Plant Insurance – (the bit that dropped off)

It seems that most Contractors (and their brokers) are quite unaware that the cover they buy for Plant and Hired-in Plant is far from the best.

Perhaps 99% of Contractors have their Plant and Hired-in Plant insured under a standard Contractors All Risks policy and if you are one of them just ask yourself, does my policy cover these?
  • Reinstatement as new for up to two years
  • Transit by Ro-Ro ferry
  • Cover in the EU
  • Loss of Use
  • Loss of Keys
  • Signwriting and Livery
  • Plant on free loan to you
  • Plant you hire out without any hire conditions
  • Temporary & fast-tracked repair
  • Overload testing
  • Multiple lifting
  • Additional Finance Costs
  • Automatic cover for new purchases (subject to declaration)
I’m willing to bet that for most of you it doesn’t and yet if you are insured with one of the ‘name’ insurers, such as Aviva, Allianz, RSA or Zurich most - if not all - of this cover is offered as standard or on request in their Engineering policy offering. Ascend Construction Newsletter Spring 2018 So why is the cover offered by the same insurer so different?  Well until recently. In a fine example of the compartmentalisation that goes on in large insurers (and large brokers), Contractors All Risks policies were arranged in the Construction department of the insurer, and Engineering policies in the Engineering department. The Engineering boys concentrated on Plant and had a vested interest in making their product the best; the Contractors underwriters main interest was in Contract Works and the Plant side was incidental to them. Its changing now as the departments merge, but slowly. Still, you can get the best of both worlds if you know where to look – and we do. Ian Lawley, Technical Director Ascend Broking Group Ltd 01245 449 068 ian.lawley@ascendbrokingold.co.uk