Insurance Coverage When Using NRCS Vehicles
Hawaii ACD(@mwatkins)
Topic starter 12/05/2021 12:55 am
For those of you who have employees using NRCS vehicles, I’m reaching out to get information on how you are covering the liability. Nationally, NRCS has made it the responsibility of the partner to cover all of the following liability when using their vehicles (quotes from NRCS agreement below):
“The Partner will immediately report all vehicle accidents and traffic violations to NRCS and complete all required documents to report accidents. The Partner will reimburse NRCS for any and all repairs to the GOV as a result of an accident caused by the Partner operator and pay all traffic violation citations.” also,
“The Partner will assume responsibility for claims arising from accidents caused by Partner Drivers. The Partner will be responsible for receiving, processing, and paying tort claims that are submitted due to an accident caused by a Partner driver.”
This means that NRCS will only cover their federal employee’s if something happens when driving the vehicle, and will not cover anyone outside of their employment, including Earth Team volunteers. With all of our employees using NRCS vehicles, we’ve been trying to purchase coverage for all of the liabilities listed above. However, being that we do not own the vehicles, we have only been able to purchase General liability and hired/non-owned vehicle insurance (HNOA). These policies do not cover ALL liabilities listed above, such as collision, traffic violation citations, etc. and according to the wide range of insurance agencies that I’ve consulted with, those liabilities can’t be added on unless we owned the vehicle (then we wouldn’t need the HNOA insurance). Normally in Hawaii, the insurance follows the vehicle, not the driver. However, according to conversations with NRCS, a court ruling was made that resulted in the federal government imposing the items listed above.
Although HACD and the 16 Hawaii SWCDs are considered state entities, the AG and our Hawaii State Risk Management division explained that because our employees do not receive compensation from the state payroll system, they are NOT considered to be state employee’s. Our HACD and District employees are considered to be contracted and are NOT covered under the state. With this ruling leaving us responsible for our own coverage and because we do not own the vehicles for us to purchase the full insurance coverage necessary, I’m looking for help and suggestions from Districts who have found a solution to this liability issue when using NRCS vehicles.
Mahalo!
Michelle
Peggy Lemons(@plemons)
12/05/2021 10:52 am
In Missouri we were fortunate in that our agency that offers the public entity liability was able to come up with the liabiity coverage for the NRCS vehicles as well as the physical damage coverage. It has a $500 deductible and costs each district approximateley $800 per year, but that covers all of the NRCS vehicles at their office and all of the district employees. We could find no other way to cover this because as Michelle said, without actually owning or leasing the vehicle no insurance company would talk about coverage. The agency that provides our coverage was created by our state legislature, I have included the brief description of them below. They offer our board liability, cyber liability, auto coverage and coverge for equipment districts own and rent to landowners such as no-till drills.
MOPERM –During the early 1980’s, public entities throughout Missouri experienced large liability premium increases. Some were unable to obtain any liability insurance or were offered extremely limited coverage. In response to the liability insurance crisis, public entity lobbying groups, such as the Missouri Municipal League and Missouri Association of Counties, supported creation of the Missouri Public Entity Risk Management Fund by the Missouri General Assembly.
In 2001 and 2002, commercial property carriers dealt with poor investment returns and catastrophic natural disaster losses by raising property pricing and severely limiting coverage for public entities. MOPERM was in a unique position to provide an affordable property alternative. In April 2003, coverages offered by MOPERM were expanded to include Real and Business Personal Property, Equipment Breakdown and Crime.
Commonly known as a “shared-risk pool”, MOPERM is a self-insurance fund offering broad coverage at reasonable and stable cost to Missouri’s local governments. With a membership of over 900 public entities, MOPERM is one of the largest public entity liability pools in the nation. Members benefit from the leadership of a Board of Trustees made up of public entity representatives who have experience with the coverage needs and challenges of local government officials. Additionally, MOPERM staff has a thorough understanding of the unique coverage concerns facing Missouri public entities. MOPERM serves only Missouri public entities, meaning member contributions stay in the state to serve local government needs.
Peggy Lemons