Excavators Insurance in Ontario Made Simple

Excavation work is far from simple, but Excavators Insurance is simple with our help. Duliban Insurance specializes in Excavator Contractor’s insurance. We recognize the risks of your business and help you find the best insurance to meet your needs.

Product Details

Large construction projects wouldn’t get anywhere without the work and expertise of excavation professionals. You may be involved in trenching, stabilizing soil, and even controlling access and traffic into and out of work sites. All these duties present risks to your excavation business that are best handled by insurance.

Excavation insurance can be custom built to cover your specific operations. In general, excavator insurance is designed to protect you from financial loss arising from a liability claim or damage to your equipment or other property. Coverage for excavation contractors has two main components: Liability insurance and Property insurance.

Liability Protection: Liability insurance protects you if you are found responsible for damaging someone’s property or for causing bodily injury to a person. Keep in mind, liability insurance protects you even if you aren’t truly at fault for the damage. If someone claims property damage or injury, liability insurance steps in to protect you and your business.

Property and Equipment Insurance: Insurance protection for your property and equipment is the other primary type of excavators’ insurance. It is a must have to protect your business. Equipment insurance will step in if a covered loss, damages your equipment or property. Covered losses include theft or fire. As an Excavation professional, you invest a lot in your equipment – it must be adequately covered.

Now that we have reviewed the two main types of excavators’ insurance – property and liability, we can have a more in-depth discussion about the specific coverage and policies that are available, what they do and how they work.

Commercial General Liability: Commercial General Liability insurance is the most standard type of policy for all businesses. Landlords or other companies may require you to have it. This policy protects excavators from liability claims that arise from their operations, premises, and products. It also protects policyholders from claims of personal and advertising injury. Again, it is the most basic coverage for any business, and no company should operate without it.

Commercial General Liability limits range from $250,000 to $5,000,000

Umbrella Liability: An Umbrella policy offers extra liability insurance protection. It extends over your other liability policies, including your Commercial General Liability and your Auto Liability policy. An Umbrella policy comes into play if there is a major liability claim and your underlying liability limits aren’t enough. An Umbrella policy offers more thorough protection to excavators involved in large-scale construction projects.

Umbrella limits range from $1,000,000 to $10,000,000.

Commercial Automobile Coverage: If your excavating business has you using a work truck or vehicle, it must be insured with Commercial Automobile insurance. Your personal automobile insurance doesn’t extend to cover business operations, so make sure you have proper auto insurance coverage in place. Commercial Auto insurance works much like your personal auto including coverage for liability and protection for the vehicle if it gets damaged in an accident.

Limits and deductibles vary on Commercial Automobile insurance, but usually start around $500,000 in liability coverage and $500 deductibles for physical damage.

Inland Marine Coverage: Inland Marine coverage is one of the most important policies for excavation contractors. It offers coverage for your tools and equipment. It is sometimes attached to a Property policy and is also referred to as an Equipment Floater.

Equipment can be scheduled on the policy with predetermined limits, or the policy can extend a blanket limit for all equipment.

While Commercial General Liability, Commercial Auto and Equipment coverage are the mainstays of business insurance, there are plenty of other coverages that can be included in your insurance portfolio to protect your business fully.

Commercial Property: A basic Commercial Property policy offers coverage for your business premises and property from losses such as fire. A Commercial Property policy also provides debris removal, protection for property of others, and coverage for valuable papers and records.

Equipment Breakdown: Equipment Breakdown coverage applies for losses resulting from an electrical or mechanical breakdown of your machinery. Some policies may also extend coverage for income lost during the breakdown period.

Surety Bonds: As an excavation contractor you may be asked to provide a surety bond when bidding on projects. A surety bond is a contract under which a third party guarantees your work to the principal party (the party hiring you). The bond guarantees that you will complete the designated project by the specified date as well as meet the project requirements.

Additional insured endorsements: There are times you may be asked to provide an additional insured endorsement when bidding on a job. This endorsement can be added to your Commercial General Liability policy, and it extends limited coverage to a third party under your policy. You may be asked to provide this endorsement if you lease equipment or as a requirement for a job bid.