Machinery transport insurance deals with the hours a machine spends on a float or low loader, where plant is exposed in ways it never is on site. A machine that works safely all year can slide off a wet ramp, strike a bridge on an oversize move or shift under its chains on a tight corner. Whether that loss lands on your machinery and equipment insurance, the carrier’s policy or nobody’s depends on whose float it was, what your policy says about transit, and what you agreed with the carrier.
Own Float or Third-Party Carrier?
The first question after a transport loss is who was moving the machine.
- Your own float, your own driver. The machine stays in your care the whole way. Damage to it falls to your plant policy, if that policy extends to transit. Damage to the float and prime mover falls to your motor policy. Damage to other people’s property falls to your motor or public liability cover, depending on how it happened.
- A third-party carrier. The machine is in the carrier’s custody, but that does not mean the carrier pays. Carriers’ terms and conditions commonly limit or exclude their liability for goods carried unless you declare a value and pay for more. Your own cover needs to respond regardless of what the carrier owes.
- A hirer or customer collecting. If a hirer floats your machine away, the hire agreement decides who is responsible in transit. Our guide to dry hire insurance explains how that responsibility is usually drafted.
Transit Extension or Goods in Transit Policy?
There are two common ways to insure a machine while it moves.
A transit extension on the plant policy. Plant policies can include cover while a machine is being transported, including loading and unloading. Some extensions apply only on your own vehicles, only within Australia, or up to a set limit per conveyance. The machine keeps its scheduled sum insured and basis of settlement, which suits businesses that move their own gear between sites.
A goods in transit policy. Transit policies insure goods while they are carried, and can be arranged for a single move, annually for your own goods, or for goods you carry for others. They suit businesses that move machines they do not own, or where the plant policy’s transit limit is too low for a large machine. Our guide to goods in transit insurance explains the conditions that typically apply, including how loads must be restrained and how unattended vehicles are treated.
Check which of the two applies to each machine before the move, not after. If both might respond, the insurers may share the loss. If neither extends to the move, the gap is yours.
Loading and Unloading: Where the Damage Happens
The risk peaks at the ramp. Tracked machines slide sideways on wet or muddy ramps, wheeled loaders drop a wheel off the edge, and operators misjudge the change of angle from ramp to deck. Machines also roll or topple when walked off onto uneven ground at the delivery site.
Three policy points follow:
- Check that loading and unloading are part of the transit cover, and whether that includes loading by crane or by another machine.
- Check whether damage the machine does to your own float or trailer is dealt with under the motor policy, or excluded as damage to your own property.
- Check who is operating. A labour hire operator or the carrier’s driver loading your machine can raise different recovery questions from your own employee.
Written loading procedures, a ramp condition check and a spotter for tight loads help at claim time and in the premium conversation.
Chains, Restraint and Load Shift
Plant that moves on the deck can damage itself, the trailer and whatever it hits if it comes off. Transit wordings commonly require goods to be properly secured, and a poorly restrained load can give an insurer grounds to reduce or decline a claim, depending on the policy wording. Heavy vehicle laws also impose load restraint obligations, and under chain of responsibility principles those obligations can reach beyond the driver to people such as the loader and the consignor. Check the current requirements where you operate. Our article on chain of responsibility in heavy vehicle legislation explains who can be caught.
Practical controls: rated chains and binders that are inspected and in good condition, buckets and booms lowered, articulation locks fitted, track and slew locks engaged, and a photograph of the restrained load before departure. That photograph costs nothing and answers the first question an assessor will ask.
Oversize and Over-Mass Moves
Larger dozers, excavators and cranes can exceed standard dimension or mass limits and need permits, route approvals, pilot vehicles or escorts. Requirements vary by state and by route, and they change, so check the current rules with the relevant road authority for each move.
From an insurance view, oversize moves bring their own exposures:
- height strikes on bridges, overpasses, signage and overhead power lines, where the liability claim can far exceed the damage to the machine;
- damage to road surfaces, kerbs and roadside assets on tight turns;
- delay and holding costs if a permit condition is not met.
Policies can include conditions that the vehicle is operated lawfully, and a move made outside permit conditions may affect how a claim is handled. Check your liability limits against what a structure strike could cost, and confirm the carrier’s liability cover when you are not moving the machine yourself.
When the Float Itself Crashes
If the float rolls or collides on the road, one event can involve several policies: the motor policy for the prime mover and trailer, the plant or transit cover for the machine, and liability cover for third parties. Each can carry its own excess. Ask how your policies deal with a single event that touches more than one section, and whether any excess is waived where the claim is accepted elsewhere. Recovering a heavy machine from a rolled float can be expensive, so check the limits for towing, recovery and removal of debris on both the motor and the plant side.
Attachments and Loose Items
Buckets, hammers, augers and grabs tend to travel loose on the deck or in a separate ute. Some transit extensions apply only to the scheduled machine, not to unscheduled attachments moving on another vehicle. List attachments with values, and check whether they are included when they travel separately from the machine.
Making Machinery Transport Insurance Work in Practice
- List every machine and attachment that travels, with current values, on the plant and equipment schedule.
- Confirm whether the plant policy extends to transit, loading and unloading, and note any limit per conveyance.
- Know each carrier’s terms, and whether you need to declare values to them.
- Make sure the float and prime mover are on the motor policy, and understand how damage to the trailer and the load interact.
- If you float machines for other people for payment, tell your broker. Carrying other people’s plant is a hire and reward activity, as our post on hire and reward versus private use explains, and it calls for carriers’ liability or goods in custody cover.
- Keep loading and restraint records with the job file.
Common Questions
Does a carrier’s insurance protect my machine?
Not necessarily. A carrier’s policy protects the carrier, and their terms may limit what they owe you. Your own transit cover is the protection you control.
Will my plant policy respond if a hirer damages the machine on their own float?
It may, depending on the wording and the hire agreement. Where the agreement makes the hirer responsible, your insurer may pay the claim and then seek to recover from the hirer.
Do I need a separate policy for a one-off move?
Possibly not. If your plant policy extends to transit, a single move may already be included within its limits. If it does not, a single-transit policy can be arranged. Check before the float arrives.
Talk It Through
Request a quote or call 1300 983 940 and we will check how your plant, float and carrier arrangements fit together before the next move.
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.