Liberty Mutual Working With NER to Protect Inland Marine Contractors’ Equipment Coverage

Liberty Mutual Insurance is working with National Equipment Register (NER) to provide its Inland Marine Contractors’ Equipment customers increased protection from equipment theft. The insurer is now offering an endorsement that waives the theft deductible up to $10,000 if customers register their equipment with NER’s HELPtech program.

Law enforcement and the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) use NER’s national database to increase the recovery rate of lost and stolen equipment registered with HELPtech. Policyholders must register equipment with NER before it is stolen and report the theft to local law enforcement to qualify for the theft deductible waiver. As an additional benefit, NER provides Liberty Mutual policyholders with a 20 percent discount on its registration fee.

According to the NICB, nearly 11,000 heavy equipment thefts were reported to law enforcement in 2012, but only 20 percent were recovered. With access to more than 100,000 equipment theft reports and over 20 million registration records, NER analysts have assisted law enforcement in recovering more than $50 million in heavy equipment since 2001.

“The impact of these crimes goes well beyond simply replacing contractors’ equipment,” said Kathy Balzano, assistant director, Commercial Insurance Inland Marine Underwriting Strategy. “These theft targets are also significant assets that, when stolen, can have great bearing on the success of our customers’ businesses and fulfillment of their job obligations. By offering the theft deductible waiver, we encourage them to further safeguard their equipment.”

Contractors’ equipment coverage can be written on a multi-line or mono-line basis. Eligible equipment ranges from small tractors or Bobcats valued as low as $5,000 to large construction equipment with multi-million dollar values.

National Equipment Register (NER) is a division of Verisk Crime Analytics, a Verisk Analytics company.

Source: Liberty Mutual Insurance