Plant Insurance
Plant insurance covers construction machinery against damage and theft: excavators, dumpers, telehandlers, rollers, generators, cabins and the rest of what sits on a site rather than in a van.
Owned Plant And Hired In Plant
It splits into two quite different things. Owned plant is your property and you insure it like any other asset, on an agreed schedule with values. Hired in plant is not yours, and what you are insuring is your liability under the hire agreement, which is usually a great deal wider than people expect.
The hire agreement is the document that matters. Most plant in the UK is hired on terms that make the hirer responsible for the machine from the moment it leaves the depot until it is back, including while it is in transit, and responsible for the hire charges continuing to run while a damaged machine is repaired or replaced.
What Plant Insurance Covers
Owned plant
Your machinery against accidental damage, fire, theft and vandalism, on a schedule listing each item with make, model, year and value. Settlement is usually indemnity, so values should reflect current market worth rather than what you paid.
Hired in plant
Your liability for machinery hired from somebody else, up to a stated maximum value any one item. Covers damage and theft while it is in your possession, which under most hire terms is the whole time it is off the depot.
Continuing hire charges
The hire charges that keep running while a damaged machine is off the road. These can exceed the value of the repair itself on a long replacement lead time, and they are a contractual liability whether or not you insure them.
Plant in transit
Machinery being moved between sites, including while loaded on a trailer or low loader. Frequently the moment damage happens, and frequently assumed to sit with the haulier when it does not.
Attachments and ancillary equipment
Buckets, breakers, augers and quick hitches, which are often worth more than people realise and are stolen separately from the machine.
Where The Cover Stops
Wordings differ between insurers, so treat these as the usual position rather than as universal fact. Where one of them matters to you, it is worth checking on your own schedule before you need to.
Mechanical and electrical breakdown
A machine that simply fails is not insured. Plant cover responds to sudden external damage and theft, not to a hydraulic pump wearing out. Breakdown cover is a separate arrangement.
Plant on the public highway
Machinery driven on a public road usually needs road risks cover under a motor policy rather than the plant policy. The boundary between site use and road use is a regular argument after an incident.
Theft without forced entry to a secure site
Many wordings require the site to be secured and the machine immobilised. Keyed alike ignitions are a known weakness on older plant and some insurers now require an immobiliser or tracker above a stated value.
Overloading and misuse
Damage caused by using a machine outside its rated capacity, or by an untrained operator, is commonly excluded. Operator certification records matter at claim stage.
Value above the any one item limit
Hired in plant cover carries a maximum per item. Hire something worth more than that limit and the excess value is uninsured, which is a phone call before collection rather than a problem afterwards.
Read The Hire Agreement, Not Just The Policy
Plant in the UK is commonly hired on conditions that place full responsibility for the machine on the hirer for the entire hire period. In practice that means you are liable for damage you did not cause, for theft from a site you had secured, and for the machine while a haulier is moving it.
Those same conditions normally require the hire charges to continue while the machine is unavailable. On a long lead time item that can run for months, and it is a liability that exists whether or not the machine was your fault and whether or not you insured for it.
So the sequence is: read what the hire company's terms make you responsible for, then buy cover that matches it. Doing it the other way round is how contractors end up with a hired in plant limit of £25,000 and a £60,000 telehandler on site.
Valuing Owned Plant Properly
Owned plant is normally settled on an indemnity basis, meaning current market value rather than replacement cost new. That makes the schedule a live document rather than something you write once.
Two errors are common. Insuring at the price paid, which overstates the value on older machines and means paying premium for cover that will never be paid out. And leaving the schedule untouched for years, which understates it on anything bought recently and exposes you to average.
Attachments deserve their own lines. A breaker and a selection of buckets can add a five figure sum that nobody listed, and they are stolen on their own far more often than the machine is.
Theft Is The Claim That Hurts
Plant theft is organised, it is quick, and recovery rates are poor. Older machines sharing common ignition keys remain a significant weakness, and a machine can be on a lorry within minutes of a site going quiet.
Insurers respond to what is actually fitted. CESAR marking, a tracker, a hidden immobiliser and keeping machines parked where they cannot easily be loaded all make a difference to terms, and above certain values some insurers require them outright.
Where plant stays on a site overnight, insurers will want to know what the site security is. A compound with a locked gate prices differently from a verge on a rural road, and describing it accurately is what makes the cover reliable.
What Moves The Price
We do not publish a starting price for this cover, because a figure that is not drawn from a policy we actually placed is worth nothing to you. What we can tell you is what the premium is built from.
- Total value of owned plant and the age of the fleet
- Maximum value of any one hired in item
- Where plant is kept overnight and how the site is secured
- Security fitted: trackers, immobilisers, CESAR marking
- The work it does, since demolition and groundworks rate differently
- Claims history, particularly theft
We are a broker, so we take it to several insurers rather than quoting one. Call 02382 000820 and you will have a real figure rather than a range.
What We Need To Quote
- A plant schedule: make, model, year, serial and current value
- The maximum value of any one machine you hire in
- Whether you need continuing hire charges, and for how long
- Where machines are kept overnight and how the site is secured
- Security devices fitted to each machine
- Any plant claims in the last five years
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Contractors combinedPlant as one section alongside liability and the contract works.
- Tool coverWhere the kit is small enough to live in the van rather than on site.
- Contractors all riskCover for the works themselves while the plant is building them.
- Tradesman insuranceThe trade version of this, with tools and van cover built around it.
- All trades A to ZCover written for your specific trade rather than the general product.
- Talk to a brokerTell us what you do and we will say which of these you actually need.
Common questions
Does my policy cover plant I have hired in?+
Only if hired in plant is a section on it, with a limit high enough for what you hire. It is separate from owned plant cover. Check the any one item limit against the most expensive machine you ever take on hire, not the average.
What are continuing hire charges?+
The hire charges that carry on running while a damaged or stolen machine is repaired or replaced. Most hire agreements make the hirer liable for them, and on a long lead time item they can exceed the cost of the machine itself. They are usually an optional extension.
Is plant covered while being transported?+
On most policies yes, including while loaded on a trailer. It is worth confirming, because transit is a common moment for damage and because people often assume the haulier carries it when the hire agreement says otherwise.
Am I covered if the machine breaks down?+
No. Plant insurance covers sudden damage and theft, not mechanical or electrical failure. A pump or an engine failing through wear is a maintenance cost rather than an insured loss.
Do I need plant cover if everything is hired?+
Almost certainly yes. Standard hire conditions make you responsible for the machine throughout the hire, so owning nothing does not mean you are liable for nothing. Hired in plant cover exists precisely for that situation.
Other cover we arrange
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