Taking vehicle/gear home

[PHOTOGinWV]

My station is currently looking into the possibility of allowing the on-call photog to take a car & gear home for faster response to overnight breaking news (which would make sense), but mgt is worried about insurance problems and other policy-type issues (i.e. driving the station car to run errands, recreational travel, etc.)

what kind of issues does this present for insurance? and what kind of policies does your station have regarding taking car/gear home?

thanks!

 

[Lost in Alaska]

I've never worked at a shop that didn't allow the photog to take a car home for on-call. As for personal use, errands etc., it should be the photogs responsibility to try to limit them. The insurance shouldn't be much of a factor since the vehicle is still being used for station business.

 

[DERF]

If they expect to get any video at all of the fire, wreck, stand-off or cat in a tree before the event ends then the only option is to allow the cars to go home. I have worked at stations that allow all the photographers to take their cars home and some that only allowed the Chief and the on-call person. Either is fine but the on-call is a must if news is really what they want to gather rather than shots of police tape laying on the ground hours later.

As far as using the car for personal use. My last stations policy was that if you were on call you were in your car. That means for the trip to church, the grocery, the movies or whatever. BUT. You do not take it out of town because you do not go out of town. If you are on call you must remain in the primary coverage area or you defeat the purpose of the on-call.

The station already has you on their insurance policy so that shouldn't be an issue.

 

[stix]

I guess we're very lucky! Our station considers us all to be on-call. We take our vehicles & gear home. Should breaking news occur they just start going down the list of shooters. If we are running around town for personal reasons we still have our gear on board. I think they get around the insurance/tax implications this way!

 

[SHOOT4U]

another reply on this board is right. There should be no problems with the insurance. But, you may want to check into the tax implications on this situation. We had to start paying taxes for the time that we are on call. This is a rule that took place in 2003, and the IRS had threatened legal action on us for not paying taxes. At our station, photogs are on call a week at a time, and then they are not on call for 2 months. I believe we pay about 3 bucks for each week that we are on call. I know I paid around $120 last year, but that is nothing compared to the amount of gas and wear and tear that i saved on my own car.

 

[chroma cranker]

we are on-call every.......well when ever they tell us we are. but the wierd thing about it is when we got our new cameras we signed a piece of paper saying we would not leave them in the car. so if i am going out with friends or shopping or whatever, i have to take my gear home first. when i bring this up the response i get is "well what are you doing out at that time of hour"

 

[Memo]

Two Photographers and I are on call Mon-Fri. We take home gear and vehicle. We drive them to groceries and stuff too. We keep them during the weekend also. We are self insured up to $250 k.
But, the federal government thinks taking a vehicle home is a perk. So we pay income tax on those vehicles. For us it is around $140 a year.

 

[The Old Guy]

I take gear and truck home every night and weekends too. It's a nice perk but so are all those lead stories the station gets.

If you have nobody on-call and everyone leaves the car at work, expect to have really great video of burnt out houses the next day or normal streets that were closed "just hours ago".