Good Morning Again,
Last week’s question about insurance generated a number of answers thanks to Bret Horr from York who put it out on the NEARC list serve.
What kind of insurance should I have as a GIS professional in business as a consultant?
Answers:
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We don't have specific GIS insurance, never heard of it. In fact, we have to do a lot of explaining when we purchase insurance because they never seem to know what GIS is. Among other insurance like an umbrella policy, etc.,
we have general liability and professional liability which I assume you may be referring to. We pay around 5K.
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I have been dealing with this for about 20 years. Equipment cost replacement is recommended. The cost of the insurance for a company, partnership or individual will vary by entity type is going to be dependent on two concerns:
errors/omissions and liability..
These are going to depend on the work being done, where you are doing and for whom. Something where your input may put property or a person in jeopardy will cost more. When we did training
contracts at State and County levels we were also required to carry car insurance - this we understood if we were paid to drive to teach a class in Phoenix from Tucson or were driving onto State property.
Hard to understand why we would need it if we flew across the country and could take a taxi to training location.
If anyone wants to discuss further you may give me a call or just drop an email back to me and not the list. I will be at NEARC with LizardTech (booth) in October as well.
Bill Timmins - Director
GIS Services
4870 W McElroy Drive
Tucson AZ 85745-9178
520.623.7825 direct
520.991.0727 mobile
520.971.7622 office (7 am - 6 pm PST)
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It's really about WHOM you work for, not the GIS work itself. I could digitize data such as trees or do some simple analysis for a non-profit or muni all day long without hardly any worries. Now change that to doing high-accuracy
work for a utility, digitizing FEMA maps, or working for an environmental engineer who is defending a superfund and you have a whole other story!!!!
Also, I do a lot of web-mapping applications and host them. I also do apps for fire and police. I have disclaimers, but inherently it puts me in another category than someone who doesn't do any of that kind of
work.
In any case, it all falls under professional liability of some sort. My company falls under IT, not really GIS as I am setting up systems/servers more than doing GIS type of analysis. I also carry errors and omissions
which is necessary and adds to the cost.
You could probably get insurance for a small GIS consulting gig (just yourself) for $1500 a year. If you need to insure subs, have W9 employees, or get into web-mapping like I am you climb over $5K easily. You
can do it for less, but heck...why risk it? I have been involved in lawsuits before when running some other company divisions and it is not pretty!!!!!
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My first thought is that this comes under “professional private liability insurance”:
Here’s a quick primer from State Farm:
DISCLAIMER: I am not affiliated, nor subscribe to, State Farm, nor an insurance professional. It’s just a quick-and-handy listing I dug up.
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I had to get liability insurance in order to win a municipal contract when I was independent. The insurance agent didn’t really know how to classify me – I was warned beforehand by a GIS friend that they often are torn between
whether a GIS professional is more akin to an architect (expensive) or a graphic designer (not expensive). My agent lumped me in closer to graphic design. I forget what my coverages were, but I only paid about $250/yr if I remember correctly.
Joseph Young
Executive Director
Maine GeoLibrary
SHS 145
51 Commerce Drive
Augusta, Maine 04333- 145
VP 207-624-2664
FAX 207-287-1131
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