Business · By industry · Moving companies
For moving companies in Washington: household moves, office relocations and storage in your own warehouse. The insurance questions follow the goods and the people: what you owe a customer whose sofa is damaged, what a UTC permit requires, who is driving and who is lifting. Below are the areas to examine with an insurance reviewer. One policy does not cover all of them.
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What to review
The customer's furniture is in your truck, and they expect to be made whole if it arrives broken. Motor truck cargo coverage is for your legal liability for goods in your care while moved and, depending on the policy, while loaded and unloaded. Ask about per-truck and per-shipment limits, exclusions such as fine art, jewelry or owner-packed goods, and theft from an unattended truck.
Movers typically offer the customer a choice of valuation, a contractual level of liability for loss or damage stated in the bill of lading or tariff. Valuation is a term of the move, not an insurance policy. Your cargo policy sits behind the valuation you agreed to; ask whether its limits and terms match the levels you offer and how a claim is handled at the higher level.
Walls scraped, a banister cracked, a customer tripping over a dolly, a lobby damaged. General liability covers injury and property damage other than the goods you are carrying. Property managers often ask for a certificate and additional insured status before they let a crew in. Ask whether damage to the customer's building is covered or treated as property in your care, and whether disassembly and hoisting are covered.
Box trucks, straight trucks, vans and the pickups that pull trailers need commercial auto, with limits that fit the proof of insurance the UTC requires you to file. Ask how the policy handles physical damage to the trucks and liftgates, hired trucks in peak season, and employees driving their own vehicles to jobs, a hired and non-owned auto question. An insurer will ask who drives and how they are screened.
Movers that carry household goods within Washington for pay must hold a permit from the Utilities and Transportation Commission, which requires proof of insurance on file, sets rates, terms and conditions through its household goods tariff and requires carriers to give customers a consumer moving guide; interstate moves are regulated federally, not by the UTC. L&I's classification plan places household furnishings moving and storage, including moving van drivers, packers, loading laborers, warehouse employees and truck mechanics, in classification 6907-01; confirm your own assignment with L&I, because the assignment follows the work performed, not the business name.
Washington is a state-fund state: most employers insure workers' compensation through L&I rather than a private carrier. L&I assigns each employer one or more risk classifications by the nature of the work, each with its own base rate, and adjusts an employer's rate by its experience factor. Employer's liability, sometimes called stop-gap, is not part of the state fund and is bought separately. If you use day labor, a staffing agency or labor-only subcontractors, ask L&I who covers them.
If you store customers' goods, warehouse legal liability is the question: your liability for goods in storage, usually separate from cargo in transit, with its own limit and conditions. Ask how fire, water, theft and pests are treated, and what the storage contract says you owe. A commercial umbrella adds limits over general liability, commercial auto and employer's liability for the larger contracts that ask for them.
On a third-floor apartment move, a crew drops an antique armoire on the stairs. The armoire is split, the stairwell wall is gouged and the customer wants both fixed. Two policies are in play: cargo for the armoire, up to the valuation chosen and the policy's terms for antiques, and general liability for the wall. Whether each pays depends on what was agreed at booking and what each policy excludes. A real claim depends on the facts and the policy.
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