‘We’re still talking to your other insurer about your claim’; no business owner wants to hear these words.
The good news is that you can ensure your claims are as fuss-free as possible. Taking out broad coverage with one insurer is the best way to get your claims paid out quickly, without arguments about policies, disputes between insurers, or long delays.
NTI’s solution is called Transport Pack. Transport Pack rolls up to three of your policies into one, provides market-leading cover and is backed by NTI’s expert team to ensure your claims are resolved quickly.
Cementing your cover
Consider the following scenario: a driver or unloader deposits powdered concrete into the wrong silo at the receiver’s yard.
There are three potential losses: damage to the unloaded products, damage to any product already in the silo and the cost of repairing or rebuilding the silo. It’s a single incident, yet each loss could be covered by a different policy type or under a Transport Pack policy:
“We’ve seen these kinds of circumstances many times”, said Alex Sawtell, NTI’s National Liability Product Manager.
“Different insurers administer cover for liability around loading and unloading goods from a vehicle differently”, he said.
“Some people put it under a motor liability component – as we do at NTI. Others may put it under a public liability cover instead.
“If you take the wrong combination of a motor policy and a liability policy, you might find you have no loading and unloading cover at all. Not having that cover in place is a significant exposure.
“So it’s very important to ensure that those kinds of gaps are covered. Our Transport Pack policy can protect transport operators against all these incidents if all sections are selected. They’re designed to ‘dovetail’, so there’s continuity of cover.”
And that continuity is the key – you want to ensure low-gap coverage to protect your business.
There could be argy-bargy between the two insurers on trying to split costs and trying to determine who owned the liability... Whereas if they’re all with us, not only are you minimising those gaps, you’re also putting us in a position where we can say, ‘the correct home is here’. We’ll quickly and easily determine that for you.
On the road again
Another example of a potentially complex claim is when a piece of plant equipment, like a bobcat or an excavator, is driven on the road and hits another vehicle.
“If it’s registered and allowed to be driven on the road … there’s a lot of nuance to it”, Alex cautioned. “If it’s being used to dig, scrape or lift, whatever its intended purpose is, then it’s no longer a Motor Section 2 liability; it becomes a public liability claim.”
So far, so simple. But claims can be thorny, as Alex noted: “If there’s an issue around crossing an active roadway and you cause some property damage, there could be a fight between your liability insurer and your motor insurer as to who responds.”
Bundling your insurance with a single provider is a simple way to avoid many complexities.
“With Transport Pack, if you have liability and motor/plant cover together, it doesn’t matter when you cross the verge onto the road and start driving or stop driving and start digging”, said Alex.
“You’ll have a seamless cover designed to give you end-to-end protection against a property damage event that could arise.”
Choosing a policy: it’s not just about the price
While he recognises cost is a factor in insurance buyers’ decision-making, Alex stressed the importance of considering the overall coverage provided and ensuring customers are fully protected instead of using multiple insurers solely based on price.
“As an industry, we want to ensure customers are informed and able to make decisions to ensure they are fully covered”, he said.
“Looking at the loading and unloading example again, say the motor and public liability policies were with different companies.
“There could be argy-bargy between the two insurers on trying to split costs and trying to determine who owned the liability.
“All that does is cause consternation and delay in handling the claim.
“Whereas if they’re all with us, not only are you minimising those gaps, you’re also putting us in a position where we can say, ‘The correct home is here’. We’ll quickly and easily determine that for you.
“Then we’ll ensure the claim is paid efficiently and there are no problems down the track because another party thinks they do or don’t have an obligation under the claim or try to recover money.
“I think there’s a lot of value in that.”
Back on the road sooner
Another area of potential conflict is clean-up after a crash. If policies are held with different insurers, they must decide who’s liable for the clean-up and organise a crew to attend and remediate the site.
“There’s potentially an obligation on the tow operator or whoever has come to the accident scene to clean it up and remove whatever’s there”, Alex said.
“But then again, you might get stuck with the bill or have to put a surety down until your cargo insurer comes to the party.
“Whereas for the accident clean-up teams who work on our behalf, as soon as they hear it’s an NTI job, they know they’re going to get sorted out, they’re happy to do the job, and it removes some of the stress from the client.”
With a national network of repairers, tow operators, clean-up crews and other specialists, an expert in-house claims team, and some of the best policy wordings in the business, NTI’s Transport Pack offering is hard to beat.
“Our wordings are well-known, well-regarded and tend to have the broadest cover”, Alex said. “They also tend to have lots of additional benefits that are greater than, or don’t even exist in, our competitors’ products.”
Ultimately, it means we can get you back to business and back on the road sooner. And isn’t that what insurance is all about?