What it does

IH 00 68 is ISO's contractors equipment floater. It covers direct physical loss of or damage to contractors equipment the insured owns or has in its care, custody or control, as described in the declarations (scheduled items, with blanket coverage available), on an open-perils basis anywhere in the United States, its territories, Puerto Rico and Canada, including air shipments between those places. ISO publishes this form in its IH series of commercial inland marine forms. IH forms are used within the Commercial Inland Marine Coverage Part, together with the Commercial Inland Marine Conditions (CM 00 01) and the Common Policy Conditions.

Who needs it

Any contractor with mobile equipment or tools: excavators, loaders, cranes, compressors, scaffolding, generators and hand tools. Lenders and lessors of financed equipment usually require it and ask to be named as loss payee. Commercial property forms do not cover this equipment away from premises, and auto policies exclude it unless it is a licensed vehicle.

Key provisions

• Not covered: licensed road vehicles (except unlicensed vehicles not used on roads and self-propelled vehicles carrying attached equipment), aircraft and watercraft, plans and blueprints, property waterborne (except on ferries) or underwater or used underground in mining or tunneling, equipment loaned, leased or rented to others, employee tools and clothing, accessories and spare parts (the last three are restored by additional coverages).
• Additional coverages within the limit: debris removal (25% plus up to $10,000 extra), false pretense ($25,000), preservation of property (90 days), and rewards ($10,000 each for arrest and return of stolen property).
• Additional coverages outside the limit: newly acquired equipment for 60 days (lesser of 25% of scheduled limits or $250,000), employee tools and clothing ($5,000 per occurrence, $1,000 per employee), expediting expense ($25,000), fire department service charge ($10,000, no deductible), fire extinguishing system expense ($10,000), fuel, accessories and spare parts ($10,000), inventory and appraisal ($25,000), pollutant cleanup ($25,000 per year), rental reimbursement after a 72-hour waiting period ($10,000, $500 per day) and office and construction trailers and contents ($25,000).
• Optional coverages (if selected): equipment borrowed from others, equipment leased or rented from others under written agreement, equipment loaned to others for under 12 months, equipment leased or rented to others, and waterborne property.
• Exclusions: government action, nuclear, war; delay and loss of use; dishonest acts (employee theft not covered); work on the property unless fire or explosion results; artificially generated current; voluntary parting and unauthorized transfer; theft by persons entrusted with the property (except carriers for hire); wear and tear, latent defect, insects, rust and mechanical breakdown.
• Deductible may be a flat amount or a percentage of the damaged item's value; coinsurance applies to scheduled items if shown; optional replacement cost valuation applies to equipment not more than five years old (by model year) unless another age is shown.

Quoting and selling notes

Get a schedule with year, make, model, serial number and value, and ask about leased and rented-in equipment (rental contracts usually make the contractor responsible), equipment rented out, waterborne or underground work, and theft protection such as GPS or registration with the National Equipment Register (IH 99 31 and IH 68 10 waive the theft deductible for these). Explain the coinsurance condition when scheduled values are stale. Mechanical breakdown requires a separate equipment breakdown endorsement from the carrier.

Related forms

IH DS 68, IH 68 01, IH 68 04, IH 68 05, IH 68 06, IH 68 10, IH 99 31, IH 99 07, CM 00 01.