Heavy Equipment Insurance: Cost, Companies & Quotes From $11

Working with heavy equipment is risky as bad things can easily happen. This is where heavy equipment insurance gets into the fray - tailored business insurance that mitigates costs associated with accidents and other exposures so that your business's valuation won't decrease.

Over the course of this guide, we're going to cover the details of business insurance for heavy equipment.  Also, we’ll review the companies offering the best and cheapest heavy equipment insurance. Let’s start this discussion by answering the most pertinent question: how much does heavy equipment insurance cost?

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How Much Does Heavy Equipment Insurance Cost?

The cost of heavy machinery insurance varies since it depends on the type of equipment the business is looking to insure. That being said, a full-sized excavator, bulldozer, or a huge dump truck will undoubtedly be more expensive than insuring a small tractor or   skid steer. Business size, industry, and years of business operation are other factors one needs to consider also when looking for the best heavy equipment insurance. 

The average heavy equipment insurance cost is $256 per month or $3,072 per year for a $1 million general liability coverage. This is just generalized pricing though and if you want to know the specific pricing of carriers,  here’s a table that will help you with heavy equipment insurance quote comparison. 

We know that aside from generic heavy equipment insurance rates, you also want to get an idea of heavy construction equipment insurance rates.  These are what you’ll have to pay for based on the coverages needed:

Let’s talk about contractors equipment insurance cost. On average, this is $17 a month or $204 a year. Pricing absolutely depends on the number of equipment needing coverage and how long a contractor was using them.

Also Read:Equipment Rental Insurance: Coverage, Cost & Quotes From $11

Heavy Equipment Rental Insurance

Those who rent bulldozers, snow plow, backhoes, and other types of heavy equipment can never trust the owner to provide coverage if something goes wrong. The owner of rented heavy equipment has liability. However, this is only the case if injuries or deaths happen due to defects. And so, it might be difficult to file a claim against the equipment owner’s construction equipment insurance coverage. 

However, if it turns out that the accident was due to the mistake of those who rented the heavy equipment, there’s no legal responsibility on part of the heavy equipment owner. 

Those who rent heavy equipment should get heavy equipment rental insurance. This policy provides coverage for the cost of accidents and injuries associated with rented heavy equipment. Also, this insurance takes care of repair and replacement. A heavy equipment insurance policy providing comprehensive coverage offers the following:

• General liability insurance

• Equipment breakdown insurance

• Inland marine insurance

Heavy equipment insurance can be availed as a short-term construction equipment rental insurance policy that’s very useful for construction companies and other businesses, which specialize in doing projects from one place to the next. The terms of this policy aren’t different from the terms of heavy machinery insurance policy. The only difference is that the policyholder can set its effective date at 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, up to a maximum of 1 year. 

Also Read:Non Trucking Liability Insurance: Cost & Quotes From $11

General Liability Insurance for Heavy Equipment

Getting general liability insurance is very crucial for construction firms, mining companies, earthmovers, and other businesses relying on heavy equipment to operate. This insurance will account for the costs of personal injury claims or property damage third parties file. By the way, many carriers commonly offer general liability as a primary inclusion in heavy construction equipment insurance policies. 

Studies exploring heavy equipment and pedestrian safety are few. Nonetheless, it’s a known fact that heavy machinery causes third-party accidents.  A survey conducted by the US Department of Transport Federal Highway from 1997 - 2000 states that 17% of fatalities in workplace accidents are pedestrians. The most common heavy equipment-related pedestrian accidents are:

• Rollover/runovers

• Vehicular collisions

• Getting struck 

Most of the time, these accidents result in injuries that can severely affect the victim’s quality of life and require costly treatment. The table below shows the injuries and their estimated settlement cost, which is very costly without construction equipment insurance policy and other related coverages.

Commercial Auto Insurance for Heavy Equipment

Backhoes and dozers are the most common heavy equipment involved in road accidents. Injuries these machines cause are fractures, head injuries, amputations, cuts, lacerations, and deaths.  The table below shows the importance of earthmoving insurance with commercial auto coverage by outlining the cost of settlement according to the severity of injuries. 

Earthmoving equipment insurance offers commercial auto insurance coverage. Commercial auto insurance is useful because the law treats bulldozers, backhoes, skid steers, and other heavy equipment as commercial vehicles the moment they traverse public highways. This insurance policy provides the following protection to the policyholder while dump trucks, dozers, tractors, and other heavy machinery are running on highways:

Coverage	Function
Auto Liability Coverage	Heavy machinery such as backhoes and dozers are hard to control. These can potentially cause road accidents and leave third parties injured or properties damaged. Commercial auto insurance has auto liability coverage that will pay for the medical expenses of third parties and will reimburse the value of damaged property
Physical Damage Coverage	Though built to be damage resistant, backhoes, dozers, dump trucks, tractor-trailers, and other heavy machinery will incur dents and other types of damage. This is why commercial auto insurance for heavy equipment includes physical damage coverage. Physical damage coverage has two forms - collision and comprehensive. Collision physical damage coverage covers parts repair or replacement if backhoes and other types of heavy equipment incurred damage due to a collision. On the other hand, comprehensive physical damage coverage will cover parts repair or replacement if fire, lightning, hail, wind, storm, vandalism, and other covered perils damaged heavy equipment
Emergency Roadside Assistance	While running on the highway, dump trucks, dozers, and backhoes might experience issues and stall. Of course, they have to reach the project site or else, they’ll miss important tasks. Commercial auto insurance includes emergency roadside assistance coverage that reimburses the expenses for tire repair, tire delivery and replacement, gas delivery, battery jump start service, and more
MedPay/Personal Injury Protection	Operators might get injured when the heavy equipment they’re driving causes an accident or gets involved in an accident. MedPay and personal injury protection are inclusions in commercial auto insurance that takes care of the operator's medical expenses. Note that, unlike personal injury protection, MedPay covers lost income compensation

Workers Compensation Insurance for Heavy Equipment Operators and Technicians

Workers' compensation insurance is a common inclusion in heavy construction equipment insurance, which covers backhoes, dump trucks, bulldozers, compactors, pavers, tower cranes, excavators, and graders. Heavy equipment might injure operators and technicians and workers' compensation insurance will help with this. The coverages of workers' compensation insurance are as follows:

Coverage	Function
Employee Treatment/Medical Procedure	Operators and technicians of heavy equipment experience accidents such as falls, getting caught behind, rollovers, etc. These usually result in severe injuries that need extensive medical treatment/procedure. One of the functions of workers' compensation insurance is to cover the surgeries and therapies of an injured heavy equipment technician or operator
Hospitalization	Heavy equipment technicians and operators might need to stay at the hospital after extensive surgery or therapy. In line with this, workers' compensation insurance takes care of hospital bills
Medication	The attending physician will always require the intake of medicines for faster healing. Workers' compensation insurance pays the expenses for a heavy equipment operator or technician’s medication
Rehabilitation	Heavy equipment-related accidents might result in the technician or operator incurring injuries that result in impairment. If rehab is needed to correct such impairment, workers' compensation insurance will pay for the fees of the therapist
Lost Income Compensation	Impairment or hospitalization will result in the temporary unemployment of a heavy equipment technician or operator. Workers' compensation covers this peril. It supplements lost income by providing a weekly allowance equal to two-thirds of the average weekly wage. For example, if a heavy equipment technician or operator earns $946 per week, then the weekly allowance from workers comp will be $633.82
Death Benefits	Workers' compensation insurance provides death benefits if an operator or technician dies because of a heavy-equipment related accident. Death benefits include but are not limited to funeral payments and financial support to dependents (e.g. wife and biological children, adopted children, and elderly parents)

Equipment Breakdown Insurance for Heavy Equipment 

Physical damage coverage in commercial auto insurance doesn’t apply if a dump truck, bulldozer or any other heavy equipment incurred damage on its own due to frequent use. For this reason, insurance companies also include equipment breakdown insurance. Equipment breakdown insurance covers parts repair or replacement if a heavy equipment incurs damage because of use. 

Equipment breakdown insurance isn’t only coverage for valuable business assets such as heavy equipment. This also works as insurance for cheap equipment such as drills, electric saws, and other related objects. When it covers cheap items, equipment breakdown insurance can provide a replacement piece or unit if the scheduled equipment is less than three years old. 

Bobtail Insurance for Heavy Machinery

Freighters, large trucks, and tractor-trailers are covered by bobtail insurance. The terms of this insurance apply the moment the said machines get involved in an accident while traveling with no trailer attached to get another load. 

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Inland Marine Insurance for Heavy Equipment

Some businesses haul dump trucks, dozers, and other heavy equipment and take them to distant project sites. Commercial auto insurance doesn’t provide coverage when a heavy equipment loaded on a transport trailer becomes damaged during the trip. So what insurance provides a solution to this problem? Inland marine insurance.

Inland marine insurance will reimburse losses of the owner if his or her heavy equipment got damaged during the trip. This insurance covers destruction or damage due to fire, theft, vandalism, other types of malicious mischief, and acts of nature. 

Contractors Tool and Equipment Insurance

Contractors' tools and equipment insurance caters to the needs of construction contractors, piping contractors, house building contractors, and many more.  Equipment covered under this insurance policy are:

• Power tubing cutters

• Helmets

• Power drills

• CNC routers

• Blowtorches

• Saws

• Welding machines

• Grinders

• Cement mixers

• Ladders 

• Field lighting

This insurance policy also offers contractors' equipment rental insurance coverage. As the name implies, the coverage applies when the above-mentioned equipment is rented or borrowed.  Contractors' equipment rental insurance becomes useful when the equipment owner demands reimbursement or replacement of the rented equipment after it got broken. 

Contractors' tools and equipment cease to provide coverage the moment contractors use machines such as backhoes, bulldozers, mobile cement mixers, and other similar machines.  To get coverage, contractors decide to have heavy contractors equipment insurance.