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In brief
As a rigger or lifting supervisor you determine the lifting points, choose the slings and shackles, calculate the centres of gravity and give the signals to the crane operator. After an incident those four points are examined. The question is never whether something fell, but whether the lifting plan was right and whether it was followed.
If the load falls, two lines of loss run at once: damage to the load itself, which you had in your care and which falls under the care, custody and control exclusion, and damage to everything around it &mdash. The roof it went through, the car underneath, the person standing too close. Only that second line is included in liability cover as standard.
You almost never work alone. There is a crane hire company, a main contractor and a client. Article 6:171 of the Dutch Civil Code can make the client liable for your mistake, and Article 6:170 DCC makes your business liable for the mistake of your own slinger. Who signed off what must be on paper before work starts.
The structure of the cover in three parts, with an overview per situation below.
The essentials
Damage to property and personal injury
Damage to other people's property and injury to other people.
Injury to third parties
Damage to other people's property
Also during visits to clients' sites
For staff
Employers' liability
Accidents at work and occupational illnesses.
Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code
Hired-in staff as well
Not in traffic
Optional
Extensions
What is excluded as standard.
Care, custody and control
Work after completion
Environmental damage
What is covered
Situation
AVB
Another policy
Injury to a visitor or customer
Yes
No
Damage to a client's property
Sometimes
No
An accident at work involving an employee
Yes
No
Injury to staff in traffic
No
Yes
Damage to property in your care
No
Sometimes
Pure financial loss caused by a professional error
No
Yes
This overview is general in nature and is not personal advice. What is actually covered, including exclusions, limits and the excess, is set out in the policy conditions and the insurance card (verzekeringskaart) of the insurer; you receive both before you take out cover. Taking out cover without advice? Then read what execution only means for you.
Where things go wrong in practice
Four points that make the difference between a policy that pays out and one that does not.
The load is not automatically covered
A transformer, machine or facade element that falls is damage to property you had in your care. Without care, custody and control cover with an adequate limit you pay for it yourself, even where liability is beyond doubt. Set that limit by reference to the heaviest and most expensive load you lift in a year, not to your average job, and check whether the limit applies per event or per year.
Ground conditions and outrigger loads are a shared responsibility
If the crane sinks because the mats were laid on ground with insufficient bearing capacity, an argument follows between the crane hire company, the contractor and the rigger. Record who assessed the ground, what information the client supplied about cables, cellars and drains, and which outrigger load calculation was used. Without those documents, the party with the weakest file carries the loss.
Certification is a condition of cover, not a formality
Virtually every policy requires valid personal certification and inspected lifting equipment. An expired inspection on a sling or an uncertified slinger who stands in once can cost you cover in an incident. Keep a register with inspection dates for each item of lifting gear, take rejected equipment physically out of circulation and keep the certificates of everyone who works on the hook.
What stays outside the policy
Damage to the crane itself belongs with the crane hire company's plant or own-damage cover. Downtime losses and contractual penalties because a production line was down for a day are often limited or excluded. Working outside the stated wind limits or outside the approved lifting plan touches the exclusion for intent and recklessness in Article 7:952 DCC. Your own tools that fall are not a liability loss either.
Care, custody and control is excluded as standard
Damage to property that you have in your care: borrowed, hired, being worked on or held in safekeeping: is not covered by the standard cover. For professions where this is the core of the work, a separate care, custody and control module with its own limit is essential.
Your AVB excludes damage caused with or by motor vehicles. It is precisely there that the Hoge Raad (the Dutch Supreme Court) recognised a separate liability based on the duty to act as a good employer: an employer must arrange proper insurance for employees who take part in traffic for work. A WEGAS insurance policy fills that gap.
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Not as standard. The load was on your hook and was therefore property in your care. That damage falls under the care, custody and control exclusion. What was underneath or beside it (a building, a vehicle, a person) is ordinary property damage or injury and falls within the basic cover. For the load itself you need a care, custody and control module with its own limit.
Who is liable, me or the crane hire company?
That follows from the allocation of roles as recorded. If you drew up the lifting plan and gave the signals, the emphasis lies with you. If the crane hire company assessed the set-up position and the outrigger loads, it lies there. Without a written allocation the parties point at each other and the one who cannot demonstrate that they took care ends up paying.
What is asked for first after an incident?
The lifting plan with the calculations, the inspection certificates for the lifting gear used, the outrigger load calculation, the certificates of the staff involved and the recorded work instruction for that day. If any of that is missing, the discussion immediately shifts to whether you took care and your position weakens, whatever actually happened.
My slinger is injured. Who carries that?
You do, as the employer. Article 7:658 DCC imposes a heavy duty of care on you and requires you to show that you complied with it: a safe method of work, sound equipment, instruction and supervision. For hired-in staff the same duty applies to the party hiring them in. Keep toolbox talk records, attendance records and the recorded allocation of tasks for the lift concerned.
Finass Verzekert is a trading name of Finass Advies B.V. We advise on and arrange non-life insurance on the basis of an objective analysis of several insurers, and receive commission for this from the insurer, which is included in the premium. You pay no separate advice fee. Before you take out cover, we establish your wishes and needs.
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