The transport and logistics sector stands apart from other insurance lines, having not experienced the same degree of softening. The industry’s protagonists - ranging from self-employed truckies to corporate transport firms - face considerable challenges in finding affordable, quality cover. For brokers, the question remains: how do you deliver value and protection in a space where underwriter appetite is limited and premiums remain stubbornly high?
One firm, Still Insured Insurance Brokers, has managed to crack this insurance conundrum. Managing director James Still credits his firm’s relatively recent access to the London-based specialty brokerage HWS Specialty - via membership in the Steadfast Group - as a crucial development. This connection into the Lloyd’s market has opened up opportunities to provide covers locally that “we’ve never been able to write before,” Still explained.
A key breakthrough came in the transport and logistics sector. However, Still is quick to point out that the real advantage lies in the expertise of his two senior brokers, both in their late 70s, who bring a “wealth of knowledge” to the table. “They are absolute workers,” said Ballarat-based Still. “Transport and logistics is their bread and butter.” These two experts, former Gallagher underwriters, spent decades working for Still’s father and had retired - until James enticed them back into the industry. “So for me, it's brilliant,” he added.
This expertise proved invaluable in a particularly tough market. The transport and logistics space in Australia has a very limited number of underwriters that deal with heavy motor vehicles. “So it's hard to get a competitive edge when everyone's using the same,” Still noted. Many available offerings are generic and expensive, as a quick internet search will show. To make cover more available and affordable, Still Insured developed specialist lines. “For the truck staff we've got specialist rates, and we've got the cheapest general liability coverage across contractors in Australia,” Still said.
Achieving this required extensive work - liaising with underwriters in London and deeply understanding the businesses of their trucking industry clients. The firm’s client base spans big trucking companies, fleet operators, and the sole traders and contractors who drive the trucks. Developing affordable coverage for contractors was a particular challenge. “They're sole traders,” Still explained. “So it was about trying to find a way to bulletproof the contractors that are driving these trucks and also doing it in a way that's feasible.”
Many contractors earn a modest $60,000 or $70,000 per year, and a significant number drive without insurance. Others, earning around $100,000, were paying premiums of up to $40,000 per year. While the soft market brought some relief, it wasn’t enough. “Some people are still doing it really tough,” Still observed. The goal was to make truckie insurance not just more affordable, but comprehensive. “So if something goes wrong, they're fully covered, they're not going to lose their family home when they get sued - that was a big challenge,” he said.
The range of covers required is broad: truck insurance for the vehicle, marine or goods in transit cover, liability coverage for lawsuits, and personal accident cover. Still emphasized that the ability to offer an affordable range of covers - from truck drivers to large transport firms - comes down to the work of his two senior brokers and their extensive underwriting skills and industry contacts. “A 78-year-old and a 75-year-old dude, mate, both of them literally calling up every underwriter they can access to organize their own specialist schemes,” Still said. Listening to their negotiations, he often thinks, “this is how insurance should be.”
In an industry increasingly reliant on digital portals, chatbots, and AI, Still Insured’s approach is refreshingly traditional. “These boys don't do anything online, they negotiate their own rates, they negotiate their own terms,” Still said. “You can't mimic what they do because it's all manual.” The brokers even handwrite client documents, including insurance terms and prices. “Everything they do is so old hat and manual and I think that's actually the key for the transport stuff,” Still remarked.
Their negotiation skills are relentless. “As soon as something comes back that doesn't quite sit within what they want, they go back to the underwriters,” he said. “As a result, they can negotiate better coverage than what's currently available.” The broking strategy revolves around minimising risk to minimise premium. “If we can minimise premium, we can then maximise coverage,” Still explained. “As long as we can provide a better cover at a cheaper price, we've provided something that the market doesn't have.”
Beyond improved insurance options for truckies, Still noted that his senior brokers often advocate for the industry as a whole. “They weren’t just advocating for the little guys, they were literally advocating for an industry and saying things like, ‘This is what should happen, these are the exclusions we don't agree with across the board,’” he said. Their risk management is based on a thorough assessment of the trucking companies they cover.
One persistent challenge is the rising cost of transport-related claims. “When your truck, pulling half a million dollars worth of product, has an accident, generally the claims come through and they come through huge,” Still said. Damaged goods and injured drivers can result in very large insurance bills, and in rare cases of fatalities, the costs can reach several million dollars.
As the transport and logistics sector continues to present unique insurance challenges, Still Insured’s blend of old-school broking and specialist expertise offers a compelling model for delivering real value in a tough market.
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