Goods in transit insurance
Truckcover Transit: our exclusive AXA goods in transit and liability package for hauliers.
A haulier’s reputation travels with every load. One load lost on the motorway, stolen from a lay-by or damaged in a shunt can wipe out a contract, and the customer will look to your client to put it right.
Truckcover Transit is our own goods in transit and liability package, underwritten by AXA for Ratcliffes and available to brokers only through us. Your client gets one policy document, one statement of fact, one renewal date and one annual premium, with public and employers’ liability in the same package.
Generous standard cover comes first, with optional extensions for specialist loads, so you can add only what your client’s work needs.
Carriers it suits
Truckcover Transit is designed for businesses that carry other people’s goods for a living. It suits:
- Hauliers carrying other people’s goods for a charge, with one vehicle or a fleet
- Household removals firms
- Carriers of chilled and frozen loads, coated stone, ready-mixed concrete or livestock
Truckcover Transit is not suitable for freight forwarding agents.
Goods in transit cover included as standard
Truckcover Transit starts from a strong base. As standard it includes:
- CMR liability up to £300,000 any one vehicle within Great Britain, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Ireland
- Goods in the hands of subcontractors, on the same basis as your client’s own vehicles, so work passed to a subcontractor stays protected on the same terms
- Loading, unloading and temporary storage, as well as the journey itself
- Your client’s own sheets, tarpaulins and ropes
- Debris removal, transferring the load to another vehicle, reloading and re-securing, to help get a delivery moving again after an incident
- Containers your client is responsible for but does not own: up to £25,000 per container
- Consequential loss up to £250,000 any one event
- Errors and omissions up to £100,000 a year
- Strikes, road blocks and ferry crossings cancelled by bad weather: £300 a day, up to £5,000 per event and £10,000 a year, for delays your client cannot control
- Loss of use: £300 a week per vehicle towards hire or hire purchase costs after accidental damage, fire or theft, to help keep the business running while a vehicle is off the road
- Drivers’ personal effects up to £500 per driver
- Temporary substitute vehicles, and automatic reinstatement of the sum insured after a claim
Extras worth adding
Every haulier’s work is different. Add the extensions that match your client’s loads and contracts:
- All-risks cover up to the vehicle sum insured, so claims can be paid in full whatever the contract says
- Road Haulage Association (RHA) conditions, usually at £1,300 per tonne of carrying capacity
- CMR cover for western Europe, up to £300,000 any one vehicle, for clients who run into Europe
- Loss of use raised to up to £600 a week per vehicle
- Deterioration of frozen, chilled or insulated loads, where one failed fridge unit can spoil a whole load
- Trailers owned, leased or hired in, at market value
- Tarmac and ready-mixed concrete hardening after a vehicle breakdown, or an accident where police hold the vehicle for over two hours
- Livestock in purpose-built vehicles, up to £2,000 per animal
- Household removals, up to the vehicle sum insured
Public and employers’ liability in the same package
A dropped pallet on a customer’s premises or an injury to a member of staff can lead to a costly claim. The liability section includes:
- Public liability of £5,000,000 any one event as standard
- Contingent motor liability for vehicles used in the business that your client does not own or provide
- Indemnity to principals
- Sudden and accidental pollution
- Cover for temporary business trips abroad
- Employers’ liability of £10,000,000 any one event for office and temporary staff as standard, extendable to all employees
Worth knowing before you quote
Know the limits up front and there are fewer surprises when your client needs to claim:
- Unattended theft of high-risk goods, such as spirits, tobacco, phones, computers and non-ferrous metals, is limited to £75,000 any one event
- Consequential loss applies only where your client’s contract excludes that liability or limits it to the carriage charge
- Do not alter RHA conditions without AXA’s approval
- Money and securities in transit are not covered
- Under-declared values or vehicle numbers reduce claim payments
- Standard excess of £250, or £50 for drivers’ personal effects
One package, underwritten by AXA
Truckcover Transit is underwritten by AXA and is exclusive to Ratcliffes. It is one package: the goods in transit and the liability cover sit together, not on separate policies.
Cover is subject to the insurer’s underwriting and the policy wording.
What we need from you to quote
A complete picture of your client’s work helps us get the cover right first time. Tell us:
- What your client carries, and whether any high-risk goods are on board
- The conditions they trade on, CMR, RHA or all-risks, and the vehicle sum insured needed
- Where they operate: UK and Ireland only, or western Europe too
- Number of vehicles and trailers, and whether they use subcontractors
- Number of employees, and whether employers’ liability should cover all staff
- Any specialist loads: temperature-controlled, coated stone, concrete, livestock or household removals
Got a risk to place? Email brokers@ratcliffes.co.uk or call 01242 544 514 and talk it through with the team.