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TERMINAL COVER
Page 63
Page 64
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Drivers injured or taken ill on the Continent are automatically covered by EU medical insurance, right?
Wrong! David Hams lists some essential precautions.
Failing ill overseas is no joke for anybody, but for a working truck driver it can be a double disaster: personal and professional. Not only does the driver need to look after him or herself, there's the vehicle and its load to consider.
Nonetheless Chris North of the Road Haulage Association's insurance company estimates that half of the British drivers who venture abroad do so without any medical insurance.
For some, that might be because they're relying on the El 11 form, which guarantees medical care throughout the European Union to all EU citizens — but this cover is strictly limited. It won't get you brought home in an emergency, it won't pay for a driver to take over your truck and load, and it won't cover all your medical costs. In Spain,for example, hospital charges are covered, but ambulance journeys are not. Protection is limited at best and seriously deficient at worst The answer, says North,is to take out supplementary insurance.There are a number of schemes available that are tailor-made for hauliers.The RHA's memebets-only scheme, LifeLine, insures individual drivers; some other specialist schemes,such as that run by Surbitonbased Transmed, are quoted per vehicle.
The RHA scheme costs £45 per driver per year if you stay within Europe and Turkey, which will give you up to £2m cover for medical and repatriation costs, plus £5,000 Taking out medical insurance has proved a good investment for Cheltenham haulier Ralph Davies, who runs the company of the same name. In the past 15 years one of his drivers has suffered a heart attack in Madrid, another had a stroke in Poland and a driver died in an accident in Spain.
Davies insures through Transmed, and having used an air ambulance arranged by them to bring his drivers home he has no complaints.
The willingness of insurers to use expensive air ambulances to get home where possible is sound economics as well as humanitarian: an air ambulance may be costly, but it is less expensive than a towards a replacement thiver.This can be used to complete a delivery and return home or simply to bring a truck back to the UK.
If you're travelling further afield, say to NorthAfrica, the cost of cover increases to £75 per driver per year. War zones are automatically excluded from standard policies.
For an extra £5 a year on the £45 policy, or £6 a year on the £75 policy,the insurer will pay prolonged spell in a foreign hospital But not everything is governed by the bottom line. When a JM I Logistics (formerly John Mann International) dryer was given just a few hours to live in Spain the insurer flew his family out to be by his bedside.
It all adds up to an entirely sensible and sensitive investment for companies such as Ralph Davies and JM I. We rely entirely on insurance. I don't even check to see whether the drivers are carrying forms that mean they could get free treatment in Europe; I'm not sure if they even work," says Davies.
But Davies knows of many firms that don't take the same precautions: "There are a lot of people out there that just take the risk." £25,000 if the driver is killed or is disabled by the loss of an eye or a limb.
Obviously for the 50% of drivers with no cover at all these supplementary policies are a little beside the point.
Some of these drivers may work for large companies which have taken a considered decision not to take out medical cover,on the basis that they will simply cover the medical and re-patriation costs of drivers as and when needed. But many are owner-drivers who are on extremely tight margins or have not considered the consequences of illness.
Devastating
North says: "I'd say that the smaller the firm the more important it is to have cover, but a lot of those that don't are the very smallest."
This lack can be devastating to the relatives of drivers who die abroad, either from accident or illness. Ruth Putt, the RHA's head of employment, says: "Several times over the years I've had calls from the widows of British drivers who have died abroad without any insurance cover. At a time like that the last thing anybody needs is the additional worry of the cost of getting the body back home."
And it's no use relying on the British Embassy.The Foreign Office says its staff will do what they can to help, but warns:"It's no use treating an embassy as a get-home-free card." If British diplomats help to get a sick driver home, it's likely to be on the condition that they sign an undertaking to repay the costs.
A Foreign Office spokesman says:"We do what we can in terms of contacting family and helping with arrangements, and we do look at these things case by case. But the bottom line is we are not there to subsidise those who have failed to take out insurance before going."'