I’m looking for some community input on an issue we’re working through.
The team recently had a donor provide the funds to purchase a trailer for team use. We’d borrowed on in the past from a generous mentor for all of our travel needs, but we had really out grown the trailer and as the person generally pulling the trailer, it wasn’t the nicest to tow because of weight and configuration of the trailer.
Fast forward. The not-for-profit org that supports the team purchased the trailer. It’s a wonderful all aluminum 7x14 dual axle with brakes. It’s a dream to tow and has a ton of great features. We’re really looking forward to using it this season, but there’s a problem…
For teams where a mentor uses a personal vehicle to tow and a not for profit owns the trailer, how do you insure the trailer?
As of right now we’ve been told a business policy for the team won’t cover the trailer unless it’s towed by the commercial vehicle.
The school has indicated for them to cover it we have to use a school-owned DOT inspected vehicle.
I can’t cover it on my personal auto policy because I don’t own the vehicle.
My previous team had a trailer donated in a similar fashion, and there was no issue brought up with the towing vehicle - the trailer was considered school property and was insured as such. Given, we were not a separate 501c3 entity, we did everything through a school extracurricular account. The trailer was donated to the school.
I would suggest talking with the band, choir, athletics, other affiliated programs that have their own transportation, and see how they tackle the issue at your school.
The school doesn’t want us to tow with personal vehicles. The option available from the school isn’t what I’d venture to describe as reliable or comfortable for a lot of the trips we take. I’m much more comfortable in my own truck. But beyond that, the school has a deductible that’s hilariously high. There’s no way we’d be compensated for the loss, or at least that’s my expectation if we were ever in that position. They are looking at adding a rider for us specifically to cover the contents of the trailer, but that still leaves us without comp/collision on the trailer.
The marching band is the only other entity at the school with a trailer, but they have a vehicle that was donated to them by a local car dealership they use to tow. Frankly I’d rather not deal with the upkeep and headaches associated with a vehicle that would be driven so infrequently even if we could get a vehicle donated.
The not-for-profit i’m referring to here is a 501C3 established specifically to support FRC 1747, our parent booster organization if that makes more sense.
To clarify an individual, donated the funds to purchase the trailer and I’ve promised my discretion in keeping that information private.
“Sell” the trailer to the individual who tows it, compensate them for mileage such that it covers the licencing, personal property tax, and insurance each year.
Liability for towing a trailer attaches to the vehicle towing it. So you don’t need separate insurance for that. Depending on the nature of the individual’s insurance, you are probably out of luck for damage to the trailer and contents. Unless it is some one else’s fault. Then their liability insurance covers it. I am not sure you can get insurance just on the trailer and contents. If you have insurance on your build site. you might be able to get a rider for the trailer when it not being towed. Most commercial policies have fairly high deductibles. As the OP seems to have all ready found that life gets a lot more complicated if your parent organization is a school.
What about a rented vehicle? The cost to rent a nice tow vehicle like a pickup truck isn’t crazy, and then nobody has to worry about using a personal vehicle. A commercial policy might accept this as well. Just a thought.
Sound to me like it would work well if you started taking to the marching band. I’m sure their instrument cages might be a little old, or the music stands slightly bent/scratched, or any number of things that a robotics team could easily fix in return for infrequent use of their truck.
Granted sharing a truck very might be an even worse logistics problem, but it might be worth looking into.
Note, most rentals do not allow towing, even if the vehicle has a hitch. If you rent an F250 from Enterprise Truck Rentals, they explicitly do allow towing (and man does it tow nice!)
In the past, a local dealership has donated a truck for us to use and a local trailer dealership has donated a trailer for us to us. Our district insures both of them under their policy(via an add on) and we just have to provide information of who will be driving the truck.
Again, I think all districts/states are different in how they handle insurance.
Our team works independent from the school so our situation is a bit different.
A team mentor purchased a trailer for us to use back in 2011. We had been using it up to this past spring when the mentor needed to sell it. I purchased it and now carry it on my personal insurance for liability/collision/theft/etc. The items in it are covered under our team’s insurance policy and the tower’s insurance covers the trailer.
We only have 2 or 3 authorized towers for our team to minimize any issues.