What kind of insurance to get?

[Manuel1975]

Hi there,

 

Im touring a lot these days and im bringing in my own Chamsys lighting desk, my macbook pro, my elc node etc etc. All in all a lot of expensive gear. Last month I was doing a show in the south of Holland and the public started throwing beer all over the place. Luckily my gear survived and nowadays I bring a protective sail to cover everything. But this made me think and now I want to have an insurance. I've tried to get my private insurance agent to arrange a insurance for my gear but he does not understand anything about touring.

 

Do any of you have any experience with this? Which company does damage & theft insurance for gear on tour for Lighting designers etc?

 

Hope you can help!

 

Manuel

[Tom]

What's the contractual arrangement with who ever is employing you? Are they paying for use of your kit? I would be inclined to insist they insure it, as they would with any other hired kit.

 

Otherwise Hencilla Canworth provide insurance services like PLI for BECTU members and also offer kit insurance. Might be a good starting point.

 

T

[TheMoatPlayers]

I have some of the IT covered on my domestic insurance (laptop/pc/DMX etc). I usually hire the larger stuff in and pay for the insurance cover provided by the Hire Co.

 

I looked around a while back and Allianz did a policy that at the time seemed to cover everything.

[Adam L F]

I've heard words going around that the BECTU policy isn't as great as the money you pay for it. I obviously don't want to rule out people getting it, but a number of large production houses now do not accept the BECTU policy.

[smalljoshua]

I believe that rumor is due to an incident where a technician wasn't covered after an incident. BECTU have since changed their underwriters and everything seems to be sorted as far as that goes.

 

I have the aforementioned BECTU policy and although I've never had to claim, I've never been refused work because of it.

 

Josh

[Stuart91]

If the OP is dependent on the gear for touring work, it'd be worth checking what happens in the event of a loss. If the beer-throwing incident had turned out differently, you could have been left with ruined kit and imminent shows to fulfil. Would the insurance cover the cost of a sub-hire whilst the gear is out of action? How quickly could the money arrive? Can you afford to replace gear out of your own pocket whilst waiting on a payout?

 

It might be worth having a backup laptop with a very basic DMX dongle so that in the case of utter disaster you've got some way of limping through the rest of a show.

[boac]

I have equipment insurance for my gear - laptops, Chamsys wings etc - all the stuff I depend on when working. I got this from Robertson Taylor, but also spoke to Doodsons who have similar policies. I do expect hirers to have insurance for gear they rent from me, but wanted the peace of mind of having my own policy in place, year round, and also get my macbook and other stuff covered at the same time.

 

I don't know if they will cover you as you are not based in the UK. Might be worth asking some of the hire companies local to you where they get their insurance from to find a local broker who understands the industry.

 

The BECTU thing mentioned above was to do with Public Liability Insurance and was not just a rumour. There was apparently a problem when a freelance crew member had an accident with some kit owned by a rental company. A big fuss ensued and the PSA made the most of it to sell their own PLI offering. BECTU responded fairly quickly and fixed theirs AFAIAA.

[IRW]

Point to note- BECTU's PLI does not cover equipment itself- it merely covers you should some equipment you are responsible for fall on someone's head (for example)

 

I phoned them to ask exactly that question a few weeks ago, and they put me through to Hencilla to speak to them about essentially getting a 'bolt-on' to cover equipment (in this case, it was to cover theft of equipment in my care).