Operating · batch · alarm response
Liability insurance for a self-employed process operator
A process operator breaks nothing with tools. He operates someone else's installation, and a wrong action in the control room costs more than any piece of equipment.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Aansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een zzp-procesoperator.
The calculator and the quote form below are in Dutch. Prefer to do this in English? Email info@finassverzekert. nl or call 072 - 509 24 56 and we will take it from there.
Work out for yourself what it would cost.
Enter your details; you will receive a proposal within one working day.
- We compare the offerings of several insurers
- An adviser checks whether the cover suits your activities
- We arrange the switch, including cancellation
A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
Your risk lies in actions, not in materials. A valve in the wrong position, a dose entered in the wrong unit, an alarm clicked away or a shift handover that is incomplete: the result is a batch that goes wrong, an overflowing tank or an installation that trips into safe mode. Whatever injury and damaged property follows from that is what public and employers' liability insurance exists for, with Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code as the basis.
Two large items fall outside it, however. The installation you operate is in your keeping without your owning it. If you damage a pump, a compressor or a reactor through an operating error, that runs into the care, custody and control exclusion. And the batch that is lost plus the time the plant stands still almost always form the largest claim, while loss of production without damaged property is pure financial loss. If you work in petrochemicals, you will find the wider context at petrochemicals for self-employed professionals.
Also note the business activity on your policy schedule. Operating is something different from optimising or advising. If you adjust recipes, write work instructions or advise on process settings, a mistake in that generally produces costs without anything being damaged. That belongs on professional indemnity insurance and not on the AVB. Finally, your own your own injury is not a liability loss. For that you need disability insurance the appropriate arrangement.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
What to look out for
Four points that determine, for self-employed operators, where a loss ends up.
You operate what is not yours
For as long as you are at the controls, the installation is under your actual control. Insurers treat that as care, custody and control, with an exclusion for damage to the object itself. If the damage spreads to adjacent installations, to the site or to people, that is third-party damage. Ask whether additional care, custody and control cover is available and at what limit.
What the logbook says
After an incident the history is read out: alarm lists, setpoint changes, the handover and the release. Who carried out which action and on whose instruction determines whether you are liable or whether responsibility rests with the client. Always record deviations and reports to the shift supervisor in writing, even when they seem trivial at the time.
Operating error or design error
If a tank overflows because a safeguard was missing or had been set wrongly by someone else, liability shifts. As a hired-in operator you work within procedures you did not draw up. Say so if you consider a procedure unworkable or unsafe. That report is later your most important defence.
What the client puts in the contract
Contracts for hire often contain an indemnity, a minimum sum insured and sometimes liability for loss of production. Liability accepted by contract beyond what the law imposes falls outside the cover, and so do penalties. Have those clauses reviewed before you sign, because as a one-person business you bear the difference yourself.
What does your premium depend on?
- Type of installation: chemicals and hazardous substances weigh more heavily than food or water
- Scope of your role: operating only, or also setting up and optimising
- Annual turnover or days worked: the usual basis for self-employed professionals
- Sum insured per claim: often required in the contract for hire
- Training and certification: process engineering qualifications and a safety passport count
- Excess and run-off: determines the premium and the cover after termination
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| A tank overflows during your shift and the product reaches the public road outside the site | Provided that | No |
| An engineer is injured because you released a line for dismantling while it was still under pressure | Yes | No |
| Incorrectly set cooling causes the heat exchanger of a neighbouring unit to crack | Yes | No |
| On your advice a recipe is changed and a month's production falls below specification | No | Yes |
| The site bars you after the incident and you cannot invoice for four weeks | No | No |
| The gas detector you had on loan from the site is broken | No | No |
Operating and advising are two different capacities to an insurer; make sure your policy schedule states what you actually do.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
I dose incorrectly and a whole batch is unusable. Is that covered?
Usually not in full. The batch is the client's property that was under your control while you were operating, which runs into the care, custody and control exclusion. The downtime that follows is loss of production and therefore pure financial loss. If the incorrect dose also damages the installation or injures someone, cover does come into play.
As a hired-in operator, am I covered under the plant's policy?
As a rule, no. That insurance covers the liability of that business, not yours. The plant may, as principal, be liable for your injury under Article 7:658(4) of the Dutch Civil Code, because you work under its supervision and at its site. That arranges nothing, however, for the damage you cause to others.
What if I dismissed an alarm that afterwards turned out to be genuine?
It will then be considered whether that fitted the working practice in force. Acting in line with an accepted procedure is something different from deliberately departing from the safety rules. The latter can be treated as recklessness and fall outside the cover under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code. Report the incident to your insurer immediately in any event.
Do I need liability insurance if I only work on a secondment basis?
If you work under a contract of employment with a secondment agency, liability rests largely with that employer. If you invoice as a self-employed professional, it does not: the client then recovers directly from you. Almost all sites also require a valid policy schedule before you are allowed on site, whatever the arrangement for the assignment.
Read more
Within Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering
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