WHAT INSURANCE COVERAGE DOES A
PILOT CAR OPERATOR NEED? |
For years the pilot car industry has been operating with the concept that commercial auto coverage with $1,000,000 limits protected them. For years the trucking industry had been comfortable with someone requesting from the pilot car operator a proof of insurance certificate with those $1,000,000 limit showing somewhere on that piece of paper. Well, get ready to get the Pilot Car Insurance 101 class.
First let’s break down the exposures that are present to the pilot car operator. A pilot car is hired by a trucking company to do a few possible “business activities”. They are to either lead or follow a wide load, do a route survey, flagging, use the high pole to gauge if the load will clear the bridges on the prescribed route, shunting, or even possibly tillering.
|
ALERT: Commercial auto coverage with $1,000,000 limits does NOT
provide coverage for any of the above mentioned activities!!!!!!
|
|
So what the heck does commercial auto insurance of $1,000,000 provide then? First be aware that a personal auto policy has exclusion for business use. If you use your personal vehicle in your business, there is NO coverage per the personal auto policy. The rates and coverage’s under a personal auto policy are designed for driving to and from your office. But similar to coverage’s with the personal auto policy, the commercial auto policy can provide these important coverage’s:
|
| • |
|
Liability coverage providing payments for bodily injury and property damage caused by your vehicle being driven
(notice not the trucking company) |
|
•
|
|
Medical payments for people in the vehicle |
|
•
|
|
Uninsured/ Underinsured motorist coverage for bodily injury to people in your vehicle when an uninsured or underinsured person would have an accident with you |
|
•
|
|
Physical damage for your vehicle including collision and comprehensive coverage |
|
What insurance is needed by the pilot car
operator to cover the “business activities”? |
| General liability insurance provides coverage for the operations of a pilot car subject to any exclusion for certain activities. This would provide coverage for the pilot car operator for these examples of situations: |
|
•
|
|
Setting up the route survey and a mistake is made on the height of a bridge and the trucking company’s load hits a bridge due to negligence of the pilot car operator. |
|
•
|
|
Not paying attention to the route and failing to notify trucking company operator to change lanes causing the load to hit a bridge causing damage to load and bridge. |
|
•
|
|
Not paying attention to the route survey and failing to warn trucking company operator of a possible danger in a side road and the load get high centered. |
|
•
|
|
A pilot car operator flagging at an intersection and makes a mistake waiving someone thru causing an accident. |
|
| Some pilot car operators have shared stories of trucking company drivers “forcing” some operators to bend some of the rules. This is a huge mistake. A pilot car operator is responsible for the safe delivery of the load along with the driver of the trucking company. A pilot car operator is held to a professional level of action and responsibility due to the training and certification required. The pilot car operator must be strict to following all the rules and not allowing the truck driver to intimidate them into doing something against the rules to keep the job. |
| What exclusions are in general liability policies for pilot cars? |
Tillering is excluded on every pilot car liability insurance policy that I have seen and should not be done by the pilot car operator. Most policies will also exclude shunting. Some exclude doing route surveys. So the trucking company and the pilot car operators need to be careful in who is assuming that responsibility. Pilot car operators should not touch the load, not even to assist in securing the load as it puts them in jeopardy and there is no insurance coverage available for that exposure.
In today’s litigious society, we are seeing more exposure put on the pilot car operator’s. The trucking companies are realizing that proof of commercial auto insurance requests does not provide adequate protection for the trucking company. The requirement of both commercial auto and general liability is the only way to protect both the pilot car operator and the trucking company. Some states are requiring proof of insurance, and even some of those state departments do not understand that the commercial auto coverage provides nothing to protect the load or damage by the load.
|
|
What does general liability insurance cost for a pilot car operator?
|
The extra expense to the pilot car operator is very inexpensive compared to most business policies for a traditional business. Premiums run from $500-1000 per year for the $1,000,000 general liability limit. The challenge we see is that for the last 30 years pilot car operators were falsely told that the only insurance needed was the commercial auto liability of $1,000,000. Some operators see the importance of securing the general liability policy to protect their interests and their estate. The cost of an attorney to defend yourself is much more than $1000! Now the trucking companies must also realize that in order to have themselves protected correctly that they need to make sure the pilot car operators have both types of insurance, and then pay the pilot car operators for being trained and insured properly!
Larry Cossio has been a licensed insurance broker for 30 years specializing in hard to place risks. He is licensed in all 50 states and works with several insurance companies to provide insurance to underserved industries, including the pilot car industry. www.pilotcarinsurance.com
|
