Hosting a food truck event at your Burlington, Vermont microbrewery is a great way to attract people to your microbrewery for tours. In inviting food trucks to come to your facility for an event, however, you may be exposing your microbrewery to a potential liability. Before you ask food trucks to park themselves at outside your microbrewery, make sure your microbrewery insurance policy will cover any liability your microbrewery may be assuming.

Microbrewery Insurance Burlington

Make Sure Your Microbrewery Insurance Will Cover Having Food Trucks at Your Burlington, VT Facility

Your Burlington Microbrewery May Be Held Responsible for Food Trucks’ Actions

When you grant food trucks permission to park on your microbrewery’s property in Burlington and give them permission to serve the public outside your brewery, your microbrewery may be taking on what is known as “vicarious liability.” Even though your microbrewery and the food trucks are separate legal entities, vicarious liability means that your microbrewery may be held financially responsible for any harm that a food truck parked at your microbrewery causes.

An accident is unlikely but possible. For instance, a food truck might:

  • Crash into another vehicle when parking

  • Get people sick by serving undercooked food

  • Cause someone to slip and fall because the truck leaked oil

In any of these scenarios, your microbrewery might be required to financially compensate the injured party — despite its innocence in the incident — because the food truck was invited by your microbrewery. Your business is, thus, vicariously liable.

This legal logic might seem unfair, but it’s not far from how many people judge others. Individuals often judge other people based on the company they keep, and Vermont’s laws, under certain circumstances, sometimes also let businesses be judged by the actions of their associates.

You Can Protect Your Microbrewery from Vicarious Liability

Thankfully, there are ways to protect your microbrewery from vicarious liability. With the proper business insurance, you can invite food trucks to your microbrewery and protect it from the additional risk involved in doing so. There are two ways to insure your microbrewery for scenarios like these.

First, you should require all food trucks that come to an event at your microbrewery to have liability insurance that names your microbrewery as an additional insured party. Liability insurance is designed to provide protection against lawsuits related to accidents like those listed above (although specific coverages vary, and some policies might not cover incidents like these). By naming your microbrewery as an additional insured party, a food truck is extending its liability protection to your microbrewery. Make sure every food truck gives you a copy of their liability insurance certificate, so you know they’re insured.

Second, your microbrewery insurance policy should contain generous liability coverage for your microbrewery. It should have a high limit, possibly $1 million or more, and it ought to include protection against vicarious liability claims. If a food truck causes damage or harm, your microbrewery’s liability coverage could provide a valuable second line of defense against any claims filed against your business.

Get Help Requesting Certificates and Finding Microbrewery Insurance

If you don’t know what a liability insurance certificate looks like, or if you need help finding microbrewery insurance that has enough liability coverage, contact an independent insurance agent in Burlington. They’ll be able to explain how you can request liability certificates from food trucks, and they can help you find an insurance policy for your microbrewery

This material is for informational purposes only. All statements herein are subject to the provision, exclusions and conditions of the applicable policy. For an actual description of all coverages, terms and conditions, refer to the insurance policy.