Do You Need Riggers Liability if You Already Have General Liability?
This is one of the most common misunderstandings in crane insurance. An operator carries a solid general liability policy, sees a healthy limit on the declarations page, and assumes the load is covered. Then a sling fails, the customer's equipment hits the ground, and the GL adjuster points to a single exclusion. The claim is denied. Understanding why GL and riggers liability are both necessary can save you from that exact moment.
What general liability actually does
Commercial general liability is broad and essential. It covers third-party bodily injury and property damage arising from your operations, plus completed operations and personal and advertising injury. If your crane swings into a neighboring building, or a bystander is hurt on your site, GL is the policy that responds. Every crane company needs it.
But GL was never designed to cover property you take control of. That is a deliberate design choice, not an oversight, and it is where riggers liability comes in.
The exclusion that creates the need
Standard GL policies exclude damage to property in your care, custody or control. When your crane lifts a customer's rooftop unit, tank, girder, or generator, that property is in your control from the moment it leaves the ground until you set and release it. Insurance references such as IRMI describe care, custody or control as a core property-damage exclusion precisely because liability policies are meant to cover third-party property you do not control, not the property you are handling.
So the very thing a crane company does for a living, take charge of valuable property and move it through the air, is the thing GL carves out. That is not a loophole; it is the intended boundary of the coverage.
What riggers liability adds
Riggers liability covers physical damage to the property you are lifting, rigging, hoisting, or moving while it is in your custody. It attaches exactly where GL stops. Together, the two policies cover the full picture:
| Situation | General liability | Riggers liability |
|---|---|---|
| Boom swings into a neighbor's building | Covered | Not needed |
| Bystander injured by your operation | Covered | Not applicable |
| You drop the customer's load | Excluded (care, custody or control) | Covered |
| You crush the load setting it down | Excluded (care, custody or control) | Covered |
Notice there is no double coverage. Each policy handles losses the other one excludes. That is why "I already have GL" is not a reason to skip riggers, it is the reason you need it.
"But my GL limit is huge"
A large GL limit does not help with an excluded loss. Coverage is a threshold question before it is a limit question: if the care, custody or control exclusion applies, the size of your GL limit is irrelevant because the policy does not respond at all. A $2 million GL limit pays zero on a $500,000 dropped load if that load was in your control. Only riggers liability reaches it.
Who specifically needs both
- Operated crane services that lift and set customer equipment on commercial and industrial jobs.
- Riggers and machinery movers handling high-value process equipment, transformers, HVAC units, and generators.
- Steel erectors and precast setters placing valuable components they do not own.
- Any crane company whose customers hand over property for lifting, which is nearly all of them.
The only crane operations that might arguably skip riggers are pure bare-rental outfits that never take control of a customer's load, and even they should confirm that with a specialist before assuming.
Contracts are starting to require it
Beyond the coverage logic, more project owners and general contractors now demand proof of riggers liability at a stated limit before a crane mobilizes. They understand the care, custody or control gap and do not want to be left holding a dropped-load loss. Carrying adequate riggers coverage is increasingly a condition of winning serious work, not just good risk management.
Get the limit right, not just the policy
Once you accept that you need riggers liability, the next question is limit adequacy. Your riggers limit should match the value of your heaviest, most expensive lift. Buying a token limit checks a contractual box but still leaves you exposed if you routinely handle loads worth more than the limit. Match the coverage to what you actually pick.
And remember that the best claim is the one you prevent. Operator certification through NCCCO and rigging discipline under OSHA 1926 Subpart CC reduce dropped-load frequency and help you earn better riggers terms.
Have GL but no riggers coverage? Let's fix the gap
Crane Insurance USA coordinates your general liability and riggers liability so the load you lift is actually covered, at a limit sized to your real work.
Or call (818) 356-8150 to review your coverage.
This article is general information, not insurance, legal, or tax advice. Whether a specific loss is covered depends on the exact terms, conditions, and exclusions of your policies. Speak with a licensed agent about your operation.