Common Sense Matters: Insurance Industry’s Approach to Propane Boom Trucks Versus OSHA’s

When I first started insuring propane companies 25-plus years ago, the tendency was to insure bobtails as two separate parts—the chassis and the tank. One of the questions on the application regarded the size of the tank. Over the course of time, we handled many claims questions from independent adjusters asking which part of the bobtail we intended to insure, the tank or chassis. The answer was both, as we had included the cost of the tank, meters, etc. in the “cost new” bracket on the application. The insurance industry’s commonsense answer then was to insure the entire unit.
Approximately 15 years ago, equipment manufacturers started adding small lifting devices to service trucks. The insurance industry wasn’t sure how to cover this new concept. This was a new device that stowed compactly, could be used to load a propane tank on the bed of a truck (doing away with a trailer), and could be used to unload and position the tank safely without causing injury to the employee.Read More