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Hired-in Plant & Machinery Insurance: What You Need To Know To Make Sure You're Covered

Hiring in plant, machinery, and vehicles can be a great solution for many businesses. In fact, it is common practice across a wide spectrum of industries. However, what happens if an incident occurs and the equipment is damaged or stolen? You don't want to be left with an expensive bill for repairing or replacing the equipment. More often than not the hiring company will request that the unit is covered in a couple of ways whilst in your possession.

The 2 Most Common Types Of Cover

There are two different ways you can go about covering your hired-in plant, machinery or vehicles:

A damage waiver: this means that you pay an additional fee to the hirer to cover the item whilst on hire.
You can insure the plant, machinery and vehicles under your own insurance programme.

The Limitations Of A Damage Waiver

If a damage waiver is provided within a hire agreement, it's very important to confirm the scope of cover it provides. It's also important to clearly identify the excess payable in the event that a claim needs to be made (which can often be quite significant). Damage waivers often include the following limitations:

No coverage whilst operating
Age & driver restrictions
Geographical limitations
They may only cover damage in certain situations (such as restricted coverage when loading and unloading a unit).

If you do choose this option then you need to understand the scope of cover provided by your damage waiver and ensure you can comply with the terms and condition. If you don't, you could well be left facing a hefty repair or replacement cost if things go wrong.

The Benefits Of Comprehensive Insurance

The other option is to insure the plant, machinery or vehicles you hire comprehensively on a blanket or individual basis. This can provide some substantial benefits in the following areas and is our recommended option:

It generally provides better coverage.
There is less uncertainty & guessing at claim time.
The right policy can give you access to coverage for the loss of hiring fees that the hire company could incur whilst the unit is being repaired.
Substantial savings: damage waivers can cost an additional 10% of the hiring fees and beyond (which often works out to be a lot more expensive than just insuring them yourself).

Let Us Help Keep You Covered

Interlink is a specialist in plant, machinery and vehicle insurance and can tailor an insurance programme that suits your business needs. Get in touch with us today.

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Interlink is a specialist in plant, machinery and vehicle insurance and can tailor an insurance programme that suits your business needs. Get in touch with us today.

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General Advice Warning: This advice is general and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider whether the advice is appropriate for you and your personal circumstances. Before you make any decision about whether to acquire a certain product, you should obtain and read the relevant product disclosure statement.

All information above has been provided by the author.

Tryan Christos, Interlink Insurance Brokers, ABN 15 008 955 646, AFSL 238901