The transport sector faces a host of emerging risks as the market continues to harden, an expert has said.
Speaking to
Insurance Business, Glenn Lambert, managing director of GT Insurance, pointed to risks around the chain of responsibility (COR) as an area brokers need to focus on, on behalf of their clients.
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“All operators in the transport industry need to understand and mitigate any risks they may have with reference to the COR legislation,” Lambert said. “COR recognises the effects of the actions, inactions and demands of off-road parties in the transport chain.
“Most of the larger operators would have an insurance product to mitigate risks in this area, however smaller operators probably don’t and they should.”
While a broad area of risk, Lambert said that there has also been “an observed trend” in increasing incident and accident numbers in a large percentage of transport businesses which is translating into increased spend on workers’ compensation, CTP and motor insurance. Accident numbers are impacting maintenance costs and repair costs.
Indeed while autonomous technology and telematics may be the developing areas of the transport market that garner the most discussion, Lambert noted that industry developments around price rises remain a bigger concern.
“A less welcome development for brokers is the industry moving into a price correction phase of the insurance cycle,” Lambert continued. “How long this hardening phase will last, I don’t know, but it will be measured in years in my opinion.”
Lambert said that the hardening market is the time for brokers “to be advisers to their clients” as they look to assist and address areas of emerging risk in the face of change.
“Insurance will remain a very important tool to manage risk in the future as technology can fail – imagine the possible consequences – and will add increased cost to repairs when damaged in an accident, as it is already in European car brands,” he concluded.
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