WITH THE growing prevalence of stowaways on intra-European road haulage routes, particularly the Continent to UK, the question of insurance cover for such events has often arisen.
Heavy fines are imposed in the UK on road hauliers found to have stowaways aboard their vehicles. This level of fine, says Andrew Kemp, director of the underwriting mutual TT Club, is high enough to put a small haulier out of business if a number of stowaways are found. Not only the drivers but the owners, hirers and operators of the vehicle are at risk, he adds.
However the good news is that the TT Club has insurance cover, not only for legal defence costs but also the fines themselves. This, says Kemp, stems from the birth of the TT Club, along with the start of containerisation.
The shoreside aspect of this trading concept raised risks that the Protection and Indemnity (P&I) clubs, which had traditionally provided shipowners with liability cover, did not want to assume the new risks, and the TT Club was born.
It immediately recognised that the long-time problem of stowaways on ships now also applied as a landside risk, and opened its book to business to cover freight forwarders and international hauliers against this growing risk.
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