Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/147844
feature Story times the mover may also be warehousing the furniture. ATI vs. Certificates of Insurance Starting in the late 1950's or early 1960's, movers began selling customers "Certificates of Insurance", essentially trip transit policies covering their possessions while being moved or stored by a van line or local mover. Sold through the van line or local moving company, these insurance "certificates" established a direct relationship between the customer and the mover's insurance carrier. As an intermediary in this insurance transaction, personnel of the van line or moving company were subject to the individual state insurance licensing regulations. When van lines or movers changed insurance companies, each of the outstanding Certificates of Insurance (COI) needed to be individually cancelled or transferred to the new insurance carrier by special contract between the insurance companies. In order to avoid having their local agents and company personnel be licensed, one van line, working with an insurance company developed an "Agreement to Insure." This means that for a fee, the van line or local mover assumed a heightened duty of care. A large portion of this risk was transferred to the insurance carrier. However, if the mover's policy didn't cover the customer's loss, and the contract between the mover and the customer didn't exclude the loss, then instead of the insurance company being liable to the customer, it is the mover that is responsible to settle the loss directly with the customer (the party named in the ATI). There are a number of agreements that can be put in place as a contract between the mover and customer, designed to provide direct damage protection (DDP). They are referred to as: 1.Agreement to Insure (ATI) 2.Evidence of Increased Obligation (EIO) 3. Advice of Coverage (AOC) 4. Notice of Coverage (NOC) Each of these documents was designed by an insurance company to provide essentially the same type of insurance protection as would have been provided by a Certificate of Insurance. There are, however, a few important differences: 1. There is no contractual relationship between the customer and the insurance company 2. Regardless of the insurance policy's terms and conditions, the DDP's terms and conditions govern the risk transfer (essentially the mover has reinsurance from the insurer). Each DDP usually has a deductible; if the DDP is for storage, there is usually only one "occurrence" deductible applying to the mover. In the event of, for example, a fire, the mover only has one policy deductible applying to his coverage while each customer may have a deductible. 3. The mover must monitor that he has adequate limits of insurance as one limit usually applies to both the aggregate of all DDP's and liability as a warehouseman 4. If the mover cancels the policy(s) the insurance company has no obligation to inform each DDP holder. It's the mover's obligation to try to duplicate coverage so he -- the issuer of each DDP contract-- isn't totally uninsured for any coverage "gaps" between what was previously insured and is now uninsured. / Owner operator/August 2013 / / 38 OO 0813 edit.indd 38 7/8/13 11:53 AM