Telehandler insurance, along with cover for scissor lifts and boom lifts, deals with machines whose whole job is reach: lifting loads high and far, or lifting people to work at height. When they go wrong, it is usually because of that reach. A telehandler tips forward with the boom extended, a boom lift clips a gutter, a scissor lift drops a wheel into a hole. The physical damage sits under your machinery and equipment insurance, but the liability exposures and the conditions around operators matter just as much.
Telehandlers, Scissor Lifts and Boom Lifts Are Different Risks
- Telehandlers. One machine that works as a forklift, a loader and, with the right attachment, a lifting device. Used on building sites, farms and in yards, often on rough ground, and sometimes driven on public roads between jobs.
- Scissor lifts. Slab and rough terrain models lifting people vertically. The classic losses are tip-overs on uneven ground or at edges, and damage to ceilings and services overhead.
- Boom lifts. Articulating and telescopic booms reaching up and out. Higher values, more exposure to structures and overhead lines, and a greater distance between the operator and the base.
- Truck-mounted EWPs. Both a vehicle and an elevating platform, so the motor policy and the platform exposure have to be read together.
Each needs to be listed and described as what it is. A schedule that simply says “EWP” gives the insurer, and you, very little to work with at claim time.
Tip-Overs and Load Drops
Tip-overs usually follow one of a handful of causes: a load beyond the machine’s load chart at that reach, extending on a slope, soft or undermined ground, travelling with the load raised, or wind on a platform or load. Damage to the machine itself can fall under accidental damage on a plant policy. Some wordings carry conditions about operating within the manufacturer’s specifications, so a tip-over caused by overloading can raise questions.
Dropped loads are a separate issue. If the load injures someone or damages another person’s property, that is a public liability question. If the load itself belongs to someone else, such as a builder’s materials or a precast element, it may be property in your care, custody or control, which liability policies commonly exclude. Ask whether your wording extends to it or whether separate cover is needed. Our article on lifting liability explains how insurers approach loads being lifted.
Contact With Structures and Power Lines
Booms and platforms contact things: gutters, awnings, glazing, ceilings, sprinkler pipes, light fittings and, above all, overhead power lines. Damage to the structure is typically a liability question. Contact with power lines adds the risk of serious injury, damage to the network and claims from people who lost supply.
Electrical safety requirements for working near overhead lines vary by state and network, so check the current requirement before work starts. Spotters, exclusion zones marked on the ground, and a documented site assessment are practical controls, and they are the records an insurer will ask for after an incident.
Attachments Change the Machine
A telehandler with forks is one machine. The same telehandler with a jib, a winch or a work platform does a different job. When it suspends loads, insurers may treat the work as lifting, and licensing requirements may change as well. Check the current requirement with the work health and safety regulator in your state.
List every attachment with its value, describe how it is used, and use only platforms designed and approved for that machine.
Storage, Theft and Vandalism
Access equipment spends a lot of nights on open sites. Scissor lifts and small booms attract joyriding and vandalism as much as outright theft, and batteries, control boxes and platform components are taken on their own. Controls insurers value include removing keys and control boxes, parking machines in a secured compound or inside the building, fully lowering booms and platforms, and GPS tracking on larger units. Some policies carry conditions about how unattended plant must be secured. Check them, and make sure your site supervisors know them too.
Operator Tickets and Competency
Licensing requirements for telehandler, scissor lift and boom lift operators vary by machine type, size and state, and they change. Check the current requirement for each machine rather than assuming one ticket covers the fleet.
Insurers commonly ask how operators are licensed and trained, and policy conditions may require operators to hold whatever licence the law requires. Keep copies of tickets, verification of competency and site inductions on file. For machines you hire out, the hire agreement should require the hirer to use suitably licensed operators, and your dispatch process should ask about it.
Hiring Out Telehandlers and EWPs
Access equipment is hired heavily, and hire changes the exposure. On dry hire, damage while on hire usually falls on the hirer under the contract, so the agreement, any damage waiver and your recovery rights all matter. Our guide to dry hire insurance explains the structure. On wet hire, your operator’s work on someone else’s site is your liability exposure.
Our post on plant hire insurance covers conversion by hirers, hire income loss and transport between sites, all of which apply to access fleets.
Telehandler Insurance: What to Put on the Schedule
- Make, model, serial number and year for each machine.
- Attachments listed separately with values.
- Agreed or market value, chosen machine by machine.
- Where machines are stored overnight and how they are secured.
- Whether any machine travels on public roads, and how it is registered. Requirements vary by state; check the current requirement.
- Who operates the machines: employees, subcontractors or hirers.
- The industries they work in, such as construction, agriculture, mining or events.
- Public liability limits that meet what principals and hirers commonly ask for.
Telehandlers used mainly as materials handlers in yards and sheds share a lot with forklifts; see our forklift insurance page. For the rest of the plant schedule, our machinery insurance page sets out what we arrange.
Common Questions
Will my plant policy respond if the telehandler tips over?
It can, as accidental damage, subject to the wording and any conditions, such as operating within the load chart and by a suitably licensed operator.
What about the load that fell?
Goods you are lifting for someone else may be excluded as property in your care, custody or control. Ask whether your liability policy extends to it, or whether you need separate cover.
Do I need to tell the insurer about a new work platform attachment?
Yes. Attachments change what the machine does. List them with values and describe how they are used.
Talk It Through
Request a quote or call 1300 983 940 and we will set up cover around how your telehandlers and access equipment actually work.
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.