Insurance...GPS Base

Never had it happen YET! But I worry about it.

Maybe what we need is a gps tracker on the GPS. Then you could chase it down. Probably cheaper than insurance.

I have had two walk since 1995 and my previous employer had one walk, in all cases the insurance paid. In two of the three cases there was no employees close by in one of my cases the crew was present but over a bank 50-100 feet away, they heard a noise and say a car leaving with the unit!

SHG

:good: I have said that for a long time, no reason it couldn't be done!

SHG

That's good to know that the units are covered if left unattended, which is the purpose of an RTK base. I posted before a picture of lock I had made that wraps around the "neck" of the Hiper and keeps it from easily "walking off". It wouldn't survive a set of bolt cutters, but it would keep the stop and grab robbers from getting it.

When I looked into it a few years ago, there was an exception for unattended equipment. They weren't willing to insure something that you just left there. One insurance company asked if we ever got further than 50' from the gear.

Sniper overwatch? Land mines? Insta-Moat(tm) with extra alligators?

Maybe you need a receiver disguised as a cactus or a rock?

Game trail camera hidden nearby?

Say Loyal, Is it identified as your equipment? I have a sign posted with my receiver and have had calls from interested parties. Since I forward calls form the office to my cell when I'm out it seems to work well.

Could be someone was just wondering what someone left laying around and MAYBE they are actually honest folks that made an error.

Don

It was a generic question....

When I bought my first static gear (3 receivers) nearly 20 years ago, I was required to carry insurance on them by finance company. The INSURANCE specifically EXCLUDED “unattended equipment.”

Considering the type of work that I do, and where I generally do it, that meant that it didn't cover much of anything. When the gear was paid for, I dropped the insurance like a hot potato.

A friend of mine just bought three reasonably new GPS units, and he was asking me about it.

Loyal

> Setup Base on Section Corner (or whatever) in the morning, return to pick up in evening, and it's GONE!

Here's my first line of "insurance" for that situation:

Although it's not clear from the photo, but there's a bracket made of 3/4" aluminum bar that's clamped to the center pole above the shoe plate. It has a hole that accepts a standard padlock, and its attachment hardware is inaccessible when the lock is in place. I cable or chain the tripod and the Job Box to each other and to something sturdy (the fence corner post in this instance) when available.

Another thing that's not real clear is that most of the room in the Job Box is taken up by sandbags, bringing its total weight to about 250 pounds. The box is ventilated and has a fan that runs off the 18ah battery that powers the receiver.

The antenna is vulnerable -- I haven't gotten around to devising a theft-resistant arrangement for it, at least not yet.

The concept isn't theft-proofing, but rather to discourage the casual yahoo looking for an easy score. So far, so good.

I checked on insurance when first purchased 3 PM3s in 2005. The agent quoted a yearly premium of 30% of the equipment cost. I did not insure my equipment.

What is considered reasonable for a yearly premium for GPS equipment?

That would seem to stop the 'convenience' thefts.

No one is likely to just drive by and think "Hey lets grab that 250+ pounds and toss it in the back of the car."

They may make a grab for it, but would probably pass as soon as it became real work to steal it.

We have up to 10-15 RTK bases running at one time during any day all across Texas. Has never been a problem, however I guess we would just consider it a cost of doing business, but Im pretty sure we are insured against it, as I remember discussing it with my insurance agent. Of course we have 3 spare set of RTK gear at all times in the office so crews can be up and running within a few hours again.

I am with Jim, my first line of defense is my base station trailer setup, have not lost anything since using that, BUT it only works where you can drive (as does the 250 pound box!), BUT usually stuff only disappears near traffic anyway.

I suspect even though unattended, Jim's box or my trailer might be considered secured and even satisfy the insurance company that you made a good faith effort to secure your equipment.

SHG

Tri-pod Anchors

Jim,

I don't mean to get off subject, but where did you get those sand bags. They look good and sturdy. Did you make those yourself? Had many a good hours collecting data with those Trimble 4000's. I did/do get nervous about leaving them unattended, and anchoring them is difficult if you are observing on a bridge abutment or hard ground or even in the snow. Good idea on the job box as well. Never thought of that one. We used plastic bins. I did buy a 'heavy duty' plastic tool box that fit everything inside of it and drilled a hole in the side for the cables. That way everything stayed dry and out of the elements as much as possible. Thanks for the pic.

Tri-pod Anchors

> I don't mean to get off subject, but where did you get those sand bags.

They're nylon taffeta ditty bags that I bought from Campmor. I think I paid about $4 each, not counting the pea gravel they contain. I got tired of using the disposable Home Depot sandbags, which are about twice the size that I need, leak a lot of dust and snag on almost everything.

Our original policy came back with a non-attended, offsite exclusion. When I explain things to our agent he said ok and would look for a company that offered what we needed. Called back a couple days later with a policy for $22 dollars more a year that covered us. Haven't needed it but it's piece of mind.

The base did come up missing last year. partner was scared to tell me cause I was just coming back from a week off due to a stroke. I couldn't be mad, did the same thing we always did, she had a call in to the insurance agent when we got a call from the county engineer in the area. Somebody though a county crew had forgot it and picked it up then to it to the county. The Engineer seen our name on it and called telling us he had it. Between the time she'd taken her last shot and went back for it this guy picked up the base from front yard of a house 1 1/2 miles from his house.

The company I used work for was self insured. Had 20+ units up each day and we only lost one base. It showed back up 2 weeks later in the box throwed back in the ditch near where they took it from. Guess they figured if they couldn't pawn hald a setup they'd give it back.

Tri-pod Anchors

Thanks for the info!

Since I am a one man company and my GPS and Robot are my lively hood, I carry an inland marine policy on them. They are also insured with "Replacement Cost", otherwise, they estimate the current value to replace. My equipment is covered if I drop it, it gets ran over, its stolen, etc. It's not cheap, but well worth the fact knowing that if something does go wrong, I will get new equipment. The first year I got it, it was about $3000/year. But now since I'v been with them and have had no claims, It's a rider on my general Liability with Travelers about $750/year. I Have the replacement value on my base and rover at $40k and the same for the robot.