Your general liability excludes the customer's furniture.

Motor truck cargo

The freight itself while you are hauling it. Separate from the liability on the truck.

Without it — The customer's property in your truck is excluded from general liability the moment it is in your care, and this is the policy that covers it.

Commercial auto

Vehicles the business owns and the people who drive them for work.

Without it — Loaded trucks in residential streets and loading docks are the exposure the business runs on every working day.

General liability

Third-party bodily injury and property damage. It is the line nearly every contract names by default.

Without it — Damage to the building — floors, door frames, elevator interiors, landscaping — is the claim that is not about the goods at all.

Workers compensation

Required in almost every state the moment you have employees. Priced on payroll and class code, which is why the class code is worth arguing about.

Without it — Lifting heavy awkward objects down stairs all day produces the highest frequency of back and crush injuries of any trade on this site.

Commercial property

Buildings and contents, valued at what it costs to rebuild today rather than what you paid.

Without it — The warehouse and everything of yours in it still needs replacing after a fire, and stored customer goods raise the values sharply.

Crime & employee dishonesty

Theft by your own staff, funds transfer fraud, and the dishonesty bond a home care contract will ask you for by name.

Without it — Items disappear between a residence and a warehouse, and employee theft is excluded from most property forms unless it is bought back.

Umbrella & excess liability

Extra limit stacked above general liability, auto and employers liability. Usually the cheapest million dollars on the policy.

Without it — An injury to a member of the public in a lobby or a stairwell is not capped by anything in the primary limit.

Hired & non-owned auto

Covers vehicles the business does not own but its people drive on the job: rentals, and employees running errands in their own cars. Their personal auto policy will not cover a business trip, and the claim lands on the business. Pricing depends entirely on HOW it is bought: as an endorsement on a general liability policy we write, HNOA often costs a few hundred dollars; as a stand-alone (monoline) policy it runs $2,500 to $5,000, and association practitioner programs (CPH, CM&F and similar) generally cannot take the endorsement, so "add HNOA to my existing policy for $300-$800" is usually not a real option. A package carrying GL, professional liability and HNOA together is typically cheaper than the monoline.

Without it — Rented trucks and staff vehicles used on a busy weekend are not covered by the fleet policy that lists your own units.

Business income

Replaces the profit and pays the ongoing bills while a covered loss keeps you closed. It is the part of a fire claim that is not the building.

Without it — A fire at the warehouse stops every job on the schedule while the payroll continues.

Does my general liability cover the customer's belongings?

No, and this is the most important sentence on the page. General liability policies exclude damage to property in your care, custody or control, and for a moving company that is the whole job. Coverage for the customer's goods comes from motor truck cargo while they are in transit, and from a warehouse or bailee form while they are stored. A mover carrying only general liability is insured for the door frame and not for the piano.

What is the difference between released value and full value protection?

They are what you sell the customer, not what you buy from an insurer, and they interact. Released value is the minimal liability level, calculated by weight, that applies unless the customer elects otherwise; full value protection makes you responsible for repair, replacement or cash settlement. Which one your customers are on determines how much exposure you are actually carrying, and it needs to match the cargo limit you bought. A tariff offering full value protection with a cargo limit sized for released value is a gap waiting to be found.

Do I need anything different if I do interstate moves?

Yes. Interstate household goods carriage is federally regulated, requires operating authority, and brings filing requirements and minimum liability limits that intrastate work does not. Local moving, long-distance moving and storage are three different underwriting conversations, and an operator drifting from one into the next is the most common way a mover ends up with the wrong policy. Say which you actually do, including how often.

Building management wants a certificate before they will release the lift. What do they want on it?

Typically the building owner and the managing agent as additional insureds, general liability at a stated limit, workers compensation, and often auto, with the exact building address and the move date in the description box. Requirements vary building to building and are usually stricter in occupied commercial towers. Send us the requirement sheet rather than retyping it; getting the legal names exactly right is what stops a certificate being rejected the morning of the move.

Why is moving insurance expensive everywhere I look?

Because every part of the work is a rated exposure at once, and no state is an exception. It is heavy manual labor performed at speed, in buildings the crew has never been in before, carrying other people’s property down other people’s stairs, so the workers compensation prices like construction while the general liability prices like a business that damages floors, walls and lifts as a matter of routine.

How is moving company insurance priced?

On payroll and vehicle count first, then on radius of operation, then on the split between household goods, office moves and storage. Loss history matters more than in most trades because cargo claims are frequent and small, and a pattern of them moves a renewal further than one large loss does.

What does a moving and storage insurance application ask for?

The applications for moving and storage businesses ask about 4 things above all: what commodities do you haul; do you haul full truckloads or less than truckload; are your vehicles equipped with gps, cameras, or other tracking devices; list all losses and accidents from the last three years. Have your vehicle information including year, make, model, and current value for each truck and trailer and three years of loss runs from your current and prior insurance companies ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week.