Guides
Inland marine insurance for tools, equipment and goods in transit
Inland marine insurance covers business property that moves or sits off premises: tools, equipment, goods in transit, fine art. How it works and how it differs.
Inland marine insurance covers business property that moves, is used at changing locations, or has special value that a standard property policy handles poorly: contractors' tools and equipment, goods shipped by land, installation work, fine art, camera and film gear, property you hold for customers. Despite the name it has little to do with boats. It is "marine" because of a classification rule, and it is usually written on an open-perils basis with its own valuation and theft conditions.
Why land property is called marine
The name comes from the Nationwide Marine Definition, which the NAIC adopted in 1953 and revised in 1976. IRMI describes it as a classification standard for which kinds of property can be insured under marine forms: generally property that is movable, in transit or tied to transportation or communication. Ocean-going cargo is "ocean marine" (ocean marine and cargo insurance: how shipment and vessel coverage works); everything that travels or works on land falls under "inland" marine. The practical result is that commercial inland marine is a family of floaters and coverage forms, not a single policy.
Why the property policy is not enough
A commercial property insurance: what it covers and what it doesn't policy is built around buildings and business personal property at the described premises. It reaches property away from those premises only through a small extension. In the ISO Building and Personal Property Coverage Form (CP 00 10), that extension is modest, so a van full of tools, a trailer of inventory headed to a trade show or a $60,000 camera package is lightly covered or not at all once it leaves the building. Inland marine fills that gap, and some classes (fine art, jewelers' stock, valuable records) carry values the property form was never priced for.
The main kinds of inland marine coverage
| Coverage | What it covers | Typical buyers | Where to read more |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contractors' equipment | Owned tools, machinery and mobile equipment at job sites and in storage | Trades, excavators, landscapers | contractor's equipment insurance: covering tools, machinery and rentals |
| Builder's risk and installation floaters | Materials and work in progress, and installed items before the project is done | General contractors, owners, equipment installers | builder's risk insurance: covering a building while it is under construction |
| Goods in transit and transportation floaters | Your goods while shipped by truck, rail or air, whether you or a carrier moves them | Manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers | motor truck cargo insurance: how it works and where it stops covers the carrier's side |
| Bailee coverage | Customers' property in your care, such as cleaned garments, repaired goods, stored items | Cleaners, repair shops, storage and warehouse operators | bailee coverage: insuring customers' property in your care |
| Equipment floaters | Cameras, medical and diagnostic devices, computers and other portable electronics | Photographers, clinics, event and film crews | Film production insurance |
| Fine art, jewelry and collectibles | Items with high value and appraisal-based valuation | Galleries, jewelers, museums | Jewelry store insurance |
| Valuable papers and accounts receivable | Cost to reconstruct records and, in the receivables form, unpaid customer balances | Professional practices, finance-heavy firms | valuable papers and records |
| Signs, towers and other fixed instrumentalities | Bridges, towers, outdoor signs and similar items | Municipalities, communications, retail | signs, glass and outdoor property: what commercial property covers |
Insurers describe the same families on their own sites. Travelers' inland marine page lists property in transit, construction equipment at job sites, trade show exhibits, medical diagnostic equipment, solar and wind installations, and property of others at the insured's location. Liberty Mutual's page lists assets under construction, goods shipped between locations, tools and machinery at worksites and materials held by subcontractors.
How a floater is written
Wording varies by carrier, but the pieces repeat.
- Scheduled or blanket. A scheduled floater lists each item with a serial number and value. A blanket limit covers a class of property up to a total, sometimes with a per-item cap. Schedules need upkeep: new equipment bought mid-term is often covered only for a short period or up to a stated amount.
- Open perils. Most floaters cover direct physical loss from any cause not excluded, including theft, collision, overturn and water damage.
- Valuation. Choose among replacement cost, actual cash value, agreed value (for scheduled items) or appraisal. Valuation determines whether a six-year-old machine is paid at today's price or at a depreciated figure.
- Territory and transit limits. Floaters usually specify where they apply and what happens in transit. Some exclude air or ocean carriage or cap per-conveyance values.
- Theft conditions. Many tool and equipment forms require that stolen property be locked in a vehicle with visible signs of forced entry, or else limit the payout. Read this clause before the premium.
- Deductibles. Flat dollar deductibles are common; some classes carry percentage deductibles.
Common gaps and exclusions
- Equipment not on the schedule, or bought after the schedule date.
- Mysterious disappearance, shortage and inventory loss.
- Employee theft (a crime coverage question, see commercial crime insurance: what it covers and what it excludes).
- Wear and tear, mechanical breakdown and electrical failure, which belong to equipment breakdown cover (equipment breakdown insurance: what it covers that property insurance does not).
- Rented or leased equipment, which requires a rental reimbursement endorsement or the lessor's own protection plan.
- Carrier liability limits. For interstate shipments, a motor carrier's liability under the Carmack Amendment (49 U.S.C. 14706) can be limited by a released value on the bill of lading, so owners of valuable cargo often buy their own cargo cover rather than relying on the carrier's.
- Business income lost because equipment is stolen or damaged, unless added by endorsement.
Worked example (hypothetical)
Say an electrician in Georgia owns $38,000 of tools and test equipment, split across two vans and a shop. The business owner's policy (BOP) covers the shop's contents but only a small amount away from the premises, which would leave the vans' contents largely uninsured. A scheduled tool floater lists the high-value diagnostic meters and a blanket limit covers the remaining hand tools. A thief breaks into one van overnight and takes $9,000 of gear. If the policy requires visible forced entry and the van had it, the loss is paid at replacement cost less the deductible. If the tools were in a van that was left open, or the meters were not on the schedule and the blanket per-item limit is $2,500, the recovery drops. The values and conditions here are invented to show how the clauses interact.
What drives the price
Inland marine is rated by the value of the property and its use, not by square footage or payroll. Underwriters look at the total insured value and the largest single item, the type of equipment, where and how it is stored (yard, locked building, van), theft controls such as GPS tags and cages, the loss history, the deductible and the territory. Contractors and transit-heavy businesses are also asked about driver controls and security. Rates are typically set per $100 of insured value and vary widely by class, so compare quotes rather than benchmarks.
Market snapshot
In the 2025 NAIC market share data (states and U.S. territories, summed for this site), the inland marine line totaled about $34.9 billion of direct premium. The largest groups were Liberty Mutual (about $4.4 billion), CNA (about $2.6 billion) and Allianz Commercial (about $2.5 billion).
Buying checklist
- Make a list of everything that leaves the building or is used off site: tools, vehicles' contents, inventory in transit, rented items, customers' property.
- Note the largest single value and the total in each location (shop, yard, van, job site).
- Decide scheduled versus blanket, and ask about the cap on unscheduled additions.
- Read the theft condition, the valuation clause and the transit limit.
- Check the policy against contracts and loan documents that require specific cover or a loss payee.
- Update the schedule at each renewal and after major purchases.
Key takeaways
- Inland marine covers movable, off-premises and specialty property that a standard commercial property form handles lightly.
- The coverage is a family of floaters. Pick by what you own and where it goes: equipment, goods in transit, customers' property, fine art or records.
- The schedule, valuation clause and theft condition decide most claims, more than the limit on the declarations page.
- For the two largest construction uses, see contractor's equipment insurance: covering tools, machinery and rentals and builder's risk insurance: covering a building while it is under construction; for the carrier's side of cargo, see motor truck cargo insurance: how it works and where it stops.