Posted on: March 7, 2024
How to Manage Urban Area Risks in Your Transport Business
As a transport business owner, you may operate your vehicles in a wide range of environments.
While freight vehicles only account for one in five vehicles on Australian roads, there are extra risks in urban areas for transport companies.
Heavy rigid trucks are four times as likely to be involved in injury crashes in significant urban areas compared to elsewhere, according to an analysis by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics.
In this article, we’ll examine those risks and outline how your business can minimise them.
Risks in Urban Transport
These issues all dovetail into urban transport risks:
Navigating traffic and congestion, finding parking, and loading zones, absorbing increased toll fees, smart-phone distracted pedestrians, sticking to a delivery schedule, facing impromptu roadworks along key routes, slimmer public coffers to repair road infrastructure, and consumer demand for faster deliveries..
As a transport business operating in urban environments, the top risks include:
- Collisions and accidents causing human injuries, property damage, and cost impacts
- Wear and tear on infrastructure you use, which means possible delays, potential accidents, and higher maintenance costs
- Cyber security issues because of more tech-enabled transport, such as data breaches, disrupted operations and possible sabotage (think DP World’s Logistics breach late last year).
The Need for Public Liability Insurance in Urban Transport
Your drivers and trucks could face these liabilities in their everyday work:
- Injuries to people
- Damage to third-party property
- Accidents
- Loss of part or all the load, due to an incident or accident.
Comprehensive vehicle insurance goes some way to covering these liabilities, but there will be gaps. That’s why public liability insurance can cover:
- A broader range of liability claims, including circumstances that aren’t directly linked to the truck’s operation
- Potential coverage of your costs for legal fees, compensation, and other expenses, such as for claims and legal action
- Ensure you have proof your business complies with contractual and regulatory needs for public liability insurance.
Differentiating Public Liability and CTP
Public liability insurance plays a crucial role in bridging the gap between specific vehicular incidents and more general liabilities that arise in the course of urban transport operations. It is essential to understand the difference between personal injuries covered under Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance, which is typically excluded from public liability coverage, and other types of injuries or damages.
For instance, an injury sustained by a third party during the loading or unloading process of the truck is a scenario where public liability insurance becomes relevant. This type of insurance provides a safety net for incidents that are not strictly related to the direct operation of the vehicle, ensuring a comprehensive protection for your transport business against a wider array of potential claims and legal challenges.
What Does Public Liability Insurance Cover?
A public liability insurance policy can cover your transport business for the following:
- A member of the public trips over loose items on a footpath as your driver is unloading items from the truck
- Oil spills from the back of one of your trucks onto the road causing a traffic hazard to those following, resulting in a collision
- Injuries to visitors to your distribution centres, and in transit
- Your truck or driver causing damage to public property, including a footpath, road, kerb, road signs
- Same as above, but for personal property
- Accidental damage or injury
- Punitive damages/fines from regulators regarding the operation of your business.
Exclusions for public liability cover typically include injury covered by state and territory compulsory third party insurance. However, policy terms and conditions can vary.
Selecting the Best Public Liability Insurance
Tailoring public liability cover to your unique business makes sense. You may earn premium discounts if you package that policy with others for your business.
Talk to us for guidance on risk management and finding the best-fit public liability insurance for your operations in urban areas now and going into the future.
