Bid to Standardize Goods-in-Transit Insurance Policies
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STANDARDIZATION of hauliers' goods-in-transit insurance policies, so as to secure a universally agreed definition of the responsibilities which' they undertake in respect of the loss or damage of goods they are transporting, is one of the suggestions put to the Federation of Yorkshire Road Transport Employers, in response to an invitation for views on the pilferage problem.
The firm making the suggestion remark: "Common law distinguishes clearly between common carriers and private carriers. Most of the ordinary hauliers fall into the latter category, and their legal liabilities are restricted to loss or damage clue to negligence and/or wilful misconduct on the part
of the operator or his servant. No haulage firm could carry on business under these conditions, as precedents arid custom have established that an additional liability is commonly accepted. In other words, the hauliers act as voluntary insurers; they have accepted liabilities merely as a commercial attraction, but these liabilities are not defined at law. In the absence of agreed conditions, a haulier just goes to an insurance company and asks for a cover. The extent of the cover
depends on the suggestions put forward by the insurance company, commensurate with what the haulier is prepared to pay by way of premium."
As illustrating the variation in goodsin-transit policies, the firm state that a recent inquiry among their sub-contractors indicated some 20 or 30 different types of cover. The result of such lack of uniformity, they add, is utter confusion both within the haulage' industry and among transport users.
They suggest the following procedure to secure uniformity:— Creation of a small committee representative of the road haulage industry, to determine the extent of the liabilities which operators would accept under the various headings.
Discussions between that body and representatives of the leading insurance companies, to determine policy provisions.
Publication of the conditions generally agreed, after they have been put into shape by a lawyer.
Under its insurance clauses the Government haulage scheme has gone some way in the direction indicated, it is added, but as this is in the nature of a special contract it is not all-embracing.