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Steve Biddle, head of technical services at the Road Haulage
Page 47
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Association, says: "Warranties are a worthwhile addition when you have an expensive piece of equipment, but it is vital that haulers fully understand what it is they are getting." This means, of course, that anybody with a warranty needs to be as aware of what it does not cover as what it does.
Biddle, a former fleet engineer for United Transport, adds that while some exclusions may be fairly obvious (tyres, for example, because they are considered wear and tear), other exclusions are less so. A clutch, for instance, might be excluded under warranty after a certain length of time because it is a wear and tear item, but also if the company underwriting the warranty considers that any clutch damage has been due to driver misuse.
The important thing, repeats Biddle, is that hauliers need to be clear right from the start exactly what they will be covered for It will not always be clear cut, and there is room for argument over whether a mechanical failure is directly attributable to poor driving or not. This is where larger operators sometimes have an advantage over owner-drivers.
Biddle says: 'Big companies tend to be pretty good at fighting their own arguments. The complaints we hear tend to be from smaller operators or ownerdrivers who do not understand fully what it is they have purchased."