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What Service Station Insurance Covers
Service station insurance covers the forecourt, the fuel system, the shop, the cash and the liability of a petrol station, a truck stop, a convenience store attached to a fuel site, or a car wash. The business is a retailer, a fuel handler and a high-risk premises at the same time, and the policy is built from sections that answer each part.
The claims are of three kinds. Property: fire on the forecourt, a vehicle striking a bowser or the canopy, storm damage, and the break-ins that follow a cash business trading late. Liability: a customer slipping on a fuel spill, a misfuel that damages an engine, and the environmental consequences of a leaking tank. Money: robbery and theft, which insurers rate on the security and the cash handling.
Fuel sites carry obligations under dangerous goods and environmental laws, with tank testing, leak detection and spill response set by the state regulator, and insurers read those records when a pollution claim is lodged. The lease or the fuel supply agreement usually requires public liability insurance at a set limit, and business interruption insurance pays the fuel margin and the shop profit while the site cannot trade.
Fortis Risk Solutions arranges service station insurance for operators across Australia from offices in Box Hill and Hawthorn, as part of our business insurance range. We look at the tank age and testing records, the trading hours, the cash handling, the supply agreement and the lease before going to insurers, and we place the pollution cover with a wording that includes sudden and accidental leaks.
Who this covers
Businesses in this group include:
- Petrol stations and fuel outlets
- Convenience stores attached to fuel sites
- Truck stops and roadhouses
- Car washes and detailing bays
- Independent and franchised fuel retailers
- Owners of service station properties
If your business is not listed, ask us. The sections below are the starting point for any business in the group.
Service Station Insurance: Cover Sections and Benefits
Service Station Insurance FAQs
A business insurance package built for fuel sites: property cover for the forecourt, the canopy, the shop and the stock, public and products liability with pollution cover for sudden leaks, money cover sized for late trading, and business interruption on the fuel margin and the shop. Workers compensation is compulsory and sits in a separate policy.
Only where pollution cover is included and the leak is sudden and accidental rather than gradual. Most liability wordings exclude pollution entirely, so the extension has to be written in, with the clean-up costs and third party claims both addressed. Insurers will ask for tank age, testing records and leak detection before they offer it, and gradual seepage found at a tank test is generally not insured.
A misfuel caused by a mislabelled or contaminated pump is a products liability question, and damage to a customer's vehicle on the forecourt is public liability. Both sit in the liability section where the operator is legally liable. A customer who fills the wrong fuel themselves is usually their own problem, but the claim still gets made, and the defence costs are covered.
Enough for the largest float and the largest overnight takings you actually hold, with the safe rating, the drop safe procedure and the banking frequency matching the policy conditions. Robbery of staff during trading and theft from the safe after hours carry separate limits. Insurers rate the site on cameras, lighting, the safe and how often cash leaves the premises. Card terminals and loyalty systems bring a separate exposure that cyber insurance answers.
A car wash adds machinery breakdown on the wash plant and liability for damage to customers' vehicles in the bay, which some wordings exclude as property in your control. A truck stop adds heavy vehicle traffic on the forecourt, larger fuel volumes and often a food operation that brings hospitality exposures. Each needs to be declared and rated, and the convenience store side follows the same rules as any other retail business insurance.
Fuel site wordings turn on pollution, tank conditions, money limits and how the lease and the supply agreement allocate risk. FRS helps you disclose the site and the records accurately, structure limits to meet the fuel company's requirements, compare insurers who write service stations and act as your advocate at claim time, including the environmental side where the regulator is involved. Owners who lease the site to an operator insure the property under commercial property owner insurance.
Talk to a broker about Service Station and Convenience Store 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 service station and convenience store insurance. Tell us what the business does and what the lease or contract asks for, and we take it from there.