Page 120 - claims information pack ebook_e

Guidelines for presenting claims for clean up and preventive measures

Specialised equipment

5.13 A daily rate is calculated so that the Example
purchase cost of the item is recovered A clean-up contractor supplies a skimmer for a period of
over its expected useful working life, plus a 20 days. For five days the equipment is held on standby.
proportion of the costs of storing, insuring The purchase cost of the skimmer including taxes is
and maintaining the equipment. If the £36 000 including a power pack, pump and ancillaries.
equipment is owned by a private contractor
a reasonable element of profit would also Assuming a life ‘in use’ of 180 days, the base rate for
the skimmer would be:
be accepted in the assessment in order
to provide a return on investment. The
expected life of a piece of equipment varies Purchase cost/Expected life in use = Daily base rate
considerably depending on its construction £36 000/180 = £200 per day
and the conditions it is designed to
withstand. More robust items such as
skimmers and power packs for use at sea
are expected to last typically 180 days ‘in To this has to be added maintenance and storage
costs and for a contractor, costs of finance and a profit
use’ while offshore booms about half that element. Such costs are not often declared and so for a
time and less sturdy inshore equipment contractor an allowance up to a factor of two is usually
has an even shorter life expectancy. accepted, i.e. in this case £400 per day in use and £200 15
per day on standby.
5.14 In incidents that last for several weeks
and where it becomes clear that clean-up The amount claimed would then be:
operations are set to continue for some
considerable time, well beyond the expected (15 x 400) + (5 x 200) = £7 000
lifetime of an item of equipment, outright
purchase of the equipment may be a viable The figures used in the example above are for
option. However, it is recognised that illustrative purposes only.
without some financial incentive there would
be no benefit to maintaining the equipment
in readiness and two alternative approaches
to applying reasonable rates are used. The
first is to apply a rate that gradually reduces
with time while the other is for daily rates
to be capped once the cumulative daily
rate has exceeded the purchase cost of
the equipment by a factor of about two.
However, after that point the only costs to
be accepted as reasonable would be for
operating and maintaining the equipment,
together with an element of profit in the
case of commercial companies.
5.15 Claims for use of specialised equipment
should be supported by a clear description
of the equipment, including photographs
and information to explain their use in the
response.