I am finding it impossible to get trailer insurance unless the trailer is registered to me, not my team (who bought it). And then I am being told the trailer will not be covered if I use it to haul non-personal times or lend it to someone else. Surely some other FRC teams own a trailer and have it insured.
Any suggestions? Thanks, Chris.
Our trailer is owned by the school (paid for by the robotics team) and insured through the school with no issues.
We do that with our registered nonprofit booster club. No issues I’m aware of
Surely if you are the mentor and you travel with the team ordering and buying parts funded by the team you could actually have the trailer insured in your name just so long as you are driving the vehicle towing the trailer everything should be fine and dandy
Wink wink “owned” wink wink?
That’s what I was told be two different insurance agents. It seems stupid to me too.
This is what we do.
No sense in trying to fool around with any ownership games. If something bad were to happen and it was owned by you it’s your personal liability. I don’t want to roll those dice.
I clarified the original post since it’s misleading. It is owned by the school but purchased from a restricted donation for exclusive robotics team use after some issues with the athletics department.
We did have a trailer get totaled on the way to an event last year so making sure the insurance is squared away is important.
How is it registered to “my team (who bought it)”? What actual legal entity is it registered to? A purchasing agent for that legal entity needs to buy the insurance, you can’t buy yourself trailer insurance that applies to your teams vehicle. So if it’s legally registered to the school, the district needs to buy the insurance, or if its a 501c3 booster club, the club officers/board need to approve buying the insurance…
You may very well be one of those board members, but it’s not clear in this post, so by extension i’ts not clear you’ve made that relationship obvious to the insurance agents you’ve talked to.
If you (a parent/volunteer) are trying to buy insurance for a district vehicle (trailer), the insurance agents won’t let you, because you are not an employee or representative of the district. Some things we need to rely on our admin contacts for…
Here is some more detail. The trailer was purchased by me, a board member and assistant coach, on behalf of the team with authorization from the board. I was reimbursed from the team for the full price paid. The team name is on the bill of sale. The trailer has yet to be registered but it will be registered to the team.
Chris
HERE is a paper that talks about what types of insurance non profits should have. (Not sure if you are non profit but it should be about the same for small businesses too)
I think what you’re looking for is “commercial auto insurance” most insurance companys probably have a special department for that. Try calling and specifically asking for their commercial department for business and you might get some better results.
So reading between the lines, the team is a nonprofit corporation then? I think jaunvie has the best advice here, to talk to a commercial vehicle insurance department…
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