included in the policy however those brokers are few and far between. Most brokers fail to consider or include the coverage and the only way to know for certain is for the UAS Operator to read their policy.
Other brokers and insurers may include coverage on a blanket basis however even if the coverage is included on a blanket basis, many times the broker and insurance company will charge additional premium to add a Customer as an Additional Insured to the policy which is nearly always required under any type of operational contract. Those additional premium charges can range from $150.00 to $500.00 each time a Customer is named. Those additional premiums can easily increase premium costs by hundreds or even thousands of dollars above the original cost of the policy and for no real added value.
Two additional things that an Insured must consider are that contracts between UAS Operators and contracted crews, are not covered under Contractual Liability Coverage. If contract crews wish to have coverage for their own sole negligence, they must carry their own non-owned liability policy covering them for their own negligence. The same rings true for Customers who wish to cover themselves for their own liability arising from the negligent hiring of UAS Operators or other associated exposures.
The best way for a UAS operator to ensure that they are covered for Contractual Liability is to ask their broker to include it and then read their policy to confirm that the coverage has been added. They should also provide all contracts to their broker for review and acceptance prior to assuming any liability under a contract.
Without Contractual Liability Insurance Coverage, the insurance company has no obligation to cover the UAS Operator for their assumption of risk or agreement to indemnify others. That could leave a UAS Operator seriously exposed to liability that would not be covered under their insurance policy and must be considered prior to signing any type of contract.
Terry Miller is the President of Transport Risk Management, Inc. and Unmanned Risk Management. UnmannedRisk.com currently places insurance on more than 5,000 UAS and 2,800 UAS Operators Worldwide and are the world’s leading Unmanned Insurance broker.