Blog

Commercial Auto Insurance

January 2020

The following article was written by Missouri Regional Director, Mark Raisler for the last FOAMLine.  However, due to space constraints we left it out of the last issue.  Further because Matt Greemore of the Board of Outfitters will touch on this rule change at the Annual Meeting on Friday in Bozeman at the Rialto Theater, we wanted to remind Outfitters that insurance rules for outfitters changed at the beginning of this year.  The following article outlines the specifics of that rule change.

“OUTFITTERS:

A reminder to you OUTFITTERS that as of 2020 you are now required by the Montana Board of Outfitters (BoO) to essentially carry a Commercial Auto Insurance policy.  The BoO passed this RULE in June 2019 and it became effective this year.  FOAM mentioned this rule change in previous newsletters and emails, but may not have been made clear enough that this is RULE now and all OUTFITTERS are required to comply.

You are not required to carry a COMMERCIAL AUTO INSURANCE policy if you are a GUIDE.  But we strongly recommended that you do, even if for personal coverage, exposure, and risk management.

However, as an OUTFITTER you are required to carry a COMMERCIAL AUTO INSURANCE policy.  The primary reason the Board outlined, is the coverage to and from the river in your vehicle.  This is the operative portion of the updated rule.

The line below is the change in rule…

“Liability insurance must cover bodily injury to clients at all times services are being provided, including while the outfitter or employed or retained guides are transporting clients.”

With a commercial auto insurance policy, you are covered while conducting commercial business, outfitting, and guiding.  And, most importantly inside your vehicle.

A commercial auto insurance policy also covers your shuttle driver if he or she has an incident while in your vehicle.

Here is the annotated code from the Secretary of State.  The specific rule is 24.171.509   Here is the link   http://mtrules.org/gateway/ruleno.asp?RN=24%2E171%2E509

Here is the rule if you do not want to look it up…

24.171.509    INSURANCE FOR OUTFITTERS

(1) An outfitter, other than an outfitter licensed on inactive status, shall have liability insurance, as a named insured, in effect at all times during the license year, and shall submit proof of such insurance with an application for renewal. Liability insurance must cover bodily injury to clients at all times services are being provided, including while the outfitter or employed or retained guides are transporting clients. Minimum amounts of liability insurance shall meet or exceed minimum requirements of state or federal regulator agencies for outfitters operating on state or federal lands, but in no case may minimum amounts be less than $10,000 for property damage, $100,000 for personal injury to one person and a total of $300,000 for personal injury to more than one person.

There it is.  We wanted to remind you OUTFITTERS that this is now OUTFITTER RULE set forth by the Montana Board of Outfitters.

An update on the life jacket and throw rope requirements (RULE) forthcoming by the Montana Board of Outfitters.  Not required yet, but will be in the future.  Look for correspondence from FOAM in regards to when this becomes RULE.  It is not yet, but the writing is on the wall.

Mark Raisler, FOAM Director, Missouri River Region”