assets if they are damaged or lost in a fire, natural disaster or theft. These assets can include:

• Inventory
• Furniture
• Equipment
• Computers

Additional coverage may be required for items that aren’t attached to the building, such as signs or fences.

If your tree service is a mobile business, you likely don’t need this coverage.

Workers’ Compensation

If you have employees, you will need workers’ compensation insurance. Workers’ comp is required in all states except Texas. But even if your business is in the Lone Star State, it’s in your best interest to obtain this insurance. Otherwise, you may be liable for injuries if a worker is hurt on the job.

Workers’ compensation will cover:

• Medical expenses
• Lost wages
• Rehabilitation

Along with injuries that occur while on the job, workers’ comp will also cover work-related:

• Illnesses
• Repetitive injuries
• Disability

It also protects against lawsuits from injured employees. If an employee is killed while performing work-related duties, a death benefit will be paid to the family.

Inland Marine Insurance

Tree service businesses use a lot of equipment in their day-to-day operations. Inland marine insurance covers equipment and cargo that’s transported between job sites. A conventional commercial or personal auto insurance policy generally does not cover any tools or equipment that are not attached to the vehicle itself. Having this coverage will protect these items.

Along with the tools you transfer in your vehicles or trucks, it will also cover:

• Equipment and tools stored on a job site
• Moveable property
• Property you borrow or have temporarily in your care

Your tools are vital to the operation of your tree service business, so it’s important to ensure they are covered if they are damaged or lost in an unforeseen event.

Commercial Auto Insurance

If you or your employees use vehicles to travel from one job site to the next, you will need a commercial auto policy.

Personal auto insurance policies will likely not cover an accident that occurred while engaging in commercial activity.

Commercial auto insurance will provide you with coverage for vehicles that you use to get to and from job sites and/or your office.

A wide range of vehicles can be covered through your policy, including:

• Pickup trucks
• Box trucks
• Cargo vans
• SUVs

A typical policy will include the following coverages:

• Liability
• Third-party bodily injury
• Personal injury protection (PIP)
• Property damage
• Uninsured and underinsured
• Comprehensive
• Collision

These are standard coverages for a commercial auto policy, but additional policies may be available to cover your unique risks.

Business Owners Policy (BOP)

A BOP is something to consider for a small business owner because it can save you a lot of money in the long run. This type of policy combines:

1. General liability insurance
2. Commercial property insurance

Additionally, a BOP will often include business interruption insurance, too. Combining multiple insurance policies into one can save you a lot of money on your policy and also make it easier if you have to make a claim.

Utilizing one insurer for all three of these types of insurance means dealing with one point of contact if something goes wrong.

How Much Is Insurance For Tree Service Companies?

Tree service insurance costs vary from one location to another and the size of your business. A standard $1 million policy may cost $400 – $1,500 per year for general liability. However, you’ll need multiple forms of insurance for tree removal:

• General Liability: You can expect to pay $400 to $1,500 for this type of insurance, but prices may be higher for larger tree services with a big workforce.
• Professional Liability Insurance: Costs for professional liability can vary from $20 to $60 per month for a small business.
• Commercial Property Insurance: You may or may not need this type of insurance, but you can expect to pay $60 – $70 per month with a deductible of $1,000 and limits of $60,000.
• Business Interruption Insurance: Costs for business interruption can range from $40 to $150+ per month. The larger your business grows and the more revenue you generate, the higher these overall costs will be.
• Workers’ Compensation: The premiums you pay for workers’ compensation vary greatly and may cost as little as $40 a month. A general rule of thumb, which may or may not be higher or lower, is that for every $100 you spend in payroll, allot $1 for workers’ comp.
• Inland Marine Insurance: Median cost is based on how much property is covered under the insurance. For example, $10,000 in coverage may cost you $20 – $25 a month. However, $100,000 in coverage is $80 – $100 per month.
• Commercial Auto Insurance: Policy limits dictate the overall cost of premiums for your commercial auto insurance. You likely need a $1 million policy limit, and you’ll pay $150 – $200 a month in some states for this policy. If you’re in a major metropolitan area, you may pay two or three times this cost.
• Business Owner’s Policy: Small businesses may have an easier time with a BOP policy because it covers multiple items, such as business interruption and liability. These policies are ideal for owners that are out in the field and may cost $500 to $5,000 per year, depending on multiple factors.

Reducing your tree service insurance costs is possible because you can control some of the cost factors, namely:

• Deductible. If you have a higher deductible, you’ll pay lower premiums.
• Limits. Lower limits allow for less risk to the insurance company and lower premiums as a result.

Additional factors that are considered, and many cannot be controlled, are: the number of employees, location and limits. If you have a lot of past claims, this may mean you’re a higher risk to insure and lead to higher premiums.

Bundling your insurance under one company is often the best solution to save money and make it easier to manage claims.

Do you need tree service insurance and want the best price possible? Fill out the quote form below to receive quotes from some of the best insurers in the industry.

The term “landscaping insurance” is often used interchangeably with the term “lawn care insurance.”

Technically, landscaping is one type of lawn care business. There are others as well, such as lawn mowing, tree trimming, and so forth.

For the purpose of clarification, we are going to focus solely on the types of coverage a landscaper may need specifically.

That being said, shopping for landscaping insurance and shopping for lawn care business insurance are quite similar.

Landscaping is a broad form of lawn care that involves a wide range of activities and a large selection of tools and equipment.

As a landscaper, some of the work you perform might include lawn mowing, tree and shrub trimming, raking, gardening, composting and fertilizing, planting, weed pulling, hardscape design, excavation, grading, tree removal, and more.

Being as that is the case, the landscaping insurance you need to purchase might be more comprehensive than that which a more specialized lawn care business might need to buy.

Why Do You Need Custom Landscaping Insurance Coverage?

There are two basic reasons you need landscaping insurance. The first is that it is required to operate legally. The second is that you need to protect your business as you work.

Think about all the things that could potentially go wrong in the course of landscaping job. A falling tree branch could damage the client’s property. A treatment you use could kill your client’s plants. The client’s pet getting underfoot could cause one of your employees to fall and hurt themselves.

In situations like these, landscaping insurance can help to cover the associated costs and keep your business running smoothly.

What Kind of Insurance Does a Landscaping Company Need?

The exact landscapers insurance requirements will depend on your state. In most cases, however, you will at the very least need general liability insurance and commercial property coverage.

If you have any employees, you may also have a legal requirement to pay for workers’ compensation insurance.

But again, you probably should purchase a broader selection of insurance policies than those above. Since landscaping involves such diverse duties, your company needs ample protection.

Benefits of Landscapers Insurance

Here are the advantages of insuring your landscaping business:

• Start your business legally. The first major advantage of getting landscaping insurance is that you can actually operate! Get your business out of the planning stages and start making money.

• Protect expensive equipment. Landscaping equipment might include excavators, various types of loaders, bulldozers, telehandlers, snow plows, and more. If your equipment is damaged or stolen, repairing or replacing it yourself could cost an arm and a leg. You will be glad that your insurance has kicked in to cover these costs.

• Cover medical costs. When you are working with heavy equipment, the risk of injury is significant. This is also true if you are cutting tree branches, or even if you are doing a small task in the garden using shears. Landscaping insurance will help cover medical costs if you are someone else is injured.

• Cover legal fees. If a client should sue you, the court fees could add up. But with landscaping insurance coverage, you may not need to go broke defending yourself. You might also be able to avoid legal action altogether if your insurance covers other costs (i.e. a client’s medical bills).

• Strengthen your reputation. If your landscaping business is insured, you can share that information on your website and social media profiles. It tells clients you are legally operating and that they can trust you with their business.

• Reduce interruptions to your business. If you do not have coverage when something goes wrong, it is not just money you lose fixing it, but also time. And in business, time is money, so the financial costs you can incur may far exceed the price of your bills. Stop lost profits from adding up with quality insurance policies.

• Improve your relationship with your workers. When your employees know you are protecting them with quality insurance, they will feel safer and more appreciated working with you. In fact, just having insurance may help you attract more competitive talent.

Types of Landscaping Insurance

• Commercial General Liability Insurance: This is the most basic type of insurance you can purchase for your landscaping business. If there are damages or injuries to clients or their property, your general liability insurance can help cover the costs.

• Commercial Automobile Insurance: You can purchase this type of insurance to cover the vehicle you use to drive to and from client sites and transport your equipment.

• Commercial Property Insurance: General liability insurance covers damage to a client’s property, but not your own. To cover damage to your property, you need to purchase commercial property insurance. This type of coverage also will help you pay for a replacement if your equipment is stolen.

• Business Owner’s Policy: If you are looking for a way to make commercial property insurance and general liability insurance more affordable, you might be able to do so by bundling them together into a business owner’s policy (BOP).

• Professional Liability Insurance: This type of insurance is sometimes called “errors and omissions insurance,” which describes its purpose. If an error or omission results in a client wanting to sue you, you can cover legal fees and other costs with professional liability insurance.

• Inland Marine Insurance: To protect your tools and equipment from damage, you can buy inland marine insurance. As a landscaper, this is very important since you may have quite a lot of equipment that would be very expensive to repair or replace.

• Workers’ Compensation Insurance: If any of your employees are injured on the job, workers’ compensation insurance could help to offset their medical costs and lost wages.

• Employment Practices Liability Coverage: This it’s a form of coverage you can purchase to protect yourself from various types of employee lawsuits.

• Business Interruption Insurance: If damage to your equipment or offices makes it impossible for you to conduct your business for a period of time, business interruption insurance can help to cover your lost profits.

• Herbicide and Pesticide Application Insurance: If you apply an herbicide or pesticide that causes your client to get sick, this type of insurance may help protect you from legal costs.

• Cyber Liability Insurance: What if your website is hacked, and the personal data or payment information for your customers gets compromised? In situations like these, cyber liability insurance can come to your aid.

• Commercial Umbrella Insurance: Sometimes, the liability insurance you purchase may not provide you with as much coverage as you think you might need. By purchasing umbrella insurance, you can have additional coverage for those scenarios should they arise.

Factors Impacting the Cost of Insurance For Landscapers

Now you know what types of landscape business insurance coverage you might need to purchase. But how much will it cost?

To figure out how much you may need to pay for insuring your landscaping business, you need to consider all the factors that can influence pricing. Let’s go over those now.

• The insurance company. Which insurance company you choose to work with can impact your costs. Some offer more competitive pricing than others. The only way to find the best pricing for landscaping insurance is to shop around for different quotes.

• The policies you buy. The specific types of policies you choose to purchase may make insuring your landscaping business more or less expensive. The more types of policies you buy, the higher your costs for insurance will be. But you will also have more protection should you need it.

• The options you choose for your policies. For some types of policies, there are options. As an example, you can get either a cash value or replacement value commercial property insurance policy. The latter is more expensive but also a superior form of coverage.

• Your deductibles. How large or small your deductible is impacts the rates for which you qualify. By raising your deductible, you can lower your rates.

• Your coverage limits. Higher coverage limits will result in higher rates for your landscaping insurance policies, and vice versa. You can lower your insurance rates by lowering your coverage limits—though paying more for higher limits may be worth it.

• Your payroll. How large your payroll is (both in terms of hourly rates and number of employees) will impact the cost for workers’ compensation insurance. If you have a high payroll, expect higher costs for this type of insurance.

• Your location. The city and state in which you are operating your landscaping business will impact the cost for your landscaping business insurance coverage.

• Your revenue. The more money you bring in with your landscaping business, the more expensive it will be to ensure your venture.

• Your type of vehicle. If you are covering a vehicle, the make, model, age, and condition of the vehicle may all have an effect on what you need to pay to insure it.

• The value of the property you have to insure. The more expensive your equipment is, the more it will cost you to insure it.

• The duties you perform. As we mentioned previously, the duties of landscapers can vary considerably. There is a big difference between a business that handles excavation and grading to create landscapes and one that simply maintains landscapes that already exist. If your landscaping company creates landscapes rather than just maintains them, your insurance policies will probably be more expensive than they would otherwise.

• Bundling policies. If you bundle together multiple policies, you may be able to save money through a single insurer. They may all be landscaping business policies, or some of them might be other types of business policies or even general types of insurance like coverage for your home or private vehicles.

• Your claims. The longer you can go without making any large claims, the better it is for the insurance company. Sometimes insurers will eventually reward you with a discount for being a low-risk customer.    

Where to Find Landscape Business Insurance Coverage

Landscaping can be a rewarding and lucrative profession, but protecting your profits in case something goes wrong requires the right insurance policies for your business.

Now that you have a better idea of what types of policies might be applicable in your situation and what factors can impact costs, you are ready to get quotes.

To compare landscape business insurance policies now, complete our simple form below or give us a call. We will connect you to our recommended landscaping business insurers and help you save on your policies.