E-commerce online stores have solidified their place at the front of commercial businesses. This convenient way to shop has grown increasingly popular but relies heavily on couriers to fulfil these sales and deliver goods to buyers. Couriers have become their own workforce and are no longer fixed to a single business. It's not uncommon to find commercial couriers transporting a wide variety of goods, from takeaway food orders to large furniture and anything else you could buy online.
Couriers and online sellers are inseparable partners that create a commercial union, and as such, they both should ensure that they are fully protected with adequate insurance.
Why Is Courier Insurance Important?If you are a commercial courier or operate a fleet, you need to invest in insurance for your couriers to provide adequate legal protections.
The essential concept behind couriers is that they transport valuable goods, making your drivers a target for thieves. By providing courier insurance, you can protect against property theft, loss or damage on the route. This applies to any size operation, whether it's food delivery, amazon fulfilment, etc. the simple act of dropping parcels off at a specific location to be received involves navigating several hazards, including potential accidents on route.
Compensation claims can also be an issue when running a commercial courier business. With your drivers constantly working around the public, the potential for accidents is significantly increased compared to most companies' operations. These adverse events can financially escalate dramatically, from paying out of pocket to a member of the public to compensating them for their legal costs and lost earnings. In addition, these uncontrollable environments can lead to accidents such as injuries or damaged property that can evolve into expensive compensation claims.
Courier insurance provides many benefits, but one of the most significant is the peace of mind it gives its owner. Whilst diligence and training will eliminate many potential issues; there is always the potential for something unexpected to go wrong. Adequate insurance can give you the confidence to address any claims against your business.
What Is Included In Courier Insurance?One thing to initially consider is what types of risks or hazards your work will encounter. Due to the unique nature of every commercial courier, there isn't single insurance that best suits everyone. However, as insurance brokers in Bolton, we have a great deal of experience sourcing tailor-made policies that will provide the best protections. All our policies will meet the minimum legal requirements to drive on the road whilst conducting deliveries, regardless of whether you're sharing a vehicle or operating alone. Below are the key coverages that we can include in your courier insurance.
This insurance will pay a third party if your driver is liable for lost or damaged property or personal injuries. However, it's important to note that this will not cover the vehicle, so there would be additional costs for repairs or a replacement vehicle in case of an accident.
This one works similarly to the previous one, with additional protections against theft and dangerous incidents like fire.
This cover is highly recommended as it will provide the most coverage against incidents. As well as addressing potential third-party costs, this choice can be used to claim for the cost of vehicle repairs or replacement, depending on the situation.
GIT (or goods in transit cover) is a vital policy within courier insurance. This cover focuses on the condition of the transported goods being the same as when they were dispatched. Transported goods will be vulnerable to theft, damage or loss, so this insurance element is aimed at the goods themselves.
Unlike other insurance coverages, goods in transit cover is not a legal requirement for your courier business. It is, however, highly recommended, not only for the reasons previously stated but also because many companies will consider this when choosing who to hire for their courier operations.
Breakdown coverThis part of the insurance is often overlooked, but that decision is soon regretted once you deal with a damaged vehicle. Most commercial couriers are held to strict deadlines to fulfil orders, and this coverage will help with that and fix any problems with your car or van, such as punctured types, flat batteries or more.
This coverage is a valuable protection for self-employed couriers as well as other businesses. Public liability insurance brokers help you find policies to cover the costs of compensation claims and legal actions from clients or the general public if an incident is related to your business's activities. In addition, comprehensive public liability will help protect your commercial venture while operating in public spaces by covering personal injury and illness claims, lost or damaged property and fatalities.
Over the past decades, IC Insurance has developed strong relationships with various courier insurance companies. These positive connections have allowed us to refine and improve the courier insurance options to ensure our clients are the most protected.
We offer online quotes for our courier insurance solutions; please contact us today to request a quote and see how you can protect your commercial courier business.
Work experience is a popular tool for providing valuable teaching that is otherwise difficult within a classroom environment. This successful teaching tool is widely used across a broad number of sectors not only as a way of providing students insights into working life but also as an introduction to new career possibilities they may have not previously considered.
Welcoming students for work experience is an excellent choice for a manager. However, bringing inexperienced people into the workplace exposes them to the same risks as your existing employees, and you must also ensure that they are covered.
For most insurers, the legal definition of an employee is any person employed under a contract of service, apprenticeship and work experience schemes.
Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, an employer is legally responsible for protecting young staff members from increased risks due to their lack of experience with workplace risks and employee immaturity.
The definition of a young person is anyone under 18, with a child as someone who has not yet reached the MSLA (minimum school leaving age). They have reached this age if they are 16 by the end of the summer holidays, but until they are 18, they must either:
Someone classed as a child must never carry out work that involves expected risks, whilst a young person can, but only if the risk is reduced to minimal levels and a competent person appropriately supervises them.
Employers are required to take additional considerations into account when introducing a work experience student into their workplace. These will be unique to each business but will involve considering any harmful on-site chemicals, dangerous machinery, what work they will be assigned and which they will be excluded from. In addition, you will need to perform your assessments of the student's capabilities and decide what work is appropriate; fortunately, there are guides to assist with this.
The HSE (Health and Safety Executive) has a lot of regulations and advice regarding employee welfare, including work experience students. These state that when someone under 18 (whether as an apprentice, work experience or actual work) is chosen to work in a business, their employers have the same responsibilities for their welfare, health and safety as other employees.
Taking on students for either short or long-term placements will bring additional challenges to your daily operations. The managers are responsible for maintaining the well-being of all their workers, whether employed, apprentice or as part of a work experience program. If a student were to be injured or fall ill during their time with your business and they feel it was your fault, then you could be held liable as the manager. Fortunately, the insurance industry has made the implications of your decision straightforward and convenient, thanks to employers' liability insurance.
Provided your Employers’ liability insurance in the UK comes from a member of ABI or Lloyds, it will already cover work experience placements. However, if the student is your first employee, you will likely not yet have this insurance. Therefore, before considering adding a work experience student to your staff, your first priority is to discuss acquiring employers' liability insurance, thereby gaining vital protection for your business.
Employers’ liability insurance is a legal requirement for most businesses in the UK. It is also known as employers’ insurance or employment practises liability insurance. This insurance protects employers against legal fees and compensation costs related to workplace injuries or illness.
The UK government has made it a legal requirement once a business employs one or more people. Failure to comply with this will result in fines of £2,500 per day with potentially additional penalties.
You are only exempt from the legal requirement of Employers' liability insurance in particular circumstances. The legal requirement is waved only if:
If you were to take on an immediate family member for work experience, you are not required to need this insurance, but you may wish to consider it or others as protection for your loved ones in the workplace.
When taking on an inexperienced work experience student, you must take steps to protect them and your business by taking these crucial steps:
Employers’ liability insurance is a broad coverage that, despite being a legal requirement, is in itself significantly beneficial insurance to have when protecting your business. Although, as prominent insurance brokers in Bolton, we would be happy to share more about the comprehensive coverage this insurance provides, we recommend filling in our enquiry form or contacting us today with any questions you might have.
Property owners are legally responsible for providing a well-maintained property for their tenants. Additionally, these landlords must also ensure that there are no unnecessary risks of injury for their tenants, visitors to the site or any members of the public adjacent to the outside of the building. For example, if a loose paving slab caused someone to trip the path to the front door, the property owner could be liable for compensation. By choosing property owners' liability insurance, you are investing in essential protections for yourself, but it's important to know what this liability entails.
Property owners' liability is insurance designed to protect property owners. As a buy-to-let investor or a landlord, you need to ensure you are covered so you can enjoy a steady return on your investment and avoid any unforeseen litigation expenses.
Suppose your tenants or any other members of the public are injured on your property, and the owner is found responsible. In that case, this element of your insurance will help cover you for any resulting claims for costs and damages.
The term liability describes when one party is legally responsible for something, in this case, the property itself. Liability is connected to the terms previously agreed upon in a contract and the associated legalities. It is also related to any potential negligence where one party owes the other party a duty of care.
Liability is included in most property owner's insurance as standard. Therefore, liability is an essential element of the insurance packages we can discover for you. As experienced insurance brokers in Bolton, we have a lot of experience finding the most effective policy from our list of reputable insurers.
The essential difference between public liability and property owners' liability will be in the policyholders. Public liability is reserved for businesses and places that have high public footfall. Property owners' liability insurance is designed for landlords or as part of the homeowner's building insurance policy. So whilst they sound similar, there are essential factors to be aware of. Injuries, illnesses or property damage to third parties are all covered under your liability insurance.
When you want to insure your property, there are three connected elements to keep in mind. First is the insurance itself. This is how you can transfer risk from yourself to an insurer, thereby protecting the insured party (the property owner) from the risks specified in your policy. Indemnity is the contractual obligation relating to compensation of loss between parties and is frequently used to state what risks are associated with what parties. Finally, we have the liability.
Each landlord policy will have a limit of indemnity for their property insurance. This limit is the maximum amount the insurance company will pay for a single claim. Your liability will be connected to any established indemnity, so ensuring that both parties have understood the wording is essential. Some indemnities will be limited to a specific time period or up to a set amount of compensation. The average policy will have legal costs associated with defending against a claim included with it
With residential property insurance (also known as domestic property or buy-to-let insurance), you receive a collection of covers that will provide sufficient protection in your interests regarding your property. These covers include (but are not limited to) accidental damage, theft or loss of rental income.
A comprehensive domestic property insurance policy will provide financial reimbursement if an insured risk potentially happens. In addition, the rental landlord insurance packages we can supply to you are well-rounded and fully cover your rental property. For example, they contain contents insurance which will reimburse you for any damaged household furniture and includes the previously mentioned property owners' liability.
Landlord Commercial Insurance
This commercial insurance applies to property owners who let their buildings to third-party businesses. We can find an umbrella policy that covers virtually every aspect of owning and letting the property for businesses and the public.
The difference between business property insurance and the previously discussed residential landlord insurance is to adapt to the different ways commercial properties are constructed compared to domestic buildings and the additional foot traffic commercial premises will receive. Commercial buildings will always have more visitors than a rented property, which presents potential risks that a residential property could avoid. The owner must be covered accordingly, including sufficient liability.
With the popularity of Airbnb properties, more and more people are investing in letting out residential buildings for holiday rentals. However, as the property owner, you should ensure you are sufficiently insured with clear liability stated whenever you let your building out to holidaymakers. Additionally, due to most holiday homes' remote locations, away from the cities, there can also be environmental concerns, such as extreme weather or flooding.
At IC Insurance, we are dedicated to continuously updating our knowledge of the insurance market and supporting profitable partnerships with the best insurance providers. Our enthusiastic team of insurance experts are ready to be the insurance intermediary you need to find the best property owners’ insurance for you.
You can contact us for a no-obligation quote for your property or if you have any other questions.
With the rising living costs at the moment, it’s natural that you could be worried about how they will affect your business. The increasing costs of stock, the parts you need to manufacture your products or the energy costs to power your business premises can all impact your business. And these rising costs may have ofter impacts that you should consider too, especially regarding insurance.
Multiple events have led to the rise in inflation. The pandemic significantly impacted the economy, with companies having to close down and production lines not manufacturing goods that were in high demand when lockdowns lifted, and people could start buying again. Add to that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has resulted in increased energy and grain prices, and you have many aspects of everyday life growing in cost all at once.
As a business owner, it may feel like these rising costs are hitting you two-fold. Not only are you seeing a rise in the price of items such as fuel and food at home, but your business expenses will be going up too. It might be that the everyday costs of items, stock and increases in your energy bills may have caused you to overlook other aspects of your business.
It’s estimated that in the construction industry, rebuilding cost inflation will hit 9.6% by the end of the year, meaning that the costs of rebuilding a property have increased quite drastically over the last year. This could mean that your rebuild costs on your insurance policy may not match the actual cost of a rebuild. While most policies will have a guard in place to protect against standard inflation costs, they may not be enough to cover the sharp increases we’ve seen recently. You may find yourself with an out-of-pocket expense to your property if you don’t ensure your cover is enough to rebuild the property from scratch, should the worst happen.
It’s not just rebuilding costs that will be impacted by the inflation rise. The contents of your business are very likely to have increased in price, and the systems you use to operate your business may have increased too. Therefore if you are a victim of theft or flooding that causes you to lose stock or systems, you may not be able to replace them for the price that you paid for the items in the first place.
It is vital, therefore, to ensure you remain covered for the items you require when running your business. We have spoken before about the risks of underinsurance. One of the biggest causes of underinsurance is a policyholder not understanding the assets' proper rebuild or replacement costs.
Thankfully checking your cover is suitable or ensuring you have enough cover from your new policy is easy enough when you take the advice of the experts, like our team of insurance brokers in Bolton. We can check over your cover and find you a new policy that works for your business, ensuring that your policy reflects the true nature of your business, you aren’t paying for aspects you don’t need, and you have enough cover in place for what you need.
Unfortunately, there's no doubt that insurance costs are going to rise due to the costs of materials for rebuild and items for replacement.
Therefore, if you discover you need a new policy, or it's time to renew, you may find that the cost of the policy has increased over last year's price. However, it's better to be fully insured than run the risk of underinsurance and find yourself out of pocket in devastating circumstances.
Pricing increases for premiums have been a continuing trend since the pandemic, although the increases are slowing down now. This is why it's more important than ever to ensure your policies only cover what you need.
Insurance policies are difficult to navigate, so it's best to get some advice from the experts wherever possible. You should review your insurance each year as standard, but if you think the rising costs of your business may have had an impact and it's not been a year yet, review them now. By updating your limits and reviewing your policy for aspects like the business interruption period, you may find some areas where you can save money to offset the increased rebuilding estimates or contents cover. By only insuring what your business needs, you will be able to keep the costs down.
You can also look at improving security features and implementing systems that will help better protect your business. That way, it will be at less risk, and you are less likely to need to rely on your premiums. With rising costs of car parts, fuel and other aspects of the motor industry, sending your team on training courses could be the best way to ensure you don’t have to make claims through your commercial fleet insurance. Or, by improving security for your premises, you may not have to rely on your business property insurance.
Whether you are looking to mitigate the rising costs for restaurant, courier or care home insurance, you will have questions, and the best way to get answers is to speak to the experts. We can help you determine which cover is right for you, what will protect your business the most and even just give you peace of mind that your business costs will be covered should something unforeseen happen. Our team are on hand to help, simply call 01204 565600 or enquire online today.
