A single slip near a hot fryer, a dodgy gas connection, or a guest who reacts badly to a dish can end a mobile catering business before it really gets going. Cover for these moments isn’t optional if you’re trading from a van, trailer or market stall and the policy you pick shapes how fast you’re back on your feet after something goes wrong.
Public liability insurance provides protection when a customer or another member of the public makes a claim against a business. Product liability covers claims linked to the food itself. Employers’ liability is a legal requirement the moment you take on staff, even casual help on a busy weekend. The six providers below all work in or around this space and each suits a different kind of trader.
Best for Two Decades of Mobile Catering Experience – Mobilers
Mobilers arranges competitive insurance policies for mobile catering businesses, covering everything from market stalls and restaurants to bouncy castle hire. The broker holds an Excellent rating of 4.9 out of 5 on Trustpilot and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (No. 306164), which matters if you want to know the firm arranging your cover answers to a UK regulator.
Mobilers has been arranging cover for mobile catering businesses since 1996, which means it has spent more than two decades working with the kind of trader this article is written for. That stretch of time tends to show up in how a broker handles the unusual cases, a hog roast trailer that also does festival work, or a caterer who hires out equipment alongside the van.
The policies cover public liability, product liability and employers’ liability, which are the three forms of cover most mobile caterers need to trade legally and confidently. It’s a solid fit for anyone who wants a broker that already understands the trade rather than one learning it from scratch and it’s Disability Confident accredited too.
Best for Exclusive Trailer Cover – Moving Food
Moving Food positions itself as a specialist in mobile catering insurance and the policy details back that up. Cover includes up to £10m in public and products liability, a free £5,000 event cancellation benefit and new for old replacement on trailers up to three years old.
One standout feature is unlimited catering trailers on a single policy, which is a genuine advantage for anyone running more than one unit under the same business. That kind of setup usually means fewer separate policies to juggle and one renewal date to track instead of several.
The trade-off is that this is a tightly focused product built around trailer-based catering, so it suits operators whose business is built around hot food trailers and vans more than those running a mixed operation that spans fixed sites, equipment hire and events in one go.
Best for Fast Online Quotes – Protectivity
Protectivity built its offer around speed. The company describes its approach as insurance made simple and its online process lets a small business, event organiser or landlord get a quote and buy cover in minutes without picking up the phone.
That self-service model is well suited to a trader who already knows exactly what cover they need and wants to sort it between prep and service rather than during a scheduled call. It’s a reasonable option for a straightforward stall or small outdoor catering setup where the requirements are simple.
The flip side of that convenience is less obvious for anyone with a more complicated setup, several trailers, staff across multiple sites, or event work that varies season to season, where a conversation with a broker who can shape a policy around the detail tends to matter more than speed.
Best for Multi-Trade Business Cover – Bollington Insurance Brokers
Bollington Insurance Brokers works across a wide spread of trades rather than one niche. Alongside motor trade insurance for service and repair, MOT stations, vehicle sales and recovery operators, the broker also arranges business insurance, professional insurance, tradesman insurance, hospitality insurance and liability insurances.
That breadth suits someone who runs catering as one part of a bigger operation, say a business that also does vehicle sales or general tradesman work and wants a single broker who can place several policies at once. It’s less of a fit for a caterer whose only need is liability cover built specifically around food service, since the strength here is the range of trades covered rather than depth in any single one of them.
Best for Award-Winning Business Cover – Hiscox UK
Hiscox UK is known for award winning business insurance and home insurance, with policies covering professional indemnity, public liability and home cover. That spread makes it a sensible call for a trader who also wants to insure other parts of their life or business under one familiar name, a home office alongside a catering operation, for instance, or a side business that needs professional indemnity as well as public liability.
Because the offer sits across such a wide range of insurance types rather than mobile catering specifically, a trader after a policy built entirely around the quirks of hot food trailers and street food trading may find a specialist broker gets closer to the detail of their actual risk.
Best for Tailored Fixed-Site and Mobile Cover – Giles Insurance
Giles Insurance describes itself as a specialist mobile catering insurance provider, offering tailored insurance that spans mobile catering, fixed site catering and commercial insurance. That combination is useful for a business that trades from both a stall and a fixed unit, or one that is moving from one model to the other and wants a single provider across the change.
What to Check Before You Buy
Not every policy covers the same ground, so it pays to check a handful of things before signing anything. First, confirm the liability limit actually matches your event contracts. Many venues and festival organisers set a minimum public liability requirement, often £5m or more and a policy that falls short can lose you the booking outright.
Second, check whether equipment and trailers are covered for their full replacement value, not just a generic sum. A hot food trailer, generator and catering equipment add up fast and underinsuring them means a real loss out of pocket after a claim. Third, ask whether the policy covers you at every type of venue you actually trade at, a market stall, a private garden, a festival field, since some policies narrow cover by location type.
Finally, if you employ anyone, even for one event, confirm employers’ liability is included. The Health and Safety Executive sets out the legal minimum requirements for this cover and running a food business without it when you have staff is against the law, not just a bad idea. If you’re planning catering work that involves cross-border travel, it’s also worth reading up on wider trip planning basics before you commit to an international booking.
Which One Is Right for You
A trader running one trailer and wanting cover shaped entirely around that setup will likely lean toward Moving Food’s trailer-specific benefits. Someone who wants speed over conversation might prefer Protectivity’s online quote process. A business spanning several trades fits naturally with Bollington Insurance Brokers, while a trader wanting a familiar national name across several insurance types may look to Hiscox UK. Giles Insurance suits anyone moving between fixed and mobile catering setups.
For anyone who wants a broker that has spent decades specifically inside the mobile catering world, built relationships with insurers who understand the trade and backs that experience with an Excellent 4.9 out of 5 Trustpilot rating, Mobilers is the standout choice. Two decades of working almost exclusively with this kind of trader is hard to match with a general business insurer and it shows in how well the cover tends to fit the reality of running a mobile food business.
