I was having a conversation with a work colleague about the insurance we are covered by to drive a truck. It got us on to the topic of whether you need to notify your own personal insurer of any accidents you’ve had in a truck. Would it affect you’re car insurance? Should you tell them? Just curious as to what you think.
Yes you do.
Yes you should, fault or not…
Every policy if different. I asked mine if they needed to know about truck accidents and they said no.
mrginge:
Every policy if different. I asked mine if they needed to know about truck accidents and they said no.
Yeah that’s what this guy said. I just assumed they always had to know?
NO, i believe you only report to the insurer of the vehicle you are insured to drive…well thats what i would do…never been a reason as yet to report to any insurer…except health reasons.
It’s all down to the wording.
Most online policies ask if you have had any accidents or claims in the last 5 years.
With this wording you need to disclose any accident or claim, regardless of vehicle or policy.
One Driver in our yard was renewing his car insurance.
He was trying to submit 1 claim ( his wife drove the car into the fence or something) Insurance told him, He has 3 claims on his name . He had a proper row with them about it.
He was told, that his name is in 1 windscreen accident ( Bird strike into a windscreen, Lorry windscreen at work. Boss claimed thro insurance.) One accident, he reversed into a parked car while picking up a skip.
All minor but true accidents.
The problem is, he had no idea it went thro the system. Boss never told him. Insurance company has it all. No way to hide any more.
I’m a Group Compliance Manager for a large fleet. I deal directly with insurance companies and I can assure you of the following, irrespective of what an insurance company tells you - if you are involved in an incident where an insurance compnany is involved, this is registered on the national database against your lisense.
Always notify you insurer if you are involved in an at fault incident in work as it could invalidate your insurance if you need to make a claim.
Note: an insurance company will allow you to renew even if you haven’t declared everything and not pay out if something goes wrong.
Irishmike:
I’m a Group Compliance Manager for a large fleet. I deal directly with insurance companies and I can assure you of the following, irrespective of what an insurance company tells you - if you are involved in an incident where an insurance compnany is involved, this is registered on the national database against your lisense.
Always notify you insurer if you are involved in an at fault incident in work as it could invalidate your insurance if you need to make a claim.
Note: an insurance company will allow you to renew even if you haven’t declared everything and not pay out if something goes wrong.
Welcome to TruckNet Irishmike, I have to say that what you said there completely matches my understanding of it.
Thing is would you risk not disclosing to save what £50 on your own premium?
If you happened to be involved in a really serious bump in your own car and even found partly to blame for life changing or, perish the thought, fatal injuries, your home and everything you own and a good slice of your income and pension for the rest of your life could be at risk if you had to repay a 6 figure sum, is that worth a £50 gamble?
Interesting point about screen damage, yes it is a claim which may not affect your NCD but it might well affect your premiums.
No need to bother either, unless you have a very rare car its amazing how cheap you can get a new screen supplied and fitted for so long as you avoid the big national advertisers and ask around for a local outfit who does screen for the car trade.
Good luck trying to get car insurance when your car insurance checks on the Claims and Underwriting Exchange database and finds your lorry accident you didn’t tell them about and then cancels your policy. Watch your premium soar when you tick the box “have you ever had insurance cancelled”…
All this advice about not telling them about work related accidents is just irresponsible. Do a simple Google search on the matter and save yourself extreme agro.
As people have said above you must answer questions honestly. Failure to do so could have life changing consequences.
On the plus side there are some insurers who recognise that minor incidents happen when driving and as HGV drivers we are a better risk than the average driver. Just search the internet for “Private Insurance for HGV Drivers” and you should find them.
Irishmike:
I’m a Group Compliance Manager for a large fleet. I deal directly with insurance companies and I can assure you of the following, irrespective of what an insurance company tells you - if you are involved in an incident where an insurance compnany is involved, this is registered on the national database against your lisense.
Always notify you insurer if you are involved in an at fault incident in work as it could invalidate your insurance if you need to make a claim.
Note: an insurance company will allow you to renew even if you haven’t declared everything and not pay out if something goes wrong.
Whilst I agree all the above advice is good as arguing with an Insurance Company is always going to be an uphill battle, so best to be as right / honest as you can, there was a case last year that I believe changed things a bit if you did get into a serious argument. Basically I think the judgement was that even if you “misinformed” your insurers about something they could not refuse a payout after an incident if your “misinformation” was not related to anything that happened in the incident.
Maybe irishmike knows whether that has been overturned or still stands ? There was a lot of fuss about it at the time because the insurance industry, and one of the judges, (who disagreed with his 2 mates), thought it would open the floodgates to all sorts of fraud.
Judgement details here :-
lawgazette.co.uk/law/suprem … 25.article
Just another question for irishmike that I thought of later, presumably there is some way of obtaining the details of what is on this database that you referred to, against your own name obviously ? Similar to the way you can get details of your own credit record from the credit reference agencies. If you have a fleet policy your insurer must give you your “claims history” before renewal but that only applies to that fleet history, (only goes back 5 years ?).
So, back in the summer I reversed into a loading dock and bent my tail lift, company claimed on their own insurance to have it fixed. I was asked by the company to fill out a damage claim form. Do I need to phone up the people who do my car insurance and tell them about this?
Radar19:
So, back in the summer I reversed into a loading dock and bent my tail lift, company claimed on their own insurance to have it fixed. I was asked by the company to fill out a damage claim form. Do I need to phone up the people who do my car insurance and tell them about this?
No, because it wasn’t your insurance claimed on. However when its comes to renewal and the question “have you had any accidents in the last five years…etc” comes up you should be answering honestly and putting the tail lift incident down.