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Mechanic insurance is for workshops that service and repair cars, from suburban mechanical workshops and tyre shops to auto electricians and mobile mechanics. It protects customers’ cars while they are in your hands, including on road tests, as well as your tools, the workshop and claims from customers and the public. Fortis Risk Solutions arranges this cover from offices in Box Hill and Hawthorn and sets the limits on the number of cars you hold overnight in a busy week.
What Mechanic Insurance Covers
Mechanic insurance covers customers' vehicles in your care, public liability, tools and the workshop for businesses that service and repair cars. The largest exposure is usually the cars themselves. A workshop with eight customer vehicles inside overnight can hold more value than the building, and one fire or break-in can damage all of them at once.
Most public liability insurance policies exclude property in your care, custody or control. That is exactly where a customer's car sits while it is on your hoist. Insurance for mechanics closes the gap with a motor trade section that can cover customer vehicles in the workshop, on the road test and parked in your yard overnight, depending on the policy wording and the security you declare.
Test drives need their own attention. When a mechanic drives a customer's car on the road, the owner's policy may not respond, so motor trade road risk cover is written for staff on road tests and pick-ups. Your own tow truck, loan cars and service vans are a separate risk. They sit under commercial motor insurance, rated on who drives them and how far.
Fortis Risk Solutions arranges mechanic insurance from offices in Box Hill and Hawthorn, and our team can explain it in Mandarin. We ask how many cars stay overnight, where keys are kept, who road tests and what you store, from tyres to oils and gas bottles. Workshops are one part of our transport and automotive insurance work. Mechanic shop insurance also sits in our business insurance range.
Who this covers
Businesses in this group include:
- Mechanical repair and servicing workshops
- Auto electricians and air conditioning specialists
- Tyre shops and wheel alignment centres
- Mobile mechanics working from a van
- Brake, clutch and exhaust specialists
- Four wheel drive and performance workshops
If your business is not listed, ask us. The sections below are the starting point for any workshop in the group.
Mechanic Insurance: Cover Sections and Benefits
Mechanic Insurance FAQs
Usually not. Public liability normally excludes property in your care, custody or control, and a car on your hoist is exactly that. You need a section written for customer vehicles, often called motor trade or property in care cover. It can respond to fire, theft, storm and accidental damage while the car is with you, depending on the wording and the limit per vehicle.
Only if your policy includes road risk. A motor trade insurance policy can cover damage to the customer's car and third-party property while you or your staff drive it on a road test, a pick-up or a delivery. Declare who drives, their licence history and how far road tests go. An undeclared driver can leave the claim exposed.
Usually public liability for work in customers' driveways and car parks, cover for tools and diagnostic gear in the van, and the van itself under a commercial motor policy. Damage to the car you are working on needs its own section, as it does in a fixed workshop. Theft of tools from a parked van often carries conditions about locks and overnight storage.
Under the Australian Consumer Law, services must be carried out with an acceptable level of care and skill. If a brake job fails and someone is hurt or property is damaged, the claim usually falls under products and public liability. The cost of redoing the faulty work itself is normally excluded. The liability cover responds to the injury and damage that follow.
Yes, when the activities are declared. Tyre stacks are a serious fire load, and wiring faults in a car can start a fire in the bay. Business interruption insurance can pay wages and fixed costs while a burnt workshop is rebuilt. Workshops attached to a fuel site are better placed under service station insurance, which deals with the fuel and retail side.
Motor trade wordings differ on customer vehicles, road risk, keys, overnight storage and limits per vehicle. FRS helps you disclose your activities accurately, structure limits around your busiest week, compare specialist insurers and act as your advocate at claim time. Insurance for auto repair shops also covers the building and stock, so we put it all into one business insurance package where it fits.
Talk to a broker about Mechanic Insurance
Call 03 7046 3766 on weekdays between 9:30am and 6pm, email admin@fortisrisksolutions.com.au, or send an enquiry and a broker from our Box Hill or Hawthorn office will come back to you about mechanic insurance. Tell us what the business does and what the lease or contract asks for, and we take it from there.