Liability insurance for a self-employed rigger
Rigging work usually takes place indoors: a machine that has to go through an existing building, over floors and past door frames that were not built for it. The most expensive damage is often not the machine, but the building around it.
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In brief
As a rigger you move and position heavy objects with jacks, rollers, skates, hydraulic gantries and winches. What you do determines how the load is distributed and what route it takes. When things go wrong, there is rarely a single loss: a floor that gives way, a damaged threshold or frame, a sprinkler pipe struck or a cable tray in the ceiling come with it as standard. That damage to the building and to other property is exactly what public and employers' liability insurance is intended, under Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code.
The object you are moving falls outside the cover, by contrast. A machine, transformer or boiler you have in hand is property in your care, custody and control, and it is precisely that which represents the highest value on the job. If you do want it covered, that calls for express care, custody and control cover with its own limit and excess. Agree with the client in advance who carries the risk in the object. If the contract says nothing about it, the argument after an incident almost always goes against you.
Two things are likewise not insured. Your own ancillary equipment — jacks, slings, skates, spreader beams — is damage to your own property and belongs on a tools insurance. And your your own injury is not paid by a liability policy. If you work under someone else's supervision, that party may be liable under Article 7:658(4) of the Dutch Civil Code may be liable, but your income is only secured by a disability insurance. If you work mainly on the hook, also look at liability as a rigger or lifting supervisor.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
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What to look out for
Four points that determine fault when heavy objects are moved through existing buildings.
The load-bearing capacity of the floor and the route
A point load of several tonnes on an existing concrete floor or a basement deck is something different from the same weight spread over road plates. Ask the client in writing for the permissible loading and keep a record of what you were given. If the figures turn out to be wrong, liability shifts. If you never asked, it stays with you.
What is above and below you
In an existing building, pipework and data, electrical and sprinkler runs go through places that are not on any drawing. Damage to them is damage to third parties and falls within the cover, but the consequential loss — a production department soaked or brought to a standstill — only does so to the extent that property is damaged. Pure loss of turnover stays outside the policy.
The moment of securing
A machine that is in position but not yet anchored or aligned is a risk that continues after you leave. Record in writing when you handed the object over and who carried out the final anchoring. Without that handover moment you remain in the frame for damage that arises days later.
What you sign with the main contractor
Clients and machine builders work with purchasing conditions containing an indemnity, a minimum level of cover and sometimes liability for downtime. Liability that arises only from a contract is excluded, as are penalties. Assess that text before you start, because as a one-man business you bear the difference yourself.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the usual basis for a one-person business
- Described activities: moving, positioning, slinging and installing are looked at separately
- Value of the items: determines whether and up to what limit care, custody and control is insurable
- Type of locations: work in operating production buildings weighs more heavily than an empty hall
- Sum insured per claim: usually driven by the client's requirement
- Inspection regime for equipment: jacks and slings with demonstrable inspections count
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | Basic | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| The basement deck fails under the point load of your jacking arrangement | Yes | Yes |
| While moving out you strike a sprinkler pipe and the warehouse floods | Yes | Yes |
| The transformer you are moving tips off the skates and is damaged | No | Provided that |
| An engineer from the client walks inside your barriers and is injured | Yes | Yes |
| The client claims for the standstill of his production line because the machine only runs days later | No | No |
| A torn sling from your own set has to be replaced | No | No |
Extended here means a policy with care, custody and control cover; its limit determines whether the object on your largest job is really insured.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
The machine I am moving falls over. Is that damage covered?
Not under the standard policy. The object was under your control and therefore falls under the exclusion for property in your care. If the falling machine also damages the floor, a wall or other equipment, that is third-party damage and does fall within the cover. Separate care, custody and control cover is the only way to insure the object itself.
The client gave the wrong floor loading. Does the loss stay with me?
Not necessarily. If a client provides incorrect information you were reasonably entitled to rely on, liability can rest wholly or partly with him. What is decisive is whether you requested those figures in writing and kept them. If not, you are expected to have carried out your own checks.
I use hired jacks and gantries. Who carries that risk?
Hired equipment is someone else's property in your keeping, which again runs into the care, custody and control exclusion. Hire contracts also usually place the risk with the hirer. Look at cover for hired equipment or at plant and machinery insurance, and check that the inspection certificates are with the equipment before you use it.
What do I do immediately after an incident on site?
Stop the operation, record the position with photographs including the set-up and equipment, and gather the lifting or moving plan and the inspection certificates. Do not admit liability, not even verbally. Report it to your insurer as soon as you know of it; Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code requires timely notification and late notification can affect the payment.
Every situation is different. For these situations we have a separate page.
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