How are you treating your small (say, 525 gallon) water trailers in regard to plating and insurance?
Are you registering and plating them and are you scheduling them with your vehicles and trailers for insurance?
I have been given advise on opposite sides and would be interested in knowing if there is a "right" answer.
First of all, note that this water trailer is one piece of equipment that can be hitched to a truck and hauled to a site. It doesn't ever haul anything other than the water tank permanently attached to it, so water "trailer" is probably not the best description of this equipment. So, for plating and insurance purposes, we have previously treated this equipment similar to a 4-wheel broom tractor, which is not plated and not scheduled with autos, but is transported to a job site by hitch behind one of our trucks.
True trailers that haul things are plated and are scheduled with auto insurance.
We recently purchased a new 525-gallon water trailer that came registered with a plate bracket that can be mounted. We have had 525-gallon water trailers exactly like this one in our fleet for years, and none of them have come in registered before, to my knowledge. (However, all water trailers have a VIN#.) Our drivers have never been pulled over because of a water trailer that wasn't plated.
I don't think rental companies (e.g. United Rentals) plate their water trailers, and it would seem like they would if it were necessary.
Our insurance company has given advice on both sides at different times. Maybe this is a state-by-state issue. We operate this equipment solely in Florida.
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Steve Hunt CPA
CFO
Alto Construction Company, Inc.
Tampa FL
(813) 241-2586
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