royjohn wrote:Wow, now thieves are monitoring tubenet and will watch your house, know when you leave and lie in wait for you at the Interstate exit?
Thieves in particular target Oasis and Interstate Truck stops. They know people who are driving long distances or on vacation are lax and often have valuables in their car trunks. Truckers are always prime targets for thieves. People stopping in rest stops are tired, want to get something to eat, take a shower etc. Their guard is down and thieves know they are likely to be there awhile. And anybody driving several hundred miles with a tuba is going to want to take a rest break. Having your car broken into is entirely possible. Even out in the middle of nowhere.
As far as the insurance issue, I bought a tuba to take to another city and sell...give the guy you picked it up from a dollar. You are a tuba player and you have a tuba. Or ask your agent, I bet you can get covered. Is this actually a commercial venture? I thought it was doing a favor for a friend? I can't see how you can charge enough to actually make money unless Alan Baer has to have a new horn in time for a NYPhil concert and you are rushing it up there for $1000...
I'm going to guess you have never dealt with an insurance co. on a claim like this. You can bet they will automatically deny your claim & do everything in their power to never pay. They have seen it all. People try to scam them every second of every day in every conceivable way. And they will blow through your $1 scam faster than you can blink. You think the guy who is out a tuba is going to lie for you? He's out a tuba. He don't care if you were "doing him a favor" - he wants to be compensated and if your ins. doesn't cover it - well he is coming after you and he doesn't care if it comes out of your pocket. If he pays you anything - even a dollar - he has given you good legal "consideration" in exchange for your transporting his tuba any amount of distance - he will win in court. It will be on your dime to prove the ins. co. denial of your claim is wrong. Are you prepared to hire an attorney - here just the filling fee alone for small claims (under $5000) court is $325. It is much higher over for claims over $5000 and now you are in regular court - and there are a lot of tubas over that number. The insurance co. has hundreds of lawyers and they will string you out forever - and drive your legal bills ever higher. This is like all the people who drive for UBER and don't tell their insurance co. (because driving for even a little pay comes with very high ins. rates). The logic of course is I'm only driving a little bit and I'm a good driver (everybody thinks they are a great driver) -what could possibly happen? Well stuff does happen and all of sudden that guy driving for a little bit of pocket change is in an accident with a dead passenger. Nobody wants to be that guy having to cover that - and you also don't want to be that guy having to pay to replace somebody's $10,000 tuba for which you received a bit of gas money plus a little extra for your effort and a hearty pat on the back.
I take occasional trips from NY to North Carolina to visit my son. If someone needed a tuba transported somewhere in route I would be glad to help out, but there are somethings I wouldn't do mainly involving liability. I have my own instruments insured, but that insurance wouldn't cover someone else's instrument in my care. I've also tried to collect on an instrument in my care before on my car insurance (I had a bass trombone belonging to the Army Reserve Band I was employed by, stolen from my car) my insurance company paid for replacing the broken window in my car, but refused to cover the instrument because it belonged to my employer they said the employer should be responsible for the instrument. So if I were to do something like this it would be with a written understanding that I would not be responsible for any accidental damage or theft of the instrument (the instrument owner should get insurance to protect their investment). I've also found that many standard insurance policies have exemptions for musical instruments, and limits on how much they will pay per incident on instrument loss. Read your insurance policies if you are counting on your homeowners and car insurance to replace your damaged or stolen instrument, it may not be covered unless you pay extra to get a rider on your policy.
Retired Army Reserve 98th Div. Band: Euphonium, Trombone, Tuba, Bass Guitar
Miraphone 186 CC
Conn 36K Sousaphone
Euphonium: Yamaha YEP-321 (modified with Euro-shank receiver with Lehman M mouthpiece)
Trombones:Yamaha 612 Bass, Conn 88H
Supplying a service like this with TubeNet as a main contact opens us up to all kinds of litigation if things go south. This message board is not a business or non-profit. There is no legal team or board of directors. So, Nay on this idea. I'm locking it.--fc (PS. I realize this is an old post but I wanted to bump it in case something like this comes up again)
