Good evening,
I wonder if anyone can help.
I am self employed with a limited company and was working for a firm through an agency. With the umbrella company we all paid £10 per week to cover the driver neg insurance.
I have since left the agency and am driving direct for the same firm and have rung everywhere trying to get my own driver neg insurance.
It seems that this only covers agencies and no one else and in at a loss as what to do.
If i damage the truck or trailer then the company are going to want to claim the damages from myself as i am not one of their own employees.
can anyone help me with this situation as im not sure which way to turn.
The vehicles you drive should be insured by the owner. Any Co that asked me to provide insurance to cover ME to drive one of THEIR vehicles would not have me driving it.
Owning and operating vehicle carries an inherent risk, if the operator can’t accept that fact then he/she is in the wrong line of business.
Oh, btw, as you (the op) are a limited Co, that means you have Limited liability.
To be fair you aren’t actually insuring the vehicle per se, what you are doing is providing a cop out for the agency to avoid their responsibilities. I’d tell them to stick it. If you really want to cover your botty should it all go Pete Tong then perhaps public liabilty insurance would be the thing for you.
These agencies who force you to go umbrella/ltd or whatever are just trying to have their cake and eat it.
the maoster:
To be fair you aren’t actually insuring the vehicle per se, what you are doing is providing a cop out for the agency to avoid their responsibilities. I’d tell them to stick it. If you really want to cover your botty should it all go Pete Tong then perhaps public liabilty insurance would be the thing for you.
These agencies who force you to go umbrella/ltd or whatever are just trying to have their cake and eat it.
Am i reading the same post as you? I thought he said he left the agency and was working direct ?
Kragzy:
Good evening,
I wonder if anyone can help.
I am self employed with a limited company and was working for a firm through an agency. With the umbrella company we all paid £10 per week to cover the driver neg insurance.
I have since left the agency and am driving direct for the same firm and have rung everywhere trying to get my own driver neg insurance.
It seems that this only covers agencies and no one else and in at a loss as what to do.
If i damage the truck or trailer then the company are going to want to claim the damages from myself as i am not one of their own employees.
can anyone help me with this situation as im not sure which way to turn.
many thanks
If you’re self employed then you have a choice. You can accept their terms or leave them.
the maoster:
To be fair you aren’t actually insuring the vehicle per se, what you are doing is providing a cop out for the agency to avoid their responsibilities. I’d tell them to stick it. If you really want to cover your botty should it all go Pete Tong then perhaps public liabilty insurance would be the thing for you.
These agencies who force you to go umbrella/ltd or whatever are just trying to have their cake and eat it.
Am i reading the same post as you? I thought he said he left the agency and was working direct ?
You are indeed correct. I can only assume that my escalating blood pressure as I read about agencies requiring drivers to provide insurance caused my mind to disregard the rest of the post.
The company in direct for have said they need public liability to the sum of 5million in any one claim and driver neg to the tune of 25 thousand in any 1 claim. Its not so much as to wether its right or wrong more that if your a one man band ltd company you just cant get driver neg.
Kragzy:
The company in direct for have said they need public liability to the sum of 5million in any one claim and driver neg to the tune of 25 thousand in any 1 claim. Its not so much as to wether its right or wrong more that if your a one man band ltd company you just cant get driver neg.
They have other guys in there direct ? Might be an idea to speak to some of them if they have. As you say Public Liability is generally easy to come by, but i’ve never actually heard of driver negligence insurance, well outside of a normal policy.
Kragzy:
Id never heard of it before joining agency and always been told its illegal to insure a vehicle more than once.
You were told wrong. It is illegal to claim on multiple policies on a vehicle for the same accident but you can have more than one policy on a vehicle.
I never had driver neg insurance and my customers never asked for it. I did have a clause in my contracts that said I or my company’s representatives were not liable for any damage or losses arising from the actions of me or my employees. I also always got confirmation from their insurers that I was covered to drive their vehicles and this seems to be standard with many that use agencies who all seem to have a “employee or person acting under the instructions of” term on their insurance.
Unfortunately Drivers Neg is not something which we currently do however we have had a rise in queries and it is something that we’re looking at doing. I will do a bit of research to see if there is any insurance company currently offering Drivers Neg in isolation and let you know.
Requiring public liability is fair enough as you won’t be covered by their policy as a Ltd co driver, but its still their name on the side and their reputation.
I think drivers neg is BS- that’s what their fleet insurance is for. 90% of all RTAs are due to negligence on one of the driver faults- if we all did everything right there would never be a crash!
If an employed driver had a crash, they would claim. They still can for you- but want you to cover it yourself. I’d tell them to stuff it unless the rate goes up respectively to cover the costs.
I have accident and public liability but have never been asked for it. Also one company i drove for had to get permission from their insurers for me to drive their lorry so i assume its their responsibility for any bumps you have.
