Mosaic Insurance Alliance knows how important your cannabis cargo is—ask us about cannabis insurance today!
Reefer trucks (also known as refrigerator trucks) are a staple for many cannabis companies.
When your drivers are out on the road, your marijuana business can suffer various loss—liability lawsuits, employee injury, damage to the truck itself, damage to the precious cargo that you are transporting, extreme delivery delays that can make retailers/customers decide to stop doing business with you in the future, etc. We know that the trucks alone are expensive investments. When you add product to the mix that needs special transporting care, the need for stability increases tenfold.
Ways You Can Expand the Life of Your Reefer Trucks
Regular vehicle maintenance is essential for all drivers and all types of vehicles. Below are some car tips that are great to review during anytime of the year. (For winter-specific car tips, click here. We also have winter driving tips, ways you can avoid summer car break-ins, steps on how to avoid wild animals during the colder months, and flood driving tips that are perfect for those April showers in the springtime.)
– Do refer truck-specific maintenance. Besides the general car maintenance steps below, you will want to be educated on reefer trucks specifically. Emerald Transpiration Solutions and Milea have some great starter tips, such as ensuring that you have proper seals, good airflow, a working air chute, and ideal temperatures.
– Check fluids on a weekly basis and refill them when needed. If you drive a lot, you might want to check them more often.
– The average lifespan on a car battery is 4-6 years. In addition to being alert on when they might need to be replaced, check them regularly for corrosion, loose wires, and loose bolts.
– Tune-ups are like a body cleanse for your car. Spark plugs, oil changes, and spark plug wires working properly and efficiently help avoid engine misfires and help ensure that your car will be able to accelerate easier and startup in the first place.
– Without reliable brakes on big vehicles, there would be accidents all over the place. Bigger vehicles like trucks, SUVs, and vans tend to be notorious for going through brake pads. Make sure to change your brake pads regularly and change them immediately when needed (usually every 30-35K miles). Also, do not forget to check your brake rotors when you check your brake pads.
– It is important to know your area and follow-up with weather-specific items accordingly. For example, certain states get a lot of rain, so if you are somewhere like Seattle, Washington, you will want to check and install new wiper blades at least every 6 months. Similarly, if you tend to travel in rural areas, you might want to inspect your high beams more often and carry backup bulbs in your car.
– Speaking of backups for your car, it is a safe practice to carry emergency kits in your vehicle. For example—jump starer kit, battery charger, screw drivers, wrenches and sockets, car manual, seatbelt cutter, window braker, flashlight and extra batteries, spare tire, tire wrench, car jack, etc. It might also be a good idea to carry a phone charger, water, and nonperishable foods like protein bars in case your driver is stuck for a while.
– If your drivers are mechanically inclined, you might also want to have each vehicle equipped with a check engine light reader so that if it does come on, the driver can check the code and see if they can fix the problem themselves. Having a reader can also help a driver determine if the car is still safe to drive. Your drivers might also be able to receive faster service if they can give updates to tow trucks and repair shops while they are waiting to be towed. For example, if their code reader tells them that the check engine light is on because you need to replace one of the 02 sensors, driving should be able to continue. Yes, you will want to look into replacing the oxygen sensor later, but generally speaking, the car should be safe to drive—you just might be paying a bit more for fuel in the meantime. If it is a more serious code, like one that makes the check engine light blink quickly, it could indicate something serious like a misfire that might lead to undesirable things like overheating the catalytic converter or breaking down entirely. If a driver sees a serious code come up, they will most likely determine that it is a good idea to cease driving and call a tow truck right away so that an accident and/or serious expensive damages do not occur.
– Being clean pays off. Having a clean truck inside and outside helps avoid rust, better highlights things that need to be repaired (such as a warn-out seatbelt), helps deter thieves, helps keep rodents away, etc. As we know, rodents LOVE to chew wires, build nests in air vents, and spook drivers by crawling out from under the hood and onto the windshield while a car is in motion. Rodents can cause car accidents, do serious damage to upholstery and carpeting, ruin expensive wiring harnesses, cause important lights like turn signals to malfunction, cause sickness from feces, and so much more. None of the above is good or fun to deal with. Not to mention, the cannabis items that you’re transporting legally must be in a cleanly space, so keep up on it. Plus, having a clean vehicle shows current clients and potential clients that you are a professional and it helps build respect.
– You can read more about general car maintenance and tips that relate to life out on the road in our blog post here. We also have a very handy car maintenance infographic that would be perfect to hand out to your drivers and hang in your breakroom!
The Last Thing You Want Is to Suffer a Loss Out-Of-Pocket
Things can happen to even the best maintained vehicles. You could do regular oil checks, always have pristine tires, keep your car so clean that you could eat off it, give it quality gas, do spark plugs and brakes accordingly, etc. But, one accident, and it might be RIP truck.
After all the money you have spent on your reefer truck and your business as whole, the last thing you want is to waste out-of-pocket money because you did not have ample insurance coverage. Losses can include anything from a car accident to damaged cargo or some other kind of truck incident that causes transportation delays and the resulting loss of revenue due.
Common claims that we hear from our clients are:
- Car accidents
- Lawsuits that follow car accidents (serious injury, death, extensive property damages, lost wages, etc.)
- Thefts
- Malfunctions with the truck’s cooling system
- Damaged cargo and/or trucks from malfunctions, accidents, thefts, vandalism, etc.
Some cannabis insurance that Mosaic has helped acquire for businesses with marijuana reefer trucks:
- Commercial auto insurance
- General Labiality insurance
- Commercial umbrella insurance
- Inland marine insurance
- Stock throughput coverage (crop insurance)
- CBD insurance
- Delta-8 insurance
- Cannabis retrospective rating (RETRO)
- Ocean marine insurance
- Cyber liability insurance
- Business interruption coverage
- Commercial earthquake insurance
- Systems breakdown insurance
- Workers’ comp
Are you interested in learning more about any of the insurance coverage that is mentioned above? Reach out to us, and one of our cannabis insurance agents will be more than happy to assist! We also have a quick and easy insurance quote form! You can also check out more cannabis coverage information here, as well as different commercial insurance types here.
If you are interested in coverage not mentioned on our website, or you are not sure what you need, give us a call at 425-320-4280, or email our Cannabis Insurance Department at cannabis@mosaicia.com. We are ready to help you answer any questions that you might have and explore additional marijuana business coverage options for your specific needs.
Also, you do not have to be a cannabis company for us to help you with reefer insurance! If you own another business (such as a restaurant, grocery store, farm, ice cream shop, fruit stand, etc.), we can help you get coverage! We look forward to helping you.
