Contractors Tools & Equipment Insurance Cost (2026)
Median small-business Inland Marine premium — the canonical product for contractors' tools, equipment, and materials in transit or on job sites — is $48/month ($576/year) for a typical $50K blanket Tools & Equipment Floater per III Commercial Insurance Basics. Cost scales roughly linearly with coverage limit: $10K limit ~$25/mo, $100K ~$95/mo, $250K ~$220/mo.
Why contractors need this: Commercial Property covers buildings + permanent improvements at a fixed location; General Liability covers third-party bodily-injury + property damage. Neither covers your own tools, equipment, and materials when they're on a job site, in your truck, in transit, or at a temporary location. That gap is exactly what Inland Marine / Tools & Equipment Floater fills. Loss of a $40K mini-excavator from a job site overnight = uncovered without this policy.
Settlement type matters. Actual Cash Value (ACV) is depreciated value — a 5-year-old $30K skid steer might pay out $12K. Replacement Cost (RC) pays the cost to buy new of like-kind quality, typically 5-15% premium uplift but materially better recovery. Specify RC at quote.
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Plug in a few business details and we'll show an industry-typical annual range for General Liability + Workers Compensation + Commercial Auto, with the source for every number. Real quotes vary by carrier, claims history, and underwriting — get an actual quote here.
Industry-typical market ranges
Sourced from III, NCCI, ISO, NAIC, BLS, FMCSA, FDA, NRA — government and bureau publications, not from our quote form
Market ranges from published industry sources:
- Median Inland Marine (Tools & Equipment Floater): $48/month, $576/year for $50K blanket limit (III Commercial Insurance Basics)
- Premium by limit: $10K ~$25/mo · $50K ~$48/mo · $100K ~$95/mo · $250K ~$220/mo · $500K ~$400/mo (scales roughly linearly)
- Replacement Cost vs ACV: RC adds 5-15% premium uplift but pays new-of-like-kind on a claim. ACV pays depreciated value. Always specify RC at quote for tools/equipment with 3+ year useful life
- Scheduled vs blanket: blanket covers any tool/item up to the per-item sublimit (typically $10K-$25K); scheduled lists specific high-value items (mini-excavator, laser scanner, drone) with item-specific limits. Most policies are blanket with a scheduled rider for items >$10K
- What Inland Marine covers: theft (most common claim — locked truck or job-site trailer), accidental damage on a job site, transit damage (your truck rolls, fire, collision), water/weather damage at temp locations, vandalism + storage. Some policies extend to rented/leased equipment + employee-owned tools used on the job
- What it does NOT cover: mechanical breakdown (Equipment Breakdown coverage — separate), wear-and-tear, mysterious disappearance without forced entry, intentional acts, war + nuclear, items left in unlocked vehicles (some carriers exclude)
- Per-item sublimits matter: a $30K skid steer on a $50K blanket might be sublimited to $15K. Check the per-item sublimit on quote — if you own anything >$15K, schedule it
- Common contractor classes priced: general contractors, electricians, plumbers, HVAC, landscapers, roofers, painters, drywall, finish carpenters — premium varies by tool inventory + theft loss-rate by class
Recent rate-filing activity — 8 state filings across 1 commercial line
Commercial carriers can't charge whatever they want — each state's Department of Insurance must approve loss-cost filings before they take effect. These are primary-source, government-held records available on SERFF Filing Access. Cited below: the most-recent active filings affecting contractors tools & equipment (inland marine) operations, with the real SERFF tracking number for each.
| Line | State | Overall change | Effective | SERFF tracking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WC | NV | -32.8% voluntary loss cost decrease (legislatively-driven; SB 317) | Oct 1, 2026 | NCCI-134895530 |
| WC | RI | Overall -2.5% voluntary (industrial); -12.9% federal classes | Aug 1, 2026 | NCCI-134743616 |
| WC | TX | Overall -3.8% adjustment to voluntary loss cost level | Jul 1, 2026 | NCCI-134745334 |
| WC | AR | Overall -9.8% voluntary loss cost; -9.8% assigned risk market | Jul 1, 2026 | NCCI-134876672 |
| WC | OH | -1% private-employer rate cut (~$10M aggregate; -50% cumulative since 2019) | Jul 1, 2026 | OH-BWC-2026-PA-1PCT |
| WC | SC | -0.4% voluntary loss cost decrease | Apr 1, 2026 | NCCI-134702984 |
| WC | NC | Industrial -7.8% / Federal -12.8% overall loss cost level | Apr 1, 2026 | NCRB-NC-2026-LC |
| WC | NC | per $100 payroll (advisory loss cost) | Apr 1, 2026 | NCRB-NC-2026-04-9403 |
Source: SERFF Filing Access (filingaccess.serff.com) — the official public-records interface for state Department of Insurance filings. Loss-cost changes shown are the overall bureau-wide change in each state; the actual impact on your quote depends on your class code, payroll, experience modifier, and carrier-specific loss-cost multiplier (LCM). Get a quote for your exact numbers.
Scope note: the filings tabulated above reflect NCCI class 9586 (Barber/Beauty Services) as an illustrative example of WC filing structure. Contractors Tools & Equipment is an Inland Marine coverage line — it has no single NCCI WC class because WC depends on each contractor's underlying trade (e.g., NCCI 5183 plumbing, 5645 carpentry, 0042 landscaping, 5188 HVAC). The Inland Marine coverage itself is bureau-filed under ISO commercial-inland-marine forms, not WC. The per-state filings shown are illustrative of WC filing structure for reference only and do not represent Inland Marine tools-and-equipment loss costs. Confirm your specific class-code mapping at quote with your underwriter based on your trade activity.
Bureau-filed loss-cost activity by state — 45 states with filings
Each link below opens a contractors tools & equipment (inland marine)-specific page showing only that state's most-recent bureau-filed loss-cost filings (NCCI workers' comp and/or ISO commercial-lines), with the real SERFF tracking numbers. Filed-rate data ≠ carrier final rates.
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