How to reduce your road haulage insurance bill

CLA (Risk Solutions) Ltd

Haulage companies and owners of HGV fleets understand the importance of risk management planning to improve health and safety for drivers, customers, other road users and their own financial security.

The time and effort taken to put in place proper procedures and training will provide long term benefits including:

• Safer loading and unloading

• Safer driving leading to a reduction in accidents and vehicle maintenance

• Fewer prosecutions and related costs

• Meet legal requirements

• Lower insurance premiums

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), almost all deaths arise from just four kinds of accident, most often during loading and unloading or maintenance of vehicles:

• Being struck by a moving vehicle

• Falling loads

• Falls from vehicles

• Collapsing or overturning vehicles Information taken from the HSE publication “Health and safety in road haulage”.

Over the past five years, accident reports sent to HSE and local authorities show that nearly 60 employees were killed and 5,000 were seriously injured in the haulage industry.

Employees in haulage companies, warehousing, wholesale and retail distribution are vulnerable to a variety of injuries such as simple slips, trips and falls to being struck by moving or falling objects.

HSE’s leaflet aims to help all employers in road haulage and distribution to improve their employees’ health and safety.

Although it draws on information from the haulage and distribution industry, almost everything here will apply to every operator of commercial vehicles.

Risk management Insurers pick up the cost of accidents, damage to vehicles, legal liability and a range of other insured losses.

By identifying areas of risk and implementing a framework to minimise or prevent the impact of an insured event, haulage companies can improve safety and increase profits.

Controlling risks with an emphasis on practical control and improvements to eliminate or reduce hazards are the recommendations that are put forward in the HSE’s publication.

Areas where improvements can be made include:

• Employee training for drivers, maintenance and distribution staff

• Telematics to help your drivers

• Vehicle tracking, route planning and fuel management

• Driver assessment

• Safety devices such as cameras and autonomous emergency breaking

We can help you protect your contracting business. Simply call us on 0121 321 4600.