GENERAL INSURANCE – TRANSPORT & LOGISTICS

Ironbark Group Australia

INSURANCE FOR TRANSPORT & LOGISTICS OPERATORS

Whether you are a sole operator owner-driver, an operator of a small fleet of vehicles, or a larger logistics operation, having the right insurance to cover your business operations is important. We can help you obtain insurance that suits your business.

Whether that is cover for your trucks, trailers, and liability or for the goods you carry, we’re here to help you hold the right cover for your business.

We commonly help businesses in the following industries:

  • Heavy Haulage
  • Plant & Machinery Transport
  • Container Transport
  • General Freight (sea, road, rail or air)
  • Construction Materials
  • Refrigerated Trucks and Trailers
  • Mobile Crane Operators
  • Dry Hire & Wet Hire of Transport Equipment such as Trucks and Trailers
  • Bus & Coach
Transport and logistics

Regular insurance and risk related solutions we assist our clients with within the Transport & Logistics industries to help protect you from potential loss in the event of a claim that arises during your normal course of business are:

TRANSPORT INSURANCE PACKAGE

A transport package is the primary insurance policy for most transport operators.

A transport insurance package is designed for transport operators and covers many of the primary risks for a transport operator, including:

  • Damage to your Motor Vehicles / Trucks / Trailers
  • Hired in Trailers
  • Damage caused to property owned by third parties whilst using the vehicle

PUBLIC LIABILITY (ALSO KNOWN AS BROADFORM LIABILITY)

This cover can be included within an Transport Operators insurance policy for both small and large transport operators. However, in some instances, depending on the type of transport service you provide, we may need to place your Public Liability Insurance with a more specialist insurer to cover the risks associated within your specific industry.

Public Liability insurance provides protection if someone makes a claim against You, the business or its employees when damage to third-party property or personal injury has been caused by your business activities.

MARINE CARGO INSURANCE

There are 2 types of Marine Cargo Insurance coverages that transport operators need to consider insuring depending on their individual transport operation whether the goods being transported are via sea, road, rail or air.

Goods In Transit Insurance: This cover responds to damage to your customers goods for theft, pilferage or non-delivery, damage during loading or unloading the goods, and Accidental Damage to your Cargo whilst in transit

Carriers liability: This cover responds for damage or loss relating to a breach of the delivery conditions within the consignment note, if you don’t use a consignment note, this cover isn’t required as it only responds to a consignment note breach (liability)

COMMERCIAL MOTOR VEHICLE

We understand the importance of making sure you have the right cover for your commercial motor vehicles in place be it sedans, utes and vans.

Commercial motor vehicle insurance helps protect your vehicles from accidental theft to damage and has been designed with the common risk exposures of commercial drivers in mind.

We highly recommend business owners consider the benefits of arranging commercial vehicle insurance if they use their cars, trucks and trailers for business purposes.

BUSINESS INSURANCE FOR YOUR DEPOT OR OFFICE

There are many different types of optional covers with business insurance.

These covers can range from inclusions for Business Property, Theft, Glass Cover, Business Interruption, Money, Machinery Breakdown, Electronic Equipment Breakdown, Tax Audit, General Property and Employee Dishonesty.

Comparing business insurance between different companies can be overwhelming if you’re not sure what to look for.

DOWNTIME LOSS OF INCOME

Downtime Loss of Income cover is an extension of cover that provides financial protection for your business in the event of damage to or theft of your insured trucks, trailers or goods delivering vehicles. In most cases, cover can be arranged for either:

  • Loss of Income during the time the machine is repaired (up to a maximum $ per week for a set number of weeks),
  • The costs to hire a temporary machine allowing you to continue to work whilst your machine is fixed, recovered, or replaced, or,
  • The lease or finance costs that are incurred for the machine whilst it is fixed, recovered, or relaced.

CONTRACTUAL LIABILITY

Whilst incidental contractual liability insurance may be insured by some liability insurance policies, it often excludes liability that would not have existed without the contract. This exclusion of the included cover generally will make most policies not actually cover any contractual liabilities arising from any contract that you enter into with customers or suppliers.

 MANAGEMENT LIABILITY INSURANCE

As the director of a company, you can be held personally liable for decisions you or your staff make on your behalf in the running of your business. These decisions may result in an alleged breach of employment law (harassment, discrimination, bullying, unfair dismissal), trade practices act, environmental protection, or workplace health & safety laws. A directors liability or management liability insurance policy generally protects the company and any innocent parties by paying for defence cover to defend against such allegations against you as a director and / or the business entity.

PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE

Professional Indemnity insurance is designed for professionals who provide a specialist service or advice, providing protection for financial loss and legal costs in the event of a claim. This claim may be a result of an actual or alleged negligent act, error or omission whilst providing your professional service or advice.

If someone alleges that you’ve made a mistake, overlooked a critical piece of information, misstated a fact or they have misinterpreted you in the course of your work, and this results in a financial loss for your client, then they may take legal action against you to recover these losses.

Professional Indemnity claims can arise from simple things like:

  • Giving incorrect advice
  • Faulty designs
  • A miscalculation
  • Incorrect diagnosis or treatment
  • An act, omission or breach of duty
  • Engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct
  • Loss of documentation
  • Inadvertently defaming someone
  • Failing to meet a deadline
  • Not meeting your clients expectations

Professional Indemnity insurance is designed to protect the assets and reputation of your business in the event of a claim.

CONTRACTORS ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITY (CEL)

As a Civil Contractor or Earthmoving Operator, you may be responsible for environmental cleanup costs associated with a contamination that may arise from work that you undertake whilst on site.

Whilst some public liability policies do provide ‘pollution liability’ they are often restricted to a sudden and unforeseeable release of contaminants, such as a diesel tank impacted by an excavator suddenly leaks provided such impact wasn’t a foreseeable event. As a result of the limitations in a public liability policy and the potential for significant contamination cleanup costs, it is possible to insure for your environmental liability insurance as a Civil Contractor or Earthmoving Contractor

 TRADE CREDIT INSURANCE

Trade Credit Insurance provides cover for your unsecured debtors in the event that your debtor becomes insolvent or unable to pay their debt to you whilst within your credit terms. The policy can provide up to 90% of the outstanding income owed to you. This is not a type of invoice factoring but an insurance policy that responds to one specific debtor if they are unable to pay. This will be particularly important if you choose to wholesale your goods to other business providing them with credit terms in which to make a payment after they have placed their order.

For some savvy business owners, this type of insurance can be used to help them grow by underwriting the risk associated with supplying to large corporate customers who require credit terms often at 90 days end of month as part of their conditions to supply. This type of insurance helps reduce the risk that this new large customer won’t make payment when the time comes.

There are of course other policies that may be suitable for your business. Whilst the above policies are commonly taken, we also understand that no two businesses are the same. We will help you understand what cover you should consider may be appropriate for your business.

To discuss your specific Transport Operators insurance needs further, please call us directly on 1300 677 449 or fill out your details below and we will be in touch shortly.

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