Lifting work carries an exposure that ordinary liability wordings deliberately carve out. The load in your control while it is suspended is frequently excluded, and that is the exact moment most crane claims happen.
The Care, Custody and Control Exclusion
Public liability policies generally exclude damage to property in your physical or legal control. When a load is on the hook, it is in your control. Drop it, and the standard liability section may not respond.
Lifting liability, sometimes written as an extension or a separate section, is what covers damage to goods being lifted. Limits are usually modest by default, so the question is whether the limit matches the value of what you actually lift.
What Else Needs Cover
- The machine itself — truck-mounted cranes sit across motor and plant, so placement matters. See crane truck and hiab insurance.
- Third party property — the building, the vehicle, the services you swing over.
- Injury — to workers and to the public.
- Recovery costs — righting an overturned crane is a specialist and expensive exercise.
- Hired-in equipment — slings, spreader bars and hired machines.
Where Crane Claims Come From
- Overturning on soft or unprepared ground, or outriggers not properly set.
- Overload, or lifting outside the chart for the radius.
- Contact with overhead powerlines.
- Rigging failure — slings, shackles and hooks.
- Wind, particularly on large or awkward loads.
- Damage to the load in transit before or after the lift.
The Documentation Underwriters Ask For
- Lift plans for non-routine lifts, and permits where required.
- Operator tickets and dogging or rigging qualifications.
- Inspection and maintenance records, including periodic major inspections.
- Test certificates for lifting gear.
- Ground assessment records for set-up locations.
These are not paperwork for its own sake. After a loss, they are what supports both the claim and your defence.
Contracts and Conditions of Hire
Crane hire is frequently done under industry conditions of hire that allocate risk between the crane owner and the hirer. Whether you rely on those conditions, and whether they were brought to the customer’s attention before the lift, can decide who wears a loss. Have them reviewed alongside your policy, not separately — the same applies to crane operators cover.
Truck-Mounted Cranes Sit Across Two Policies
A hiab is a truck and a crane at once, and that split runs through the whole programme. Damage to the vehicle is a motor question; damage to the crane can be motor or plant depending on the wording; damage caused while lifting is a liability question; and damage to the load is lifting liability.
Where those sections sit with different insurers, a single incident can produce three claims and an argument about which one responds first. Placing the whole vehicle and its lifting exposure with one insurer is usually simpler, and it is the practical argument for keeping the programme together.
Overhead Powerlines
Contact with overhead lines is one of the most serious exposures in lifting work: fatal risk to the crew, damage to the network, and outage claims from every customer downstream of the fault. Distances from live conductors are set by regulation and by the network operator, and spotters or exclusion zones are commonly required.
From an insurance perspective, two things follow. Liability limits should reflect network outage exposure rather than the value of the load, and evidence of your permit and spotter arrangements will be requested after any incident.
Questions Worth Asking at Renewal
- What is the lifting liability limit, and when was it last compared with the value of what we lift?
- Is hired-in lifting gear covered, and slings and shackles specifically?
- Does the policy respond while the load is being transported as well as lifted?
- Are recovery and salvage costs covered in addition to the sum insured?
- Do our conditions of hire match what the policy expects of us?
Common Questions
Is the load covered while it is on the truck?
That is usually a transit question rather than a lifting one — see goods in transit.
What limit should lifting liability carry?
Enough for the most valuable single item you lift, including installed plant and machinery, not the average one.
Does it cover damage caused by faulty rigging?
It depends on the wording and on whether the gear was inspected and certified. This is one to confirm in writing.
Talk It Through
If you lift for others, the limits are worth checking before the next big job. Get in touch or call 1300 983 940.
General advice only. This article does not take your objectives, financial situation or needs into account. Consider the relevant PDS and Target Market Determination before deciding on a policy.