Haulage Insurance
Haulage insurance is the set of covers a business needs to carry other people's goods for payment: the vehicles on a hire and reward basis, liability for the goods being carried, and the public and employers' liability around the work.
What Haulage Insurance Includes
It is not one policy. The motor cover insures the trucks and your liability on the road. Carriers liability, or goods in transit written for a haulier, insures your liability for the loads. Those two have to match each other, and both have to match the conditions of carriage you trade under.
Hire and reward is rated very differently from own goods carriage. The insurer is pricing mileage, the loads, the customers and the routes as well as the vehicles, which is why haulage is arranged through brokers rather than bought off a form.
What Haulage Insurance Covers
Hire and reward motor cover
The trucks, insured for carrying goods for payment, from third party up to comprehensive, on a single vehicle or fleet policy.
Carriers liability
Your legal liability for customers' goods while you carry them, written to match the conditions of carriage you trade under.
Goods in transit
Cover for loads on your vehicles, including during loading, unloading and short stops, subject to the overnight and security conditions.
Public and employers' liability
Injury or damage caused at customers' premises, on loading bays and in yards, and the legally required cover for anybody you employ.
Trailers
Owned and interchanged trailers can be added, including trailers you pull for others and trailers left in customers' yards.
Where The Cover Stops
Wordings differ between insurers, so treat these as the usual position rather than as universal fact. Where one of them matters to you, it is worth checking on your own schedule before you need to.
Liability beyond your conditions of carriage
Carriers liability follows the terms you trade under. Sign a customer's contract that removes the usual weight based limit and you may be carrying a liability the policy does not match.
Unattended and overnight vehicles
Theft of loads from vehicles left unattended or parked outside approved locations overnight is a common exclusion. Security conditions are where haulage claims are most often declined.
Excluded goods
High value or high theft goods such as alcohol, tobacco, electronics and pharmaceuticals are often excluded or limited unless declared and accepted.
International journeys
Carriage outside the UK usually falls under the CMR Convention, with its own liability regime. It needs declaring and cover arranging for it.
Hire And Reward And Your Operator Licence
Carrying goods for other people for payment with vehicles over 3.5 tonnes needs a standard operator licence, national or international. A restricted licence covers your own goods only.
The insurance has to match the licence and the work. A vehicle declared for own goods use and then used for hire and reward is the clearest route to a declined claim. If you are moving from carrying your own goods to carrying for others, tell us before the first job rather than after it.
Conditions Of Carriage And The Gap At Claim Time
Most UK hauliers trade under standard industry conditions that limit their liability by the weight of a consignment rather than its value. For international road journeys the CMR Convention does the same, at 8.33 Special Drawing Rights per kilogram of gross weight.
That limit protects you, but only if your conditions are actually part of each contract, which means customers seeing and accepting them. Where they are not, your liability can default to the full value of the goods.
Customers increasingly ask hauliers to accept their own terms. Read them for clauses removing the weight limit, and send them to us before signing. A carriers liability policy written for capped liability does not automatically stretch to an uncapped one.
How To Choose A Haulage Insurance Broker
Haulage cover only works if the motor policy, the carriers liability and the liability covers fit together and fit how you trade. These questions tell you whether a broker is looking at the whole picture.
Do they ask for your conditions of carriage?
Carriers liability has to be written to match them. A broker who does not ask cannot know what you are liable for.
Will they look at customer contracts before you sign?
Clauses that remove the weight limit are the most expensive surprise in haulage. A broker should flag them.
Do they ask what you carry and where it stops overnight?
Load type and overnight security decide whether a theft claim pays. Those questions should come before the price.
Can they arrange motor, transit and liability together?
Separate policies from separate places tend to leave gaps at the edges: loading, unloading and the yard.
We are an independent broker authorised and regulated by the FCA. We arrange hire and reward motor cover with carriers liability, goods in transit and liability for UK hauliers, and we read conditions of carriage and customer contracts as part of quoting.
What Moves The Price
Every policy is priced on the business behind it. These are the things that move the premium:
- Number, type and weight of vehicles
- What you carry and its value per load
- Annual mileage and the routes you run
- UK only or international work
- Overnight parking and vehicle security
- Drivers' history and claims across the operation
We are a broker, so we take it to several insurers rather than quoting one. Call 02382 000820 for a quote.
What We Need To Quote
- Vehicle list with gross weights, values and trailers
- Operator licence type and authorised vehicles
- What you carry, maximum value any one load, and for whom
- Your conditions of carriage
- Where vehicles and trailers are kept overnight
- Drivers' details and claims in the last five years
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Goods in transitThe loads themselves, and how conditions of carriage limit what you owe.
- Truck & HGV insuranceFor trucks carrying your own goods rather than other people's.
- Motor fleetTrucks, vans and cars on one policy and one renewal date.
- Tradesman insuranceThe trade version of this, with tools and van cover built around it.
- All trades A to ZCover written for your specific trade rather than the general product.
- Talk to a brokerTell us what you do and we will say which of these you actually need.
Common questions
What insurance does a haulage company need?+
Hire and reward motor cover for the vehicles, carriers liability or goods in transit for the loads, employers' liability if you employ anyone (a legal requirement), and usually public liability for work at customers' premises.
What is hire and reward insurance?+
Motor cover for vehicles used to carry goods for other people for payment. Ordinary business use does not include it, and using a vehicle for hire and reward without it can leave you uninsured.
What is the difference between carriers liability and goods in transit?+
Carriers liability insures your legal liability for other people's goods, limited by your conditions of carriage. Goods in transit usually insures the value of goods themselves, often your own. Hauliers usually need carriers liability.
Do owner drivers need haulage insurance?+
Yes, if they carry for hire and reward. An owner driver subcontracting to a larger haulier also needs to check whether the haulier's policy covers them or whether they need their own carriers liability.
Who arranges haulage insurance in the UK?+
Mostly specialist commercial motor insurers through brokers, since the motor cover, carriers liability and liability need arranging together. CoverTrade arranges haulage insurance for UK hauliers. Call 02382 000820.
Other cover we arrange
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