The following is a story we hear all too often; your employee has been working away and they call you one morning to tell you their van has been broken in to and their tools stolen! The van will have been parked up overnight in the car park of a budget hotel and when they returned in the morning, the locks will have been drilled and the van emptied of its contents.
This causes damage to the vehicle which needs to be repaired, causing down time and cost to the business as well as having to replace the tools and equipment that have been stolen. This will also impact on your claims experience, meaning your premiums will increase at your next renewal review.
Our claims team at ProAktive hear this at least once a week and the simple answer is that portable hand tools will not be covered whilst unattended in vehicles overnight for any claim for damage caused by theft or attempted theft or malicious damage unless the tools are:
- Kept in securely locked premises and in the event of a claim there shall be visible signs of entry into or exit from the premises
- Kept inside a vehicle, providing that the vehicle shall be securely locked and kept within a securely locked premises, compound or enclosure between the hours of 9 pm to 6 am and on non-working days
In effect, you have a choice of how to ensure that your tools are covered outside of business hours by ensuring that your employee either:
- Leaves your tools on site in a locked premises or container
- Parks the vehicle in a dedicated secure parking facility with entry/exit gates and monitored CCTV
- Parks the vehicle inside a locked building, garage or secure compound
- Takes the tools in to their hotel room with them
- Takes their tools in to their home, rather than leaving them in the vehicle on their drive
You have one other alternative which is to do nothing; if this is the case, I’m sure you will be having the same conversation with our claims team – “my tools have been stolen, am I covered?”
By Martin Singleton Dip CII – Account Executive