The construction and engineering sector is complex and multi-faceted. It comes with a suite of unique risks that can easily send one’s company finances into a rough spin, emptying coffers and leaving a business in a very difficult situation. The regulatory and legal landscape is correspondingly complicated, with a host of regulations and rules to abide by and more coming online every year. Add health and safety matters to the equation, and the risks are considerable. Providing comprehensive protection against all types of risk associated with construction, testing and the commissioning of machinery is one of the many services Maksure Risk Solutions offers. Our team is capable of customizing insurance policies that cater to a wide variety of plants and machinery on all levels of complexity.

To help your company thrive in this ever-challenging landscape, Maksure Risk Solutions has sourced and negotiated a wide portfolio of vital insurance products designed to help your business mitigate the risks and stay financially solid, namely:

1. Contractor’s All Risk Policy (CAR)
2. Plant and Machinery Insurance (PAR)
3. Machinery Breakdown Insurance (MBI)
4. Electrical Equipment Cover
5. Stock Deterioration Insurance

1. Contractors All Risk (CAR)

The construction of buildings or civil works always comes with a risk of loss or damage. Contractors all risks insurance, also called CAR, provides cover for damage to property and claims for third-party injury or damage.

The goal of CAR insurance is to protect the financial interests of everyone involved in a building project, no matter what type of damage occurs or who causes it. The cover is usually taken by both the contractor and the employer. Sometimes they add other named interested party to the policy, for example, the finance companies backing a construction project. All the parties noted on the policy have a right to make a claim, and they are all responsible for advising the insurance company about injuries and damages that might result in a claim.

Key Features

What risks does a CAR insurance policy protect against? It covers you and other relevant parties against all the risks normally associated with construction work, such as:

• Fire damage
• Flood damage
• Wind damage
• Earthquake
• Water damage
• Mould
• Poor construction
• Negligence
• Third party injury or damage
• Damage to temporary and permanent works
• Free issue materials on site and in transit

This cover provides protection for both owned and hired plant and machinery granting up to 12 months of cover after the contractual obligations are over, the ‘maintenance or defects’ liability period

• Unforeseen loss or damage to building works
• Machinery movement
• Public liability
• Tools
• Business interruption
• Equipment erection
• An optional professional fees extension
• An optional debris removal extension

2. Plant All Risk

Plant can be extremely expensive, especially specialised plant designed for specific construction jobs.  Sometimes you own it, other times you hire it, however regardless of how you secure the plant for use, if the unexpected happens it can make an enormous dent in your company’s finances. That’s why consequential loss contractors’ plant and machinery insurance is a viable option.

This type of policy covers the sudden and unexpected physical loss of – or damage to – the insured pieces of plant, where that damage means you need to repair or replace the machine. The policy excludes internal breakdowns, and applies at work, at rest, and during maintenance. It covers all the construction sites you work on during the period of the insurance rather than being site-specific.

Key Features

Inherently protecting your financial interests and delivering peace of mind to busy contractors who own the plant, as well as to those who hire expensive machinery; this is what a policy covers:

• Protects your machinery and any hired items
• Covers loss or damage to owned contractor’s plant
• Includes legal liability for loss or damage to hired in contractors’ plant
• Covers continuing hiring charges
• Covers owned or hired in plant that is then hired out to others
• Covers damage arising from an impact
• Pays recovery costs for immobilised plant and equipment
• Includes cover for theft from unattended vehicles

3. Machinery Breakdown Insurance

When you are up against deadlines, a machinery breakdown on your site can cost a lot of money in delays and reparations, especially when you’re under contract to complete the works by a specific date.  The costs of the delays can be ruinous, which is why so many contractors come to us for their machinery breakdown insurance, a relatively simple way to protect your corporate finances when the worst happens.

MBD provides financial compensation when plant, machinery and mechanical equipment breaks down at work, when at rest, or during maintenance operations. It covers the unforeseen and sudden physical loss of – or damage to – the machines named on the policy, funding their repair or replacement so your business is not left out of pocket. It means construction projects can continue in a timely manner, and can be taken out by the machinery’s owner, lessor, lessee, the lender funding the machinery or jointly when more than one party has a financial interest.

Key Features

A machinery breakdown policy covers the unforeseen and sudden accidental physical damage to insured machinery, plant and equipment while:

• Working
• At rest
• Being dismantled, removed or re-erected at the same site

It also covers loss or damage due to:

• Faulty operation, adjustment and casting
• Vibration
• The entry of foreign objects
• The loosening of parts
• Self-heating
• Centrifugal force

4. Electronic Equipment Insurance

All it takes is a simple power cut and your electronic equipment is compromised, or simply can’t work. That’s why insurance policies designed to safeguard electronic goods – things like computers, servers, photocopiers, scanners, printers, fax machines, modems, switchboards – are so popular. The policy protects your finances against the loss of, or damage to, electronic equipment at your premises, and also when it is temporarily moved to another location.

Does your organisation rely extensively on electronic equipment? Plenty do these days, and it presents a serious risk if things go wrong. This high level of reliance drives a need to protect businesses from risks like material damage, and the subsequent financial losses. We’ve sourced great quality, good value Electronic Equipment Insurance that’s specifically created to meet the needs of both the owners and hirers of equipment.

Key Features

Protect your financial interests with this vital policy, which:

• Covers a variety of equipment including audio visual and medical
• Includes both owned and hired out equipment
• Covers worldwide data media loss and reinstatement
• Protects your finances against theft from buildings and vehicles
• Offers optional extra cover for additional expenditure or financial loss

5. Stock Deterioration Insurance

In some cases, most of a business’ financial worth is tied up in its stock. If that stock is compromised and deteriorates, for example; refrigerated foodstuffs, you can lose an enormous amount of money as well as damaging your brand’s reputation and potentially losing customers. That’s what stock deterioration insurance protects your finances against, returning you to the position you were in before the loss occurred.

Deterioration of Stock insurance protects your bank balance against the cost of unforeseen damage to refrigerated goods that are both owned by and in the care of your business, as a result of a rise or fall in the temperature of your refrigeration equipment. It could be down to a power supply failure, impact damage, or simple mechanical or electronic breakdown.

Key Features

This valuable policy protects your financial interests in three key ways:

• Cover for damage to goods not held in the refrigerator, that would have been kept cold if the accident had not happened
• Cover for the action of the refrigerant or any stray refrigerant fumes that have leached out of the system and escaped
• Cover for the accidental failure of public electricity supplies.

Clive Mlala is an Insurance Broker at Maksure Risk Solutions.

Contact our teams on Tel +27 11 805 0086 or Email: info@maksure.co.za.

About Maksure Risk Solutions

Maksure Risk Solutions is an Afro-Global independent specialist insurance and reinsurance broker with business footprint in Africa, Asia, East & Western Europe, South America and the Caribbean. We provide innovative and tailor-made risk solutions in Insurance and Reinsurance as well as Risk Financing and Actuarial Consulting geared towards capital management and strengthening our client’s balance sheet. Maksure is also one of the major players in Captive Management (Establishment & Management) in South Africa, Mauritius, Bermuda and various other jurisdictions. We have access into the Lloyds of London with a deep understanding of African markets. Our global nature ensures that our clients access quality capacity as well as some of the world’s latest thinking and solutions.