Tarbox Agreements are used extensively world-wide by aviation fuel suppliers and the insurance industry to establish liability for aircraft refuelling risks and ensure fuel suppliers are appropriately insured to cover these risks. Changes to Insurance Policies in the 1970s included the “Joint Venture Endorsement Clause” that reduced insurance coverage if a Fuel Supplier was part of a joint venture or using joint facilities. Subsequently, the industry agreed upon the “Aircraft Refuelling Endorsement 1971”, that once again accepted coverage for the full amount of the policy, provided the Fuel Supplier accepted sole liability for incidents involving its own customers, and indemnified and held harmless the other fuel suppliers using the facility.
These key clauses still apply today and can be found in most Insurance Policies. There remains the requirement for fuel suppliers using joint facilities (where equipment is shared and fuel is comingled) to take sole liability for incidents involving their customers and to hold harmless the other suppliers using that facility. Conformity with this requirement has traditionally been achieved by the completion of “Tarbox” Indemnification Agreements at the locations where your company has aircraft refuelling activities.
Though primarily for fuel suppliers, changes to legal policy in some jurisdictions may also require the non-fuelling operator of an aviation fuel handling facility to sign the agreement. This is further detailed below.
Tarbox Agreements are recommended in all situations where sole liability needs to be established. Any location where you are using joint facilities, such as a Joint Venture, or a Throughput location operated by a service provider, or an open system operated by the airport authority is normally subject to Tarbox. Locations where you operate for your own company only, or where there is only one fuel supplier are outside of the scope.
In order to clearly establish sole liability, a Tarbox Agreement at a location has to be signed by all companies supplying aviation fuel through the facilities. There could be a gap in coverage if all of the suppliers are not signatories to the agreement. In the event of an incident, non-signatories could potentially endeavour to attribute the liability to another organisation. The associated unknown risks and costs are what Tarbox Agreements are designed to prevent.
Note that airlines who are self-supplying through a joint system are in those circumstances acting as a fuel supplier, and consequently sign the Agreements.
The indemnifications provided in the Tarbox Agreements exclude Gross Negligence and Wilful Misconduct (GN/WM). If GN/WM of another signatory can be proved, they become responsible for the incident and are not indemnified by the fuel supplier suffering the incident. It is important to note that in several jurisdictions, it is against the law or public policy to grant indemnities for GN/WM. This carve-out also means that self-operating Joint Ventures (JV) – usually limited companies – are also signatories to Tarbox Agreements and carry appropriate insurance. Unincorporated JVs (looser arrangements and not limited companies) also sign Tarbox Agreements in jurisdictions where they may be held legally liable even though not established as a corporation.
No. Tarbox Agreements serve only to clarify liabilities. They require the signatories to have insurance cover / financial resources of $1 billion. This is typically the amount required contractually by aviation fuel customers, so entering into Tarbox Agreements is unlikely to incur further cost for your company.
If a location you operate at already has a Tarbox Agreement between some suppliers, you need to request a Deed of Adherence (DOA). This is short document that enables your company to join the existing arrangements. If there is no agreement at the location, you need to start a new Main Agreement for all suppliers who are present.
Templates for these agreements are available on the JIG Website (www.jig.org) and on the public Tarbox website www.tarboxlonline.com . You can also email JIG at tarbox@jig.org
There are several agreement templates called “Exhibits”, and you use specific ones according to the operating structure of the location concerned (JV, Throughput etc.). Which one you need to use is available in other Tarbox documentation published by JIG, and is also suggested on the Tarbox portal (see below) if you have registered your locations.
The management of Tarbox Agreements is done by JIG on behalf of the entire industry. You do not have to be a JIG Member to access the Tarbox Portal. If you don’t already have it, you need to request JIG to set up your company in the system as well as your company Users. After that, you can request for your sites that are subject to Tarbox to be set up on the system. Then, either using www.tarboxnline.com or www.jig.org/tarbox you will be able to see your list of sites and whether or not Tarbox Agreements have been signed. You have to upload details of your signed agreements for this to be effective, and it also has the advantage that other co-signatories can also see their agreements and download copies if necessary.