Ahead of what it predicts to be a period of uncertainty for the industry, specialist haulage insurance broker, Gauntlet, has bolstered its haulage team, to ensure that HGV fleets need not be left without affordable insurance options.

Gauntlet’s Andrew Scott (left) and new sales director, Andy Parkin

With escalating diesel costs, nervousness surrounding Brexit’s European trade agreements, a rise in crime and the possible departure of European drivers back to their home countries, Gauntlet has equipped its haulage team with a 360° skills-set that will find the right insurance deal not just for safety-conscious operators, but also for those deemed almost uninsurable.

Heading up the team managing the requirements of this sector is sales director Andy Parkin, who has joined Gauntlet after a seven-year career at Towergate and what Gauntlet is calling a one-year ‘snap year’ – 12 months spent pursuing his hobby of photography.

Andy has three decades of expertise in broking risks, earning a reputation for spotting trends early. One of his primary focuses at Gauntlet will be on delivering customer excellence to all of Gauntlet’s relationships and touchpoints with haulage operators – and all other types of fleets on wheels – in what he predicts to be a difficult period.

This process will include assessing which risks require the support of a new member of the team, but a familiar face at Gauntlet, Andrew Scott.  Andrew has now been christened ‘The Man with the Keen Eyes’, as he will be working with HGV operators in dire need of help with their risk management.

Andrew’s remit will be to scan the environment and claims history of operators needing to find an insurer who will take them on and to improve the situations of those wishing to save what can be big sums on their insurance premiums.  He will then use his well-trained eyes to assess where and how risks can be reduced and to work with individual haulage fleet operators on a personalised basis.

The Man with the Keen Eyes, has been Gauntlet’s health and safety manager for the past few years, but he has a history in insurance stretching back decades.  Moving him into the haulage team made perfect sense, in a period of economic and political uncertainty.

Getting their house in order will not only make a difference to life around the depot or yard for operators, but also ensure the presentation document that Gauntlet provides to insurers, to explain about an operator’s business, has some impressive demonstrations of a desire to be safer.  This desire makes them a better risk from an insurer’s point of view and can make a huge difference to the premium then quoted.

This team-bolstering development comes on the back of Gauntlet already having appointed fleet transport insurance guru, Mark Monk, formerly of Wrightsure, to head up a new southern office and handle the day-to-day insurance requirements of fleet operators in the south.  Mark will also have access to Andrew Scott’s keen eyes.

Angela McIver – a familiar name to many of Gauntlet’s loyal long-term customers – continues to be Gauntlet’s sales manager.

Gauntlet’s managing director, Roger Gaunt, says: “We have taken steps to ensure that any haulage operator has a route to follow, which will lead to them becoming a better risk and getting a better insurance outcome, whether that means finding an insurer who will take them on, or paying what can be significantly lower premiums.

“We have been able to put this development in place, on the back of our 21 years in the fleet transport sector, as this has enabled us to perceive how trends repeat themselves and at what times we need to act, to ensure HGV fleet operators are not, railroaded out of the sector for financial reasons.  It’s time for operators to act and to act quickly.”

Gauntlet Insurance

About the Author: John Loughran