Steve Gambino of DKM Risk Advisors
The majority of crane owners will need commercial general liability insurance (CGL), which protects them from a variety of claims, including bodily injury, property damage, and personal injury, but there are many other forms of insurance that are specific to crane owners. Blanket additional insured forms are endorsements often attached to the liability insurance policies to provide additional coverage. Stephen Gambino of DKM Risk Advisors discusses what this coverage may include.
Waiver of Subrogation
The intent of the waiver is to prevent one party’s insurer from pursuing subrogation (standing in the place of) against the other party, in the event of a loss or injury. Generally, insurance policies do not bar coverage if the insured waives subrogation against a third party before a loss. However, coverage is excluded from many policies if subrogation is waived after a loss because doing so would violate the principle of indemnity.
Primary Noncontributory
A contract insurance requirement that stipulates the order in which multiple policies triggered by the same loss are to respond. For example, a contractor may be required to provide liability insurance that is primary and noncontributory, which means the contractor’s policy must pay before other applicable policies (primary) and without seeking contribution from other policies that also claim to be primary (noncontributory).
Riggers Coverage
Insurance for a contractor’s liability while moving property and equipment that belongs to others, such as lifting an air-conditioning unit onto a roof of a building with a crane. The standard commercial general liability policy does not cover this risk, due to the exclusion for “personal property of others in your care, custody, or control.” Riggers liability coverage can be affected by attaching a riggers liability endorsement to the CGL policy that modifies or deletes the “care, custody or control” exclusion. (Note that if the contractor is an insured under a builders risk policy on the project, coverage is usually provided in that policy for property of others for which the insured may be liable. The builders risk policy may include a deductible, however, and may not include coverage for loss of use.)
Inland Marine
Insurance for property in transit over land; transportation instruments, such as bridges, roads, and piers; communication instruments (such as television and radio towers); and legal liability exposures of the person or company with custody of the property. Inland marine coverage forms are generally broader than property coverage forms. If a company is insured for risks such as floods and earthquakes, riggers coverage, and boom coverage that protects physical damage to the crane boom and equipment overloads, the insurer may include substitute equipment, rental expenses, crane attachments, miscellaneous tools, and clothing at extra charge. Additional coverage may be motor truck cargo and debris removal.
$5MM Per Project
Insurance that will provide coverage for up to $5MM per project or job that a company is working on.
30-Day Notice of Cancellation
Provisions in policies mandating that insurers are to provide advance notice of cancellation or nonrenewal of a policy. Most commonly, the required cancellation notice period is 30 days.
In addition to mobile crane insurance, non-owned and hired automobile liability coverage may be necessary if employees operate their own personal vehicles for company business.
