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Reading your own dec page, line by line

Coverage explained·10 min read By Phil George, excavation contractor and licensed Colorado producer ·

The honest answer is that the dec page is the only part of the policy most contractors ever read, and it isn’t the policy. It’s the index. Named insured, dates, limits, classifications, a premium line, and a list of form numbers that are the actual contract. Read it right and it tells you where every problem on the policy lives. Read it like a receipt and it tells you what you paid. This article walks a typical commercial package dec page section by section: what each line says and what to check. Bring your own dec page and your general liability form schedule, because the point is to find your lines, not ours.

The common declarations

The front of the package: one common declarations page, then a section for each line inside it (general liability, property, inland marine). Auto and workers’ comp are usually separate policies with their own decs. The common page is boring, and it’s where the expensive mistakes are.

Line What it says What to check
Named insured The legal entity the policy insures Exact legal name and entity type. An LLC formed last year with a policy still in the sole proprietor’s name is a coverage question on claim day
DBA / trade name Any trade name the entity operates under Listed, if you bid under one. The name on your contracts should match a name on the policy
Policy period Effective and expiration dates The dates you think you have, and whether auto, equipment, and comp share them or are staggered
Description of operations A short phrase describing what you do Describes all of it. “Landscape contractor” on an outfit that trenches and plows is an application problem waiting to be found
Coverage parts Which lines are in the package Every line you think you carry. A missing inland marine part means the excavator is on nothing

The named insured line does more damage than any other. Every DBA and every entity that signs a contract needs to be on the policy or added by endorsement. The certificates article explains why a mismatch between the contract name and the policy name is the first thing a holder rejects.

General liability declarations

The section contractors flip to. The limits are the part they read; the rest is where the coverage lives.

Line What it says What to check
Each occurrence The most the policy pays for one occurrence Matches the largest contract ask you sign, commonly $1,000,000
General aggregate The most the policy pays for all occurrences in the period, other than products-completed operations Commonly $2,000,000. Some contracts ask that the aggregate apply per project; that’s an endorsement, not a limit
Products-completed operations aggregate A separate pool for claims from finished work It exists and isn’t zero. Some contractor policies carry an exclusion here instead
Classifications The GL class codes and descriptions of your operations Every operation you perform is listed. Excavation, landscape install, snow removal, and tree work are separate classifications and a missing one is a missing coverage argument
Rating basis and estimate What premium is calculated on (payroll, receipts, per unit) and your estimate of it Payroll and receipts get audited. A stale estimate is an audit bill
Deductible Any amount you pay first on a covered claim Whether it applies to property damage only or to bodily injury too, and per claim or per occurrence

The classifications line deserves a second look. GL uses its own classification system, separate from workers’ comp. The comp codes for our trades typically fall among 0042, 9102, 6217, 0106, 9402[VERIFY] , and the carrier makes the final call under NCCI rules; that fact carries a verify badge because one code is still being confirmed. The GL codes are different numbers with different descriptions, and the two policies can describe your operation differently in the same year. The class code article covers the comp side. On GL, the question is only whether every kind of work you do is on the list.

The forms and endorsements schedule

Here’s the section that is the policy: a list at the end of each coverage part, with a form number, an edition date, and a title. The coverage form is the base contract. Every endorsement after it changes that contract, and most of the ones that matter to a contractor take something away.

Line What it says What to check
Coverage form The base contract, by form number and edition Which edition. Older editions differ from newer ones in ways that matter, and the number tells you which contract you actually have
Additional insured endorsements Who else gets coverage under your policy and for what Blanket or scheduled, ongoing operations only or completed operations too. The contract asks decide which you need
Primary and non-contributory Your policy pays first for the additional insured Present if any contract asks for it, and most commercial ones do
Waiver of subrogation Your carrier gives up recovery against the party named Blanket or scheduled, and whether the same waiver exists on auto and comp
Any form titled “exclusion” Coverage removed Every one, looked up by title: explosion, collapse, underground property damage (XCU), earth movement, snow and ice removal, roofing, fungi, pollution, designated work, contractual liability limitations
Classification limitation Coverage applies only to the operations classified on the dec page If present, the classifications list becomes the boundary of the policy. Anything not listed may be excluded, not just unrated
Subcontractor endorsements Conditions on hiring subs, often requiring certificates and limits from each Conditions you actually meet. A warranty you can’t keep is a coverage condition you’re already failing
Pollution endorsements Time-element or limited pollution coverage, or a total exclusion Which one. A total pollution exclusion on a septic or trenching outfit is a real gap

The rule is simple: read every form with “exclusion” or “limitation” in the title. The XCU article walks the one that matters most in dirt work. The snow and ice exclusion matters to anyone who plows. The subcontractor warranty matters to everyone who hires one. None of them announce themselves. They’re a form number and a short title, and the only way to know what they do is to pull the form.

Commercial auto declarations

On its own policy, usually.

Line What it says What to check
Covered auto designation Which vehicles the policy covers, by category: any auto, owned autos only, scheduled autos, hired, non-owned Whether a truck you bought mid-term is covered automatically or only if scheduled, and whether hired and non-owned is on for the crew’s own trucks
Liability limit Often a combined single limit Meets the contract asks. 25/50/15 is the state minimum, and contracts commonly ask for $1,000,000 combined single limit instead
Schedule of covered autos Each vehicle by year, make, VIN, and garaging address Every plated unit and trailer is on it with the right VIN, and the radius is honest. The Mack that hauls on the highway belongs here; the Bell that never leaves the job belongs on the equipment schedule
Physical damage Comprehensive and collision, per vehicle, with deductibles Which units have comprehensive. The hail article explains why that list matters every June

Inland marine (contractor’s equipment) declarations

Line What it says What to check
Scheduled equipment Each machine by make, model, serial, and value Every machine you own is on it, every one you sold is off, and the values are current, not from the year you bought them
Blanket / unscheduled limit One pool for small tools and attachments, with a per-item cap The cap is bigger than your most expensive attachment. A hydraulic hammer over the cap needs its own line
Rented or leased equipment Coverage for machines you rent, with an any-one-item limit Present, and sized to the biggest machine you actually rent
Valuation Replacement cost or actual cash value Which one, and whether it’s per item or for the schedule
Coinsurance and deductible A requirement to insure to a percentage of value; the deductible per occurrence or per item Whether coinsurance applies and at what percentage; how the deductible stacks in a storm that hits four machines

Workers’ compensation declarations

Line What it says What to check
Item 1 Named insured, address, entity type, often the owners or officers Owners match reality, and their inclusion or exclusion matches the election form on file with the carrier
Item 3.A and 3.C The states where the policy applies, and other-states coverage Colorado is listed, and any state a crew might work in is in 3.A or 3.C
Item 3.B Employer’s liability limits Meet the contract asks, which are often higher than the form’s default
Item 4 Classifications, codes, rates, estimated payroll, and premium by class Every class you work in is listed with a payroll estimate that’s honest. The audit article is what happens to this line
Endorsements Waiver of subrogation, owner inclusion or exclusion, alternate employer Blanket waiver if contracts ask for it; owner endorsements match the elections you made

The premium line

Every coverage part ends with a premium. No figures here, but the structure matters. On GL and comp the number is typically a deposit against an estimate, adjusted at audit. On auto and equipment it’s usually flat for the term. Many policies also carry a minimum premium the carrier keeps regardless of how the audit comes out, and a mid-term cancellation may be short-rated, returning less than the unused fraction. If you’re planning to cancel in the fall and rebind in spring, those two terms are the ones to find first.

The one-hour version

  1. Named insured. Matches the entity that signs contracts, with every DBA listed.
  2. Description of operations and classifications. Every kind of work you actually do, on GL and on comp.
  3. Forms schedule. Every form with exclusion or limitation in the title, looked up and read.
  4. Equipment values and covered autos. The schedule matches the yard; the VIN list matches the plates.
  5. Additional insured, primary, and waiver endorsements. Present in the form your contracts ask for.

A hardscape crew in Boulder County with a mini excavator, a plate compactor, and two trucks can do that in an hour. Then send it with the loss runs, and the review starts from what’s on the policy rather than what anyone remembers buying.

Where to go from here

Send us the dec pages for every policy you carry, forms schedules included. A policy review starts with the lines above and ends with a list of which forms take coverage away and what it would take to change them. The excavation insurance hub covers how the package fits together for a dirt outfit, and the commercial auto page covers the truck policy most contractors read least.

Serving businesses located in Colorado. Coverage is determined by the policy language and the carrier.

FAQ

Questions contractors ask us

More questions, answered

What is a declarations page?
The first few pages of a policy, listing who is insured, for what period, with what limits, on what forms, for what premium. It's the only part most people read, and it's a summary, not the contract. The forms and endorsements it lists are the contract. Read the dec page to find them, then read them.
Where is the XCU exclusion on my dec page?
It won't say XCU. It appears as a form number and title on the forms and endorsements schedule, and the title may just say exclusion with a reference to explosion, collapse, or underground property damage. Any form with the word exclusion in its title is worth looking up. The XCU article shows what to look for and what it does.
Why does my GL dec page show a class code that isn't my workers' comp code?
Because general liability and workers' comp use different classification systems. The GL classification describes the operation for premium purposes with its own codes and rating basis, usually payroll or receipts. The comp classifications are NCCI's. Both should describe what you actually do, and both can be wrong in the same year. Compare each to the job list.
What does 'rating basis: payroll' mean on my dec page?
It means premium for that classification is calculated on payroll, so the number next to it is an estimate you or your agent gave the carrier. It gets audited. If the estimate is stale, the audit bill is the difference. The class code article covers how payroll gets split between codes.

Sources

  1. C.R.S. 10-4-620, Required coverages (minimum auto liability limits) (accessed 2026-09-03)
  2. NCCI, Classification Scopes overview (II_FYI-CW-2017-11) (accessed 2026-09-03)

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Statutes and numbers on this page last verified September 2, 2026 by a licensed Colorado producer. How we verify.

Send us what you've got. We'll tell you what it's missing.

Upload your dec pages. We read them the way we read our own: equipment schedule first, then auto, then what the contracts ask for.

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Serving businesses located in Colorado.