Income Protection For Drilling Operatives
Drilling is the trade that finds out what the ground is before anybody builds on it, and it brings its own machinery everywhere it goes.
A rig is powerful, rotating and close to the operator, with rods being added and broken out by hand. The work travels, often to remote sites, and runs to a programme set by whoever needs the results.
The dust exposure here is less visible than in cutting trades, which is exactly why it gets underestimated.
The short answer
Drilling operatives run core, rotary and percussive rigs for site investigation, geotechnical work and structural coring. The exposures are rotating plant at arm's length, vibration, noise, and silica arriving as a wet slurry that dries to dust later rather than as an obvious cloud. Income protection replaces part of your earnings if illness or injury stops you working.
What actually stops you working
- Entanglement and crush injuries from rotating rods, chucks and rig masts
- Hand and finger injuries from breaking out and making up rod joints
- Back and shoulder injuries from handling rods, casings and core boxes
- Hand-arm vibration from percussive and rotary tools used daily
- Noise-induced hearing loss, which builds unnoticed on a running rig
- Silica exposure, which arrives as wet slurry and becomes airborne when it dries
- Slips on a working platform covered in water, mud and drilling fluid
Sick pay, if you get any
Drilling crews are employed by site investigation and geotechnical contractors, which often means a contractual sick pay period, though agency drillers on the same rig may have statutory sick pay only. Earnings usually include substantial travel, lodging and overtime, so a sick pay figure based on basic rate understates household income considerably.
Why the definition of incapacity decides it
Own occupation is worth having because the realistic alternative is depot or lab work at much lower pay. An operative who can no longer handle rods is employable, which an any occupation policy would treat as fit for work while the rate that came with being on the rig has gone.
Wet Silica Is Still Silica
The dust risk in this trade hides behind the water, and that is worth understanding before dismissing it.
Drilling with flush produces a slurry rather than a cloud, so the work does not feel dusty. The silica is still there: it settles on the platform, on the rig, on rods and on clothing, and becomes airborne when it dries and gets disturbed, swept or brushed off at the end of a shift.
The practical consequence is that respiratory protection and housekeeping matter in a trade where the hazard looks absent. For an application, the point is narrower: any respiratory history is relevant whatever the source, and better declared than left off. Our page on lung conditions covers what we would ask.
Rods Are Handled By Hand, Every Time
Rig automation has not removed the part of this job that injures people.
Rods and casings are made up and broken out manually, repeatedly, often with pipe wrenches, while the string is under tension and sometimes while the rig is running. That produces the trade's characteristic hand, wrist and shoulder injuries, and it is the mechanism behind the serious entanglement incidents too.
It also means the work cannot be done one-handed or with a strapped wrist. A recovery that would let somebody back into most jobs does not put them back on a rig, which is the gap between being better and being able to earn, and is what a deferred period should be set against.
If you stop
Site investigation runs to a client's programme and a rig is booked with a crew, so an absence means the rig either goes out short or does not go out. Contractors replace rather than wait, and a driller who misses a run of work usually finds the rota has moved on.
What A Household Is Left With In This Trade
Employed drillers at site investigation contractors often have death in service, and agency drillers on the same rig frequently have none.
Because this is a trade people move between employers and agencies in, cover that belongs to the job tends to appear and disappear without anybody noticing the change.
So the figure worth knowing is what exists in your current role, and the gap worth covering is the mortgage plus the years your household would need beyond it.
A Lump Sum When You Cannot Handle Rods Any More
The characteristic event is a serious hand or shoulder injury, or a respiratory diagnosis, that permanently rules out rig work.
That leaves somebody employable on lower pay rather than unemployable, which is the position income protection suits least over the long run.
A lump sum covers the change. Drilling experience moves into logging and reporting, laboratory and testing work, rig maintenance, supervision and contract management, most of which need either a qualification or a spell on less money.
Common questions
Is drilling dusty if everything is wet?+
The silica is still there, it just arrives as slurry rather than a cloud. It settles on the platform, rig, rods and clothing and becomes airborne once it dries and gets disturbed, which is why the risk gets underestimated in this trade.
Can a drilling operative get income protection?+
It is worth asking. Rotating plant, manual rod handling and vibration are all genuine considerations, and acceptance and terms are the insurer's decision. Saying what kind of drilling you do gets a more sensible answer than a generic description.
Should I insure my lodging and travel money?+
Insure what you actually earn across a full year including travel, lodging and overtime, because those stop when you are signed off and sick pay is usually calculated on the basic rate.
I work through an agency. What changes?+
Usually it means statutory sick pay only, where a directly employed driller on the same rig may have a contractual period. That difference is what should set your deferred period, so it is worth checking rather than assuming.
Does hand-arm vibration apply to drilling?+
Yes, from percussive and rotary tools used daily, and it is cumulative and does not reverse. Any existing symptoms in the fingers are worth declaring, because that history is exactly what gets examined if a claim is made.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this one.
- How income protection worksDeferred periods, claims and the policy mechanics.
- Income protection for piling operativesBigger rigs, and whole-body vibration.
- Income protection for quarry workersSilica and plant on a larger scale.
- Cover with a lung conditionWhat we would ask where there is already a history.