Your Tools Are Covered at Home. Inland Marine Covers Them Everywhere Else.
If you're a contractor or trades operator in Wisconsin, your most valuable assets don't sit in one place. They ride in your truck, get unloaded at job sites, and sometimes spend the night in a trailer. Standard commercial property insurance doesn't follow them there — inland marine coverage does.
Wait — What Does This Have to Do With Water?
Nothing. The name is a historical artifact, and it confuses almost everyone who hears it for the first time. Inland marine insurance originally covered goods being transported across land (as opposed to ocean marine coverage for cargo at sea). Today, it's the coverage category that protects movable property — tools, equipment, and materials that travel between locations and don't stay put at a fixed business address.
For contractors and solo trades operators, inland marine is the policy that goes where you go.
The Coverage Gap Most Small Business Owners Don't Know They Have
Here's the problem: commercial property insurance covers your tools and equipment at your fixed business address — your shop, your garage, your office. The moment those tools leave that address, you may have no coverage at all.
That means:
- Tools stolen from your truck overnight — not covered by commercial property
- Equipment damaged or destroyed at a job site — not covered by commercial property
- Materials in transit between locations — not covered by commercial property
This is one of the most common and costly coverage gaps we see among solo contractors and small trades businesses in the Madison area. A single theft or loss event can run thousands of dollars out of pocket. Inland marine coverage — also called a contractors' equipment floater — closes that gap entirely.
Who Needs Inland Marine Coverage in Wisconsin?
If you work in the trades and your tools leave your home or shop, you likely need this coverage. The contractors and business types we most commonly build inland marine policies for include:
- Plumbers and pipefitters
- Electricians
- HVAC technicians
- General contractors and remodelers
- Landscapers and lawn care operators
- Painters
- Carpenters and finish tradespeople
- Home inspectors and survey crews
You don't need a large crew or a commercial fleet to need this coverage. Most of our inland marine clients are one-person shops — solo operators who've built their business around their equipment and can't afford to lose it.
What Does a Contractors' Equipment Floater Actually Cover?
Inland marine policies for contractors typically cover tools and equipment against theft, accidental damage, and loss — whether the equipment is in transit, stored at a job site, or temporarily off your primary business premises.
One of the most useful features is the ability to schedule specific high-value items. Rather than a blanket limit that may fall short, you can list individual pieces of equipment — generators, compressors, laser levels, power tools, trailers, survey equipment — and insure each one for its actual replacement cost. If it's lost, stolen, or destroyed, you replace it, not a fraction of it.
Coverage typically extends to:
- Hand tools and power tools
- Portable generators and air compressors
- Specialized trade equipment
- Leased or rented equipment you're responsible for
- Materials and supplies in transit or stored at a job site
How Inland Marine Fits Into a Complete Contractor Coverage Package
Most solo contractors in Wisconsin need three core coverages to be fully protected on every job: general liability insurance, commercial auto insurance, and inland marine coverage for their tools and equipment. Each one covers a different exposure — and none of them overlap.
We review your specific trade, your equipment list, and how you operate to build a package that covers all three without gaps or redundancies. Because we're an independent agency, we're not locked into one carrier's product line. We work with multiple carriers, including Erie Insurance, to find the combination that fits your work and your budget.
If you're just starting your contracting business and trying to figure out what you actually need, this is exactly the conversation we're built for. We also help established contractors who've grown into more equipment than their current policy was designed to handle.
Commercial Insurance
Why Wisconsin Contractors Choose Insuring Badgerland
We're a second-generation independent agency based in Monona — not a call center, not a national quoting platform. When you call us about inland marine coverage, you talk to Randy or Dan, not a rotating queue of representatives who don't know your trade.
As the only local Erie Insurance agent in the Monona and Madison market, we give our commercial clients access to a carrier that competes hard on price and service in this region — one that most other local agencies can't offer. Erie consistently earns top marks for claims satisfaction, which matters most when you're standing at a job site looking at a stolen trailer.
We also have deep roots in the Madison-area contractor and small business community. If you're working jobs in Monona, Fitchburg, McFarland, or anywhere across Dane County, we know this market and we know what tradespeople here actually need.
What Wisconsin Contractors Ask Us About Inland Marine Coverage
Does my commercial property insurance cover my tools if they're stolen from my truck?
In most cases, no. Commercial property insurance covers tools and equipment at your listed business address. Once your tools are in your vehicle, at a job site, or stored off-premises, they typically fall outside that policy's coverage territory. Inland marine — specifically a contractors' equipment floater — is what covers them in those situations.What's the difference between inland marine insurance and a commercial property policy?
Commercial property insurance is location-based. It covers what's at your fixed address. Inland marine insurance is mobility-based — it covers property that moves: tools in transit, equipment at job sites, materials being transported between locations. For contractors, both policies often work together, but they cover different exposures.Can I insure specific high-value tools individually?
Yes, and for expensive equipment, that's usually the right approach. A scheduled equipment policy lets you list individual items — a generator, a compressor, a laser transit — and insure each one for its actual replacement value. This avoids the problem of a blanket limit that leaves you short when a high-value item needs to be replaced.I'm a solo contractor just starting out. Do I really need inland marine, or can I wait until I have more equipment?
The honest answer is that the time you need it most is when you can least afford to replace equipment out of pocket. Even a modest set of tools — a few thousand dollars' worth — can be a significant loss for a one-person operation. Inland marine policies for solo contractors are typically affordable, and we can size the coverage to what you actually own right now.Does inland marine insurance cover equipment I rent or borrow for a job?
It can. Many inland marine policies include coverage for leased or rented equipment that you're contractually responsible for during a job. We review your specific situation to make sure that exposure is addressed — because a lot of contractors don't realize they're on the hook for rented equipment until something goes wrong.