Insurance Deductibles

[Jumper]

Question


Those of you that have employees driving your service vehicles on your insurance policy, what is the deductable your carrier provides, and do you make the employee pay that if he or she is ``at fault``. I just left an employer last month, in part because theirs was $7000, which I would have to pay in the event I cause the accident. After my encounter with the deer that caused $4200 damage to a rental car (I was insured) I really got to thinking about how $7000 would set me back.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I have never heard of a company making the employee pay for the accident.

 

[BlackenedTimber]

The safety officer on the RES Gulf Wind Phase I wind energy project in Sarita, TX (70 miles south of Corpus Christi) hit a Nilgai (600+ pound imported African gazelle-type animal) with his F350 crew-cab super-duty early one morning before the sun came up. Well, actually the Bull Nilgai hit HIM, ran into the side of the truck as he was driving on the main north-side service road. It smashed both driver's side doors into the cab, breaking his shoulder in the process.

The Kenedy Ranch, that owned the property we were working on, wanted to charge him $10,000 for the animal, as that's what they charge rich a-holes to hunt them on the ranch. The company (RES) took the $6,000 (or so I heard) in repairs out of his paycheck. And the dude still had a broken shoulder to deal with.

Only after the ranch inspected the animal did they let this dude off the hook for the $10,000. Apparently it had been drilled through the chest with a rifle, and took off running, eventually slamming into the side of the aforementioned F350. The truck looked like you took a swipe at it with a Cat 330 excavator.

RES is a multi-national, multi-billion-dollar operation, who was working for Babcock & Brown, who until recently was a H-U-G-E international Renewable Energies company (Gulf Wind Phase I ended up running B&B about 2.2 Billion in construction costs in 10 months...) and they still felt it proper to charge the safety officer for the repairs to the company truck...

T

 

[Jumper]

I have never heard of a company making the employee pay for the accident.

Neither had I until I read the fine print of what I signed upon employment. That and other reason are why I do not work there anymore.

 

[Toddppm]

If you were at fault? Hmmmmm, never heard of that either but not bad if it's your fault.......but that deductible is outrageous.

I wonder if I can deduct from my employees check that just got me a raise in my premiums of almost 4K/yr. because he got another ticket not on my time but his, still affects my policy though......might have to rewrite the handbook.

 

[Jumper]

If I was not at fault I would be free and clear, but suppose I experienced a momentary lack of attention whatever that caused an accident, albeit not negligently, according to what I signed, I would be on the hook for $7K. Let's face it, most people do not go to work saying "Let's cause a traffic accident today!"

On the other hand, my license is clean, and I do sympathize with employers whose insurers raise the premiums because their employees drive like idiots at times.

The $7K figure was outrageous, but not surprising given some of the other doodoo they pulled in the few months I was there, mainly on others.

 

[lego1970]

$7000 for a deductible. Wow that's high. Even with 5 million dollar liability insurance for hauling hazmat which allowed me to haul, 45,000 lbs of explosives, radioactive waste, and many other everyday hazardous materials, my annual premiums were $12,000. My deductible was percentage based, but I don't believe it could ever get over $5000. $7000 deductible for a tree company is crazy. If I ever completely screwed something up, I wouldn't care to help pay out the deductible if it was something around $500 to $1000, but anything over that I would question the company. When I used to carry insurance for tree work my annual premium was $1200 and the deductible was either $500 or $1000. I didn't work with anything other then a chipper and stump grinder and never had anybody work with me so that's probably why my rates were so low. Also I may of not had all the required insurance that's needed.

 

[ASD]

Our deductible is $5,000 it keeps the cost of the ins way down! As for charging an employee the detectable I would not and I bet it would be unlawful to do so in most states but that being said the employees safety bonus would disappear for some time

 

[Jumper]

They were quite clear that I would be responsible for the deductable. BTW it was not a tree service company but a car dealer. $7000 was just too much on my conscience in order that they saved bucks on their insurance.

 

[outofmytree]

Thats an idea I want no part of. As much as my gut says "you break it you fix it", the law says, "you own it you fix it". I will ream out guys who do something stupid which costs me money but at the end of the day you simply cannot legally make them pay for it over here.

 

[teamtree]

I am not sure how you would be liable for a deductible if you are working for a company and driving their vehicle.

If I could get money for all the accidents and damages my employees incurred I would have some money in the bank. I would not have any employess either.

 

[teamtree]

I would be talking to a good lawyer if I was the guy on the ranch....not only is it a workers comp claim on the shoulder but could be some other claims against the company....

Also....unless he was a independent contractor.....he was an agent of the company and would not be liable....sounds like an unlawful discharge claim...

Sounds like there are some independent contractor vs. employee issues in all these cases and when you do things like make a person pay for their mistakes, then you have an issue of whether they are independet or not.

 

[Gts4tw]

Question


Those of you that have employees driving your service vehicles on your insurance policy, what is the deductable your carrier provides, and do you make the employee pay that if he or she is ``at fault``. I just left an employer last month, in part because theirs was $7000, which I would have to pay in the event I cause the accident. After my encounter with the deer that caused $4200 damage to a rental car (I was insured) I really got to thinking about how $7000 would set me back.

That would be illegal in B.C. and I would imagine Alberta as well. Look into local labor relations laws, it doesn't matter if you signed a contract as that contract has to comply with the law.

Also, $7000? Wow, you guys have it bad out there with insurance.