Earthmoving Insurance
Protect your equipment, people, and projects with tailored earthmoving insurance built for Australian contractors, dry hire operators, and plant hire businesses.
Insurance solutions built for how earthmoving businesses operate.
Every earthmoving operation faces different risks from contract liability to machinery breakdowns. Below are the key types of cover that help protect your business, people, and equipment.
Public Liability Insurance
Covers your business for injury or property damage caused to others while working on-site or transporting machinery.
It’s one of the most important policies for earthmoving and excavation businesses, protecting you if you damage underground services, neighbouring property, or public assets.
- Covers third-party injury and property damage claims
- Required for most civil and commercial contracts
- Can include products liability for completed works
Plant & Equipment Insurance
Protects your owned, leased, or financed machinery against accidental damage, fire, theft, vandalism, and rollover.
This includes excavators, loaders, dozers, graders, dump trucks, and attachments like buckets, augers, or hammers.
- Option for agreed or market value coverage
- Includes recovery and removal after an incident
- Can extend to attachments, tools, and accessories
Hired-In Plant / Dry Hire Insurance
If you hire in machinery or dry hire out your own equipment, this cover protects you against damage or loss while under hire agreements.
It helps meet contract requirements and avoid costly disputes over responsibility.
- Covers hired-in or hired-out equipment
- Includes financial protection for hire charges, repairs, and replacement
- Can include damage waiver or hirer liability clauses
Breakdown & Downtime Cover
Provides protection for unexpected mechanical or electrical breakdowns helping to reduce income loss while your machine is being repaired.
You can also add downtime or substitute hire cover to keep your jobs moving.
- Covers repair or replacement of key components
- Includes towing, recovery, and freight costs
- Add-ons for substitute hire and income protection
The smarter way to protect your earthmoving business.
Running an earthmoving business means facing constant risk from machine damage and job-site accidents to liability under hire contracts. A single incident can delay a project, cost thousands in repairs, or put your contracts at risk.
Coverite Insurance helps contractors, operators, and dry hire businesses reduce exposure with insurance that’s designed around how the industry actually works.
We protect every part of your operation your excavators, your people, and your projects with policies that fit the real conditions you work under.
Protecting the Businesses Behind Australia’s Earthmoving Industry
We provide tailored insurance solutions for contractors, operators, and hire companies working across every part of the earthmoving sector. Whether you run a single excavator or manage a full fleet of machinery, we help you secure the right cover to keep projects on track and assets protected.
Protecting Australia’s Earthmoving Industry for Over a Decade
Machines Insured Across Australia
Businesses Protected
Real Results for Real Operators
From single excavator operators to national fleets, Coverite helps businesses recover quickly from equipment damage, contract disputes, and downtime losses.
Our clients trust us for responsive advice, fast claims management, and tailored protection that keeps machines working and projects on schedule.
Earthmoving Insurance FAQs
Common questions from contractors, operators, and hire businesses about earthmoving insurance in Australia.
What does earthmoving insurance cover?
Earthmoving insurance typically covers your machinery, attachments, and equipment for accidental damage, fire, theft, rollover, or vandalism. It can also include public liability, hired-in plant, on-hook liability, and downtime cover.
Policies can be tailored to suit how you operate whether you own, lease, or hire your machines.
How much does excavator insurance cost?
The cost of excavator insurance depends on several factors:
- Value and age of the equipment
- Security (e.g. GPS tracking, immobilisers)
- Type of work (dry hire, wet hire, or owner-operator)
- Claims history and location
- Additional covers like breakdown or downtime
To get an accurate excavator insurance cost, request a tailored quote based on your fleet and contracts.
Do you cover both owned and hired equipment?
Yes. Coverite offers protection for owned, leased, and hired-in plant.
This includes cover for damage, theft, or breakdown of hired machinery, as well as liabilities under hire contracts critical for dry hire and excavation businesses.
Is my equipment covered during transport or lifting?
Yes. We can include transit and on-hook liability insurance to protect your machinery while being floated, towed, or lifted.
This ensures your assets are covered from site to site and between projects.
What’s the difference between earthmoving insurance and excavation business insurance?
Earthmoving insurance focuses on protecting plant, machinery, and equipment.
Excavation business insurance adds liability and business interruption cover ideal if you operate as a contractor or project manager overseeing full excavation works.
Where Coverite Insurance Supports Earthmoving Businesses
Coverite Insurance provides specialised earthmoving and excavation insurance solutions to contractors, plant hire operators, and machinery owners across every state and territory in Australia.
Queensland (QLD)
Queensland has one of the fastest-growing construction and civil sectors in Australia, and we support earthmoving operators from Brisbane to the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns. Whether you specialise in subdivision work, bulk earthworks, dry hire, or civil contracting, we help QLD machinery operators secure tailored cover for excavators, skid steers, dozers, tippers and plant hire operations.
New South Wales (NSW)
From Sydney’s major infrastructure projects to regional excavation businesses across Newcastle, Wollongong, Central West, and the North Coast, Coverite supports NSW contractors with insurance built for on-site risks and project demands. We help operators protect machinery, staff, contracts, and downtime exposures under hire agreements, wet hire, and civil works.
Victoria (VIC)
Victoria’s diverse contracting environment ranging from Melbourne’s construction boom to regional civil works across Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, and Gippsland requires reliable, specialised insurance. We support earthmoving contractors, excavation crews, plant hire businesses and owner-operators with policies designed for equipment damage, liability, breakdown, transport and project-specific risks.
Western Australia (WA)
WA’s construction and mining industries demand a higher level of machinery protection. From Perth to the Pilbara and the South West, Coverite works with remote operators, mine-site contractors, excavation businesses and heavy plant owners. We help you manage risks linked to transport, hire contracts, breakdowns, and site-specific conditions across mining, civil and industrial projects.
South Australia (SA)
Coverite supports SA operators working across Adelaide, the Barossa, the Riverland and remote contracting regions. Whether you’re supplying wet hire, excavation work, rural earthworks or quarry support, we help protect machinery, operators and business contracts with tailored insurance written for South Australia’s unique operating conditions.
Tasmania (TAS)
We help TAS contractors working in Hobart, Launceston, Devonport and regional areas secure insurance suited to smaller fleets, mixed plant, agricultural earthworks and local civil projects. From machinery cover to liability, downtime protection and dry hire exposures, our specialists provide competitive options for all Tasmanian earthmoving operators.
Northern Territory (NT)
NT earthmoving businesses work in demanding environments, often across large distances. Coverite supports operators in Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine, Alice Springs and remote regions with insurance built for harsh conditions, remote project risks, machinery transport, dry hire contracts and heavy civil work.