Understanding the importance of rented, leased, or non-owned vehicles is critical for the mining and mineral exploration industry. For many organizations, the most significant exposure to a catastrophic liability claim would be the death or a permanent disability of a third party due to a motor vehicle accident caused by an employee driving their own or a rental vehicle.
Mining and Mineral Exploration companies will, from time to time, rent and lease vehicles. Insurance can be purchased or provided (by rental companies) in multiple places, different jurisdictions, and highly localized requirements or exclusions. The varying degrees of adequacy cause confusion about how to best place to obtain coverage.
Complications particularly arise in jurisdictions outside of North America. More often than not coverage can be obtained through different options, such as the vehicle rental agreement, the credit card that was used to rent the vehicle, your ICBC Rented Vehicle Policy and the Commercial General Liability (CGL) Policy.
Rental Company
Wherever possible maintain as full coverage from the rental Car company. If the rentals are in North America and high frequency ICBC options may be cost effective. A rental company may have exclusions for certain types of roads; i.e. Forest Service Roads or other secondary or tertiary access roads.
Credit Cards
As a back up there is no harm in using credits cards the offer coverage but we do not recommend this as a primary source of coverage. Most credit cards exclude 4×4 vehicles and “off-road” use.
General Liability
Make sure you have the applicable extensions of coverage on your general liability policies. You should consider this to be contingent coverage and not the primary source of protection
ICBC
Coverage options from ICBC can be a cost-effective alternative to the rental company, if rentals are high frequency and coverage may be broader.
Other Provinces and Private Auto Insurance
Coverage terms and options will vary.
Employees Own Personal Vehicle Insurance
If the employee/driver owns an automobile – insured in British Columbia for business use (and this often applies in other Canadian jurisdictions) – their own policy can respond to cover the third party liability and damage to a rental vehicle which was rented in the name of the individual.
Find Out More:
This list is not exhaustive and there are a variety of other insurance coverages that mining companies need in order to address all the risks they face and prevent losses. Download our free guidebook “Axis Mining – Rented Vehicle Insurance & Risk Management Guide” here to find out how you can protect your company’s assets:
