Logistics Insurance

Haulage insurance can protect your cargo and your business against several risks, such as:

• Hauliers’ liability insurance – is one of the most important elements of a haulage insurance policy.  Hauliers’ liability cover can give you two forms of liability insurance protection:
  • Public liability insurance – if you or one of your drivers is responsible for accidentally causing injury or damaging the property of a member of the public and they decide to take legal action against you, it will help with the costs of mounting a defence and paying any compensation awards
  • Employers’ liability insurance – EL insurance as it’s also known – protects haulage businesses from compensation claims from their employees should they be sued by staff for loss or injury at work.  If you have any employees, be they full-time, part-time, or contracted, then having EL insurance of at least £5m is a legal requirement.  Owing to the hazardous nature of the haulage industry, many hauliers take out cover with limits of £10m.  The health and safety of your employees are essential, and you are legally required to uphold that responsibility from incidents such as:
    • Someone having an accident at work
    • A member of staff developing a medical condition owing to their job
    • One of your team members has had their property damaged while at work
• Cargo insurance – if you accidentally lose some or all of the cargo you’re carrying, logistics insurance will cover the loss up to the limit set in your policy
• Damage to goods – if your cargo is damaged while being moved, then your policy can cover the cost of replacing it.  It covers problems including breakage, water damage or damage to packaging
• Theft – thefts from lorries and from warehouses are on the rise in the UK.  According to the BBC, lorry thefts and freight crime reached a total of £111.5 million in 2024.  Given the size of the problem, logistics firms would be wise to have haulage insurance in place
• Directors’ and officers’ insurance (D&O insurance) – insures an organisation’s senior people from financial loss should they become involved in legal disputes arising from their business’s activities. Cover can extend to defence costs arising from criminal and regulatory investigations or trials.
• Contingency insurance for subcontractors – also known as contingent public liability insurance, this covers you should a subcontractor be held liable for damage or injury and their insurance fails to pay out.  It protects you when another’s policy has been invalidated
• Cyber insurance – cyberattacks are dangerous, costly, and on the rise.  Half of UK businesses and around a third of charities have reported having experienced some form of cybersecurity breach or attack in the last 12 months.  This is even higher for medium-sized businesses, 70% of which have been attacked, large businesses, 74% of which have been targeted, and high-income charities, 66% of which have been victims (Source: to The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 2024 report).  Given these worrying statistics, it’s no wonder that cyber insurance is considered as being an essential business insurance, especially as cyber insurance covers you against the costs of ransomware attacks, data loss, reputational damage, malware, and the cost of infecting another organisation’s systems.  With logistics firms being dependent on computerised networks, they’d be wise to have cyber insurance protection in place
• Business interruption insurance – if something catastrophic happened, such as a fire or flood, and your business was forced to close for a while, could you cope?  With no money coming in and bills needing to be paid, would you be able to keep going?  Business interruption cover provides you with an income while your logistics business is out of action, providing much-needed peace of mind in a time of stress.
• Commercial buildings insurance – if you own the building in which your transport business operates from, then you need commercial buildings insurance to protect it.  Buildings insurance protects you from the cost of repairing or rebuilding your building if it’s damaged by things such as floods, fires, vandalism, or an explosion
• Storage and hazardous goods insurance – as a transport or logistics firm, you’ll often have other people’s goods in your care.  Storage and hazardous goods insurance will protect these from loss, accidental damage, or theft and can even cover hazardous goods
• Fleet insurance – if you have three or more vehicles associated with your business – be they vans, plant equipment or trucks – you can save time and money by insuring them with fleet insurance.  Fleet insurance allows you to:
  • Save money – by insuring multiple vehicles with business fleet insurance, you can reduce your per-vehicle insurance costs
  • Save time – having one policy to administer means fleet insurance can save you administration time versus having to look after several single vehicle policies
  • Enjoy greater flexibility – you can add or remove vehicles and drivers as you need to, without the need to get a new quote and policy.  You can also insure your entire team to drive your vehicles with an any-driver policy
  • Get cover for complex driving risks – whether you need cover for young or newly qualified drivers or even those with a chequered claims history, an any-driver policy could enable you to insure the drivers you need more easily