What Is Inland Marine Insurance?
Despite the name, inland marine insurance has nothing to do with boats. It's a broad category of coverage designed for property that moves — equipment, tools, and materials that aren't tied to a fixed location like a building or warehouse.
For tree care contractors, inland marine is most commonly written as a contractor's equipment floater. This policy "floats" with your equipment, covering it on the job site, while being transported in or on your vehicle, and at storage locations. It fills the gap left by commercial auto (which covers vehicles on the road, not the tools inside them) and commercial property insurance (which only covers property at a fixed address).
A tree care operation without an equipment floater has a significant uninsured exposure. Chainsaw theft from a job site, a grinder damaged during transport, climbing gear destroyed in a truck fire — none of these are covered by auto or GL. Inland marine is the policy designed for exactly these scenarios.
Blanket vs. Scheduled Coverage
Equipment floaters are written two ways, and the distinction matters:
Blanket coverage insures your entire equipment inventory up to a total limit, often with a per-item sub-limit. For example, a $100,000 blanket limit with a $10,000 per-item maximum. Blanket coverage is simpler to manage — you don't need to update the policy every time you buy a new saw — but the per-item cap can leave you short if a high-value piece is lost.
Scheduled coverage lists each piece of equipment individually with its own insured value. It's more precise and ensures full replacement cost on specific high-value items, but requires active management as your inventory changes.
Many tree care operations benefit from a hybrid approach: blanket coverage for hand tools and smaller equipment with specific scheduling for high-value items like aerial lifts and larger grinders.
Replacement Cost vs. Actual Cash Value
This is one of the most important distinctions to understand when buying equipment coverage. Actual Cash Value (ACV) pays you what the equipment was worth at the time of loss — depreciated. If your three-year-old saw is stolen, you get three-year-old-saw money, not enough to buy a new one.
Replacement Cost Value (RCV) pays to replace the item with a new equivalent. For equipment you depend on daily, RCV is almost always worth the additional premium. Ask specifically which basis applies to your policy.