Insurance Concerns for Your Company | Septic Tank Pumping Pros

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Insurance Concerns for Your Company

Companies benefit in many ways from a proper relationship with an insurance company; however, having good insurance is especially important to owners of pumpers and septic contractors. The potential downside that insurance covers for this industry is well worth the premium levied, and the protection given can save a business.

Below are a few of the major insurance concerns for pumpers and septic contractors.

The Primary Concerns for Pumpers and Septic Contractors

In order to effectively run a pumper truck fleet or a septic contracting organization, every aspect of the business must be covered expressly in an insurance contract. There are very few umbrella policies that have the breadth to cover all of the separate needs of these types of companies, as the detail involved with a single aspect of insurance coverage is usually outside of the professional expertise or the financial commitment range of a single firm.

Septic contractors must be concerned with accidents that occur both on and off work sites, acts of God and mistakes made by employees. Because septic work remains in an area long after a company has left the area, a claim can occur years or even decades after the initial work was completed. If a company is involved in a large volume of jobs, then even a few claims can quickly become overwhelming.

Pumper truck owners must involve themselves very specifically with the critical components of each truck. Commercial automobiles are viewed as many separate entities coming together to complete a single purpose, and the highly technical nature of the pumper truck invokes this insurance industry standard even more stringently. There is no such thing as a general policy that will adequately cover all of the critical elements of a pumper truck, especially if that truck is used heavily in off-site work.

The ability of a pumper truck fleet to operate without a detailed insurance plan is even more limited. Because of the increased volume of labor that a fleet entails, even a few breakdowns can redirect funds away from cash flow enough to severely hamper future jobs. Claims from years prior can keep a pumper fleet company from cultivating work far into the future without the protections of a very detailed set of insurance plans on the trucks and on the business itself.

The Types of Insurance You Need

In order to protect your business from the different risks and hazards of the septic industry, many different kinds of insurance will usually be involved. Here is a list of the most important types to consider.

Commercial General Liability (CGL) Insurance

Any company that does business with a pumper truck should keep commercial liability insurance, as this is the only type of insurance that will protect that company financially from accidents that occur on the site of a job. General liability insurance covers a variety of situations, including personal and property damage, both accidents and acts of God. The general liability policy will cover most, if not all, of the costs that are incurred from human error that result in personal or property damage.

Professional Liability Insurance

CGL policies do not cover errors and omissions, or judgment errors made by humans such as bad advice to a customer that results in a customer injury or property damage. Professional liability insurance is usually necessary to cover the cost of these accidental occurrences.

Pollution Liability Insurance

Most CGL policies and professional liability insurance policies have a specific exclusion that keep them from paying for pollution that is classified as a hazard by regulators. This decision is made before a spill or other accident can be truly vetted for its hazardous properties, and it is especially important for pumper trucks and septic companies to protect themselves from this loophole in common insurance policies.

Business or Commercial Automobile Insurance

If you are running a fleet of pumper trucks or your truck is a critical part of your business operations, then you will benefit from a specific policy on the truck(s) for physical damage coverage. Commercial auto policies cover every major piece of the truck separately, meaning that any damage that is done to the pumps, the tank or another piece of important equipment is covered. This is not the case with a GCL.

In order for a policy to cover an entire pumper truck, each individual part must usually be written into the policy expressly. Additionally, the personal property that may be in a truck during a damage event will require separate coverage from the truck itself, especially if an accident happens off of a primary work site.

Other Types of Insurance

In addition to the more common policies mentioned above, a septic contractor may also choose to invest in crime insurance as well as liability coverage for employment practices. Although these insurances may seem extraneous until they are needed, they will often help a company to avoid large payouts for unexpected events.

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