The recent Northern Territory Insurance Conference was themed ‘Modernisation’. One focus was insurance challenges facing the local transport industry, including heavy trucks. John Carey (pictured above) gave a presentation on alternative fuel options and the need for insurance approaches that support this industry’s transition to sustainability.
Carey is Darwin branch manager for GT Insurance, a firm that offers a range of transport sector coverages. He told Insurance Business that biofuels like bioethanol and biodiesel are the most common alternative fuels used by the transport industry - but they still produce carbon emissions.
“So the two up and coming options that produce lower emissions are electricity and hydrogen,” said Carey.
The hydrogen option is still at a very early stage in Australia. According to an ABC News report there are only three hydrogen cars on the road in the whole country.
While Australia’s uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) has rapidly increased in recent years, the NT is lagging a long way behind the rest of the country.
Carey is well aware of these challenges.
“It’s important that we get on the front foot in researching the risks,” he said. “More than anything, my role is to keep up to date with technologies and ensure that when we get an opportunity, we treat it carefully and we’re not too risk averse.”
Carey suggested this can help GT overcome the lack of data around the risks these new technologies present and help sustainable transport options become viable for more customers.
“I think it’s crucial for insurers to embrace the change so we’re better prepared for the future as it quickly approaches,” he said. “Becoming risk averse to alternatively fuelled vehicles would be at our own detriment.”
For insurers and brokers in the NT, the challenges can be more extreme versions of the same obstacles faced elsewhere.
For starters, there just aren’t many EVs. The NT Government tally of registered EVs shows that there are about 1,000. The ACT has twice the population of the NT with more than 400,000 people but has 10 times the number of registered EVs.
Even more telling for brokers looking to sell coverages to NT’s heavy vehicle market: there’s only one EV registration for a heavy truck in the whole territory.
Meanwhile, in NSW, dozens of these vehicles are starting to appear on the roads. In a media release earlier this year, express freight giant, Team Global Express, announced the rollout of what it described as the country’s largest EV truck fleet for deliveries. The firm received 60 EV trucks from Volvo in March.
There’s another issue: NSW has more than 450 charging stations, but across the vast NT there are only six.
Carey said this lack of infrastructure is a major challenge for any local firm looking to convert its transport fleet to renewables.
“There are public charging stations around Darwin but once you get 50 kilometres out of town there are no dedicated charge points,” he said.
The NT can also have particularly acute issues around getting EVs of any kind repaired.
“Especially with the likes of the Tesla,” said Carey. “We actually don’t have an authorized repairer [for Tesla vehicles] in the Northern Territory, so it’s quite likely the vehicle would have to be towed interstate.”
However, for Kia EV vehicles, he said, there are local dealerships that can carry out repairs.
There’s also a quite a significant amount of pushback, said Carey, against embracing sustainable fuels.
“In the transport industry it’s difficult to persuade someone who’s operated a transport business one way for 50 years that’s worked by burning diesel, that electric is the way to go,” he said.
According to the federal Department of Climate Change, diesel is still the most common energy type used by the transport sector. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that in 2020 more than 99% of all fuel consumed by heavy trucks was diesel. That number is unlikely to have shifted significantly since.
Carey said, unfortunately, stories appearing on social media and on some news media outlets are likely playing a part in entrenching industry resistance to alternative fuel options.
“More than ever, we’re seeing EVs catching fire in news stories in the media, when, in fact, according to my research, they’re actually less inclined to catch fire than a petroleum-based vehicle,” he said.
Carey said if you asked someone on the street, they would very likely tell you that EVs are more of a fire risk than combustion engine vehicles.
However, said Carey, there are unique EV battery fire risks to be aware of.
“Batteries that are submerged in water for extended periods, they’re at risk of catching fire,” said Carey. “There was a case in Florida during Hurricane Helen where a couple had their Tesla stored in the garage of their home, and the garage flooded and it subsequently caught fire and they lost the house as well,” he said.
However, many of the EV risks insurers need to look at, he said, are “remarkably similar” to those of conventional vehicles.
“When it comes to single vehicle accidents or collisions, we’re already across those types of risks,” said Carey.
Despite the challenges, the GT manager is seeing some positive signs that a sustainable transport future is coming to the NT.
“We’re seeing more and more light vehicles [that are EVs] coming across our desk,” said Carey.
The NT Government is making some efforts to promote wider uptake of EVs.
The government introduced an Electric Vehicle Strategy and Implementation Plan in 2021. The initiative includes reduced registration and stamp duty fees for EVs. According to the Department of Infrastructure website this can save up to $1,500 on stamp duty. There’s also a grant scheme to facilitate more charging stations. As of September, seven businesses and nearly 150 residences had applied to the scheme.
What can insurers and brokers do to increase EV uptake? Please tell us below
