Skip to main content

We do not carry liability insurance, mainly due to the perceived cost of said insurance, we feel our risk is minimal, and we don't want to become a law suit magnet. To cover our butts in this respect, we have been asking race promoters to add us as an additional insured to their policy. This has been working out well for us, until now.

Recently we have been seeing an increasing trend where race promoters are requiring us to name them as additional insured on our policy. This has been especially prevalent where the promoter has been a governmental organization. In the past we've blown off these races because they are too small and not worth the effort and expense. But now, some of the larger races we would like to time are starting to require it.

I have a couple questions about this:

1) How are other race timers handling situations like this?

2) We are considering caving. Does anybody have any recommendations of where to start? The few companies I have contacted, including those specializing in sporting events, don't have a category for race timers and are either going to call me back or aren't willing to cover us.

Mac
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Well I had a hard time finding any company that would even think of offering any type of insurance for "Race Timers". There is not enough of us to make us an "official" classification to neatly fit us into their projected liability calculations. I spent 5 months with multiple insurance companies before I found anyone that would even attempt to offer us some policies. Our lawyer insisted that I carry at a minimum Liability and Commercial property insurance.

My insurance, just like all the rest of us, had to be highly customized to cover all our unique work and liability. I needed a general Liability coverage for Domestic and International. The International was the hard part and is a seperate policy that I enact when I need it. Commercial property insurance covers all my gear from damage in travel that normal airlines would not cover.

All this and I still require all "promoters" to carry liability insurance for the actual "event" . Once the timer becomes the general insurance for the "event" you now have a whole bunch of other complications that can get way out of hand. US cycling seems to be the way for cycling promoters and I have had good luck with promoters using the same insurance company for their events, even if they are not a US Cycling member. As for other events, all my promoters where still able to get insurance through the same company that provides coverage for US Cycling at a reasonable per head cost.

I was able to get Workers Comp policy through Hartford Insurance through a payroll company (Paychex) and they initially classified us as "computer installers/network specialists on site". That was later changed to "race tracks, non-automotive" when audit was perfomed from my state of incorporation. (MI)

Long story short. Work with a good representative that will WORK for you rather than just ignore your business because you don't fit into a "classification".
Coming from the background of event organizer and dealing with lots of insurance issues, this was a requirement for me when I got serious about my business. I have a policy through Zurich that has 2 Million per incident (not the minimum one) as one of the clients I had early on required 2 million. It only cost me $20/year to go from 1 mil to 2 mil and the total cost of the policy is only about $500/year. Exposure for me is low, until you realize that this policy covers my trailer even on the road when my auto insurance won't. The only other risky thing I do is erect finish structures.
Good luck,
Jenna

Add Reply

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×