TRUCKSTOP NEWS
ISSUE 310 JUNE 2013
27
INSURANCE
INSURANCE ADVICE
VAN - TRUCK - FLEET
INSURANCE “Quick Quote”
“ONE CALL” Towergate Insurance has been providing insurance cover for owner-drivers up to the largest fleets for over 30 years. T: 0844 346 3269
Q I have some lifting machinery that needs statutory inspection, which is arranged through my insurance broker. I recently found out some defects have been reported to the Health & Safety Executive. I‘m furious with our broker that the firm they selected disclosed information to another party without our consent. Our broker says that’s normal if serious defects are found. We think it’s a breach of confidence. Before we take this further, what’s your understanding as regards this issue? A Inspections are carried out to make sure equipment is safe to be used. If an inspection identifies defects that make the equipment potentially unsafe, then a copy of the report has to be provided to the relevant enforcing authorities; it is not a matter of discretion or discussion. That being the case, the firm carrying out the inspection was absolutely right to report the defects to the HSE. Q We currently buy ‘all-risks’ full-responsibility goods in transit cover as we don’t use conditions of carriage. There was a claim recently involving a load being badly damaged in a crash. The load was worth around £100,000. Half the consignment was damaged and we submitted a claim for £50,000. We thought we’d be covered as our policy has a load limit of £50,000 but instead, our insurer has applied ‘average’ and has said that as the load limit was set at only half what the consignment was worth, they’re only paying half the claim, so just £25,000. That leaves us £25,000 short of what our customer is expecting from us by way of a settlement for the damage. Our broker says this is a fair and correct
settlement. What’s your advice as regards re-arranging our cover?
A Your insurer appears to be offering the same settlement as any other insurer would offer in similar circumstances. What this highlights is the danger of not using conditions of carriage and instead relying solely on ‘all-risks’ cover. From a conditions-of-carriage perspective, even if you don’t use the likes of RHA Conditions, then at the very least you should be contracting out of liability for consequential losses (as these won’t be picked up under your ‘all-risks’ cover) and incorporating into a contract a limit any one consignment that dovetails with your insurance cover. Our advice from a cover perspective would be to use, assuming you’re an RHA member, the RHA Conditions of Carriage and then if your customer wants you to insure for an amount in excess of the standard £1300 per tonne limit under RHA Conditions, to arrange hauliers’ liability transit cover with an appropriately increased per tonne limit. Q We employ half a dozen
drivers. Whenever we recruit a driver, we check their licences and tell them that if they ever get a conviction for a driving offence, they must tell us. Recently we discovered by chance that one of our drivers was convicted for a serious driving offence involving his own car, but he never told us meaning we could have had a serious problem if he’d been involved in a crash when driving one of our trucks. What do you recommend we do to avoid this type of problem?
A The HSE Guidelines on Driving
at Work recommend that drivers’
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licences are checked when they join a company, or are first invited to drive on behalf of the company, and periodically thereafter. What is meant by periodical is open to debate; some say at least every six months. What we recommend is that companies use the likes of The Licence Bureau who provide a driving licence verification service which simplifies and reduces administration for you whilst at the same time providing the security of checking the driver by directly accessing licencing or other authorities’ records. For more information, see www.licencebureau.co.uk
Q From time to time, when a regular driver is away on holiday or if we’re very busy, we use a couple of friends with LGV licences to help us out. Are those friends likely to be automatically covered under our motor fleet policy? A Only those persons or classes of persons detailed on your certificate of insurance and / or schedule of insurance are authorised to drive your vehicles. Particular care is required if, for example, your policy restricts use to drivers between the ages of 25 and 65 with at least two years relevant experience. Be aware that drivers’ age restrictions are not shown on certificates of
PALLETS
YOUR STANDARD RATE TEXT CHARGE WILL APPLY
motor insurance. Instead, they are shown in the policy wording or schedule. If you require cover for anyone not currently authorised, your insurer must first be advised so that appropriate cover can be arranged. That of course means disclosing any accidents and/or convictions that they may have experienced. Our advice would be to treat those friends in exactly the same way as you would treat your regular drivers from an insurance disclosure and occupational road risk perspective. That way, as and when you need to use their services, you know exactly where you stand from an insurance perspective.
Q Most of my work involves
collecting containers from ports. Sometimes, the containers are briefly detached from the skeletal trailers; sometimes, a container and trailer will be detached from the tractor unit. Will my hauliers’ liability transit insurance cover protect me if a trailer or container is stolen whilst not actually attached to my tractor unit?
A There are two potential issues; the cover provided by your commercial motor insurer for the trailer and the cover provided by your transit insurer for the containers. The extent of cover
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provided by insurers for the circumstances you’ve outlined varies. Tell your broker exactly what you do with your trailers and containers, in what circumstances they might be detached, what security precautions are taken whilst they are detached, where they are kept when detached and so on, and ask them to check your cover carefully and to immediately extend your cover should this be necessary. If you have an insurance question, please contact our panel of experts on
01952 298 753 email: insurancequery@towergate.co.uk or visit www.truckquote.co.uk
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