Drop-off catering insurance checklist: what a drop-off caterer should carry

The drop-off caterer insurance checklist

QUICK ANSWER

Drop-off catering usually carry general liability, product liability and commercial auto. Drop-off caterers cook in a commissary and deliver trays and boxed lunches to offices by van, with no service staff on site, so the food travels further and sits longer than restaurant food ever does. The client's vendor desk and your landlord ask for proof of each. The checklist below says what every item does, who requires it and how to check it on the policies you already have.

Reviewed by Michael LaBarbera, Licensed property & casualty agent, Provident Financial Group · Reviewed Oct 12, 2026 Updated Oct 14, 2026

Who asks a drop-off caterer for what

Who	What they usually want to see
Enterprise clients & vendor onboarding	General liability, professional or cyber liability, workers' compensation and often an umbrella
Landlords & commercial leases	General liability with the landlord as additional insured, property coverage on tenant improvements and workers' compensation
Delivery & gig platforms	Commercial auto or hired and non-owned auto plus general liability

Each of them wants a certificate, and most want it again at every renewal. A live certificate link from the wallet shows today's coverage to every holder and tells them when it changes.

How to check what you already have

General liability declarations page. Three liability numbers matter: each occurrence, general aggregate and the products–completed operations aggregate. Then the forms list: blanket additional insured, waiver of subrogation and primary and non-contributory wording satisfy every contract; scheduled forms satisfy one.
Products–completed operations. The aggregate, any vendors endorsement naming buyers as additional insureds, and exclusions for specific products or markets.
Auto schedule. Every vehicle listed with the right garaging address and use; symbols that include hired and non-owned auto; physical damage with the lender as loss payee where the vehicle is financed.
Workers' compensation information page. Item 3.A must list every state you work in, item 4 must carry the right class codes, and the employers' liability limits should meet what contracts ask. Check that the estimated payroll is close to this year's.
Hired and non-owned auto. Look for the symbols 8 and 9 or an endorsement by that name on the auto or general liability policy; without it, staff in their own cars are uninsured on company business.
Cyber declarations. The headline limit matters less than the sublimits: social engineering, funds-transfer fraud, ransomware and business interruption, plus the regulatory coverage and the panel of breach vendors.
Business owner's policy declarations. Liability limits on the first page, then the property section: building (if you own), business personal property, business income and the named extras such as spoilage, equipment breakdown or employee dishonesty. Confirm the property values are current.
Employment practices declarations. Limit and retention, third-party coverage for claims by customers, and whether wage-and-hour claims carry any defence sublimit.

What usually goes wrong for drop-off caterers

Hot and cold holding during delivery and the office that left the trays out until three.
Vans and drivers running all morning on a policy priced for a kitchen.
A hood-cleaning or suppression-service condition in the property policy with no record it was met.
Employees delivering in their own cars with no hired and non-owned auto.
Assuming the delivery platform's policy covers your own drivers; it covers theirs.
A personal auto policy on a truck with the company name on the door.

What underwriters will ask a drop-off caterer

Orders per day and delivery radius, the van and driver set-up, and how delivery temperatures are logged
Seating, hours, cooking methods and the hood and suppression system's last service
Delivery: your own drivers, third-party platforms or both
Who delivers, in whose vehicles, and whether any third-party platform is used
Each vehicle, its garaging address, radius and who drives it
Driver list with licence states and dates of birth for motor vehicle records

Have the answers in the wallet before the renewal and the quote request fills itself in; CoverMatch sends one application to every eligible carrier and lines the quotes up against what you have.

Renewal timing

Workers' compensation is audited on actual payroll and liability on sales, so a busy year ends with a bill unless the estimates were kept honest; pay-as-you-go billing through your payroll company removes most of that. Renewal autopilot starts the comparison sixty days out, prefilled from the wallet.

Questions people actually ask

Who is responsible for food that sat out at the client's office?

You, if it arrived outside safe temperature; the client, if it was left out after a timely delivery. Delivery logs with times and temperatures are the defence, and a products claim is covered either way when the policy includes it.

Is corporate catering a cyber exposure?

Online ordering and corporate accounts mean card data and client records; vendor onboarding at larger clients asks for cyber limits alongside the certificate. It is a small policy for the questionnaire it answers.

Does my policy cover food that spoils when the power goes out?

Only with a spoilage endorsement or a package built for food businesses; standard property forms exclude it. Contamination coverage, which pays for a health-department closure and the cleanup, is a separate endorsement too.

Do delivery platforms insure the orders my own staff deliver?

No. A platform's coverage follows its own drivers while they are on its app. Your employees in their own cars need hired and non-owned auto on your policy, and your own vehicles need commercial auto.

Can I keep my work truck on my personal auto policy?

Usually not once the truck is titled to the business, carries tools or a logo, or is driven by employees. Personal policies exclude business use beyond commuting, and a denied claim after an accident is an expensive way to find that out. The state auto minimums on the state pages are floors; contracts ask for more.