I’m looking for a bit of advice on liability insurance for LTD Company drivers. I have tried researching online but can’t find a definitive answer to my question. Before I go on, I should add that I am based in Scotland in case Scots law differs in my case.
My situation is this: I am registered with several employment agencies and recently was getting regular work from one company through an agency for approximately 3 months before I left for a better job through a different agency. Around 2 weeks before I left I had my first accident in 12 years of driving - I reversed into another truck in the yard causing a highly debatable £3500 worth of damage. At the time the agency said not to worry as their liability insurance covered it as “That’s what it’s there for”. However earlier this week, around 4 weeks after the accident, they texted me saying they needed my liabilty insurance details as I am a LTD Company. I told them that I don’t have any and that if it was a legal requirement to have any then they should have asked me for my paperwork at the time of hiring me along with all the other documentation they ask for as they are potentially sending out loads of self employed drivers to companies without adequate insurance cover. Her response was that it’s not their place to ask for it, but that their lawyer had told them that it’s my responsibility and that they would see me in court.
I strongly suspect they are chancing their arm with me but I’d just like to know for sure where I stand if they keep pursuing me on this.
Thanks in advance for any helpful responses on this matter.
ummm, you should have public liability insurance, if you caused the death or injury to someone say who would pay that person for the rest of their lives? When you are employed by an agency or directly by a haulier all the insurance requirements is with them. However you are effectively a subcontractor by being a ltd company. There is a question here about the accident taking place in their premises but it may be that their insurance has turned around and said to the haulier “you subcontracted the work out so his insurance should pay”. This is very common and when I had a property maintenance business as a sole trader I had to have 3 million pounds worth to get the contracts to do the work and this was checked by my clients. They should have checked that you had adequate public liability insurance but this is definitely a case for a lawyer. No matter what trucknet CSI say you need to get legal representation and you need to know where you stand in future? Here we are talking £3500 but what if you had killed or injured someone in an RDC say and TESCO and your client both pointed the finger at you. You need to know.
Edit:
As a footnote the reason companies go “limited” is to stop someone suing them and getting their personal assets. If you are not limited your home and personal finances are at risk. However with a limited company they can only get what the actual company owns. So it may pay you to say ok sue me then my company owns nothing and I can wind it up and start the next day under a different name?
you would be paying his widow 