Considering insurance coverage for your personal mobility vehicle? Get ready to make some key wheelchair insurance or mobility scooter insurance decisions

  At the building where I work, a number of the clients are heavily reliant on the use of either an electric mobility scooter or an electric powered wheelchair to get around and perform many of their daily activities.  some rent their chairs or scooters while others have outright purchased them, either entirely with their own money or with the assistance of government.

  Regardless of the ownership status of their chairs, all of these people share one need in common: the need, from time to time, for servicing of their mobility devices when they stop working properly.  In addition, most of the people that I work with have some kind of coverage set up with any one of the companies out there that offer maintenance services for these kinds of vehicles. I have come to realize however, that it is the nature of this coverage which can vary greatly.

  Most, if not all of my clients have had to arrange for avisit from a wheelchair or mobility scooter repair person at one time or another; over my years of working at my site I have been witness to the comings and goings of these repair people and come to appreciate how much it means to my clients that they are able to have these people come to them instead of having to arrange delivery of their malfunctioning vehicles to the repair locations. Some times this has been the result of the vehicles still being under warranties but other times it has been the result of having to pay for the visit as a separate expense.  Still other times it has been handled under the provisions of a client's insurance policy/agreement coverage with a mobility scooter and powered wheelchair insurance provider.

 From numerous conversations with clients over the years, I have come to learn about just how many things can be included under the umbrella of mobility scooter insurance coverage and how many options there are available to add to your particular plan so that it best suits you and your particular needs. I will endeavour to cover many of these below.

  I have been reminded more than once that insurance coverage for a mobility scooter or electric wheelchair is not a mandatory requirement since both categories of vehicle are not intended for use primarily on the public roadways. Therefore, coverage selection is solely at the discretion of the vehicle owner.

  Basicaly, there are two main categories of insurance offered to vehicle owners: (a)repair and replacement coverage, and (b)liability coverage for injury and property damage.

 Replacement coverage is pretty much how it sounds: it is coverage that you can get that covers you in the event of sustaining any damage to your personal mobility scooter or power chair. If your vehicle suffers any damage that can be repaired, or if the vehicle sustains damage that is judged to be irreperable, in either scenario you are making sure that you are able to handle the predictable expenses associated with that. This kind of coverage will often include reimbursement for any expenses incured in finding transportation home when one's vehicle stops working and leaves them stranded. Another aspect of coverage that can be included under the umbrella of replacement coverage is the provision of a temporary replacement or 'loaner' vehicle, whether a mobility scooter or power wheelchair, to cover the span of time during which you are without your regular mobility vehicle.

 Offshoots of the repair and replacement coverage category can also iclude accident insurance that covers 'acts of God' categories of damage, with such things as fires, floods and storms all being covered in your policy if you want to include it.  Similarly, coverage for theft and vandalism of one's chair or scooter can be included in a policy, if so desired.

 The other main category of coverage I earlier mentioned is the liability coverage. Basically, this category covers the area of liability for any claims against you for property damage or injury to others caused during the operation of your scooter or wheelchair.  This is pretty self explanatory as far as the kind of coverage that this is and how it works. This kind of coverage will often also offer the option of having your personal liability extended to also include attendants under the personal liability coverage for any injury or property damage that might  occur while they were in the act of assisting you with your vehicle or even for any damages to them incurred from the operation of your vehicle while they were in your employ.

 Of course this is also the category of coverage that handles any personal injuries that you incur during the operation of your vehicle. It is importsnt to make sure that you are covered for this potential expense by at least one source of coverage: many people make the assumption that one source of personal injury coverage that they may have through a source such as an employer or even a credit card is sufficient for coverage of any injuries sustained through the operation of their personal mobility aid when in actual fact this might not be the case.  This is why it is important to know if you have such coverage before any possible personal injury to your own person.

 One last point I would like to mention here is that with almost all providers of personal mobility scooter and electric wheelchair insurance, there is usually offered the option of signing up for multiple years of a policy in advance, with the incentive of lower premiums being offered as the benefit or reward in exchange for the extended commitment to the policy.

  I hope that the preceding has been at least somewhat enlightening. For myself, thinking about and summarizing things that I have learned and picked up over a span of a number of years is quite an eye opener.  Sometimes you do not really have a proper appreciation for the things that you have learned until you make the effort to put them out there for the benefit of others.