Beware of Bodily Injury Coverage Claims

Moving is an industry where there are always high risks for injuries.  This applies to both the full service and self service moving industries.  In the self service moving industry, barriers to entry are very low which means that almost anyone can offer moving help without any type of insurance or licensing. 

VKCMS LLC has been offering self service moving services for five years and it took a few years before we found an insurance company who would underwrite us for the type of moving we did.  More self service moving companies are obtaining insurance coverage every day.  More and more self service moving companies are claiming there is coverage for bodily injury in their liability policies.  Unfortunately, these company are unintentionally misleading their customers into a false sense of security. 

Bodily injury coverage in a general liability policy, which mostly covers damage to items and property, is very narrow.  Bodily injury coverage typically covers bodily injury to the customer who gets injured during the course of the move.  The injury must happen accidentally, such as a piece of furniture was dropped on a customer's head (an extreme example).  If the customer or owner is assisting the movers in moving furniture and sustains an injury that is not covered.  If a mover sustains an injury, that is also not covered under a General Liability Policy.  If a mover is an employee of the moving company, that company should be carrying Worker's Compensation for its employees.  If the mover is a sub-contractor, the mover is required to have his or her own General Liability Insurance and must also cover Worker's Compensation coverage in addition.  In most cases the sub-contractor obtains the Worker's Comp Coverage through the state. 

If an owner gets injured while moving his own furniture, homeowner's or renter's insurance will cover it.  If a mover gets injured and there is no workman's comp coverage, trouble ensues.  If a mover gets injured on a customer's property, the customer and the company that uses that mover are liable to get sued. 

Any company that uses sub-contractors without coverage for injuries can be sued by the injured mover.  If the company doesn't have any or enough coverage, then the customer can also get sued. 

VKCMS LLC carries General Liability and Worker's Compensation because not only do we care about our customers, but we care about our employees as well.  Most companies who offer self service moving are small companies, like ours, and generally pay our mover's better wages than most full service companies, and as a result, experience lower turnover.