How to Compare HGV Insurance
Two heavy vehicle quotes at the same price can behave completely differently the day you need them. These are the twelve places they actually differ, and the question to ask about each. Our trusted brokers do this comparison for you — this is what they are comparing on.
Why there is no broker league table on this page
This page used to rank named brokers against each other on a tick chart. We removed it, because no New Zealand broker publishes a cover schedule detailed enough to build that comparison honestly — and a cross against a competitor cannot be sourced at all, since a cover missing from a website is not a cover the broker will not place. We would rather show you what to ask than score other people's businesses on information we do not have.
How the vehicle is valued
Agreed value fixes the payout when the policy is written. Market value pays what the truck was worth the moment before the loss, which falls every year and can sit well below what you still owe on it. Sum insured caps the payout at a figure you nominate. On a financed vehicle this single choice is the difference between clearing the loan and not.
Is this agreed value, market value or sum insured — and if there is finance on the vehicle, what happens to the shortfall?
Downtime and loss of use
A truck off the road stops earning immediately. Downtime cover varies more than almost anything else in the policy: whether it pays a daily amount or the cost of a hired replacement, how many days you wait before it starts, how many days it runs for, and whether it responds to a breakdown or only to an insured accident.
What is the daily amount, the stand-down period and the maximum number of days — and does it respond to breakdown as well as accident?
Road clearing and reinstatement
Recovering a rolled unit, clearing the carriageway and making good the road surface can run well past the value of the truck itself, and the bill arrives whether or not the vehicle is written off. This is usually a separate sub-limit rather than part of the main sum insured.
What is the sub-limit, and does it sit inside or on top of the vehicle sum insured?
Carriers liability and the goods on the deck
Your motor policy covers the truck. It does not cover the customer’s freight. Carriers liability is a separate cover, and the Contract and Commercial Law Act limits apply unless you have contracted otherwise — which many operators have, without realising it, by signing a customer’s terms.
What limit applies per event, and have I contracted out of the statutory limits in any of my customer agreements?
Where you actually drive
Bush roads, skid sites, quarries, farm tracks, ports and construction sites are the places policies most often draw a line. Off-road and unformed-road use is a common exclusion or a rated extension, and a policy written for state highway work may not answer a loss on a forestry block.
Is off-road and unformed-road use covered, and are there any named sites or surfaces excluded?
Trailers, and trailers you do not own
Trailer cover is frequently separate from the unit, and a trailer hooked on that belongs to someone else is a different question again. Trailer-in-control or non-owned trailer cover is what responds when you damage a trailer that is not yours.
Are my own trailers scheduled, and am I covered for a trailer I am towing but do not own?
Ingestion, entanglement and specialist machinery
Machinery that picks up, chips, sweeps or blows can be destroyed from the inside by something it was never meant to swallow. Standard motor wordings frequently exclude that kind of internal damage entirely, and specialist plant needs cover written for it.
Is damage caused by ingestion or entanglement covered, and how is specialist plant on the vehicle treated?
Spills and clean-up
A load or a fuel tank on the road creates an environmental liability that regional councils take seriously. Clean-up costs are a distinct exposure from the damage to the vehicle and are not always included.
Are clean-up and pollution costs covered, at what limit, and does that include a fuel spill from my own tanks?
The excess structure, not just the excess
Heavy vehicle policies commonly carry more than one excess: a standard excess, a higher one for young or inexperienced drivers, sometimes a separate one for single-vehicle accidents or for theft. On a fleet, whether the excess applies per vehicle or per event changes what a bad month actually costs you.
List every excess that could apply to one claim, and tell me whether it is per vehicle or per event.
The driver, not only the truck
Personal accident cover for drivers sits alongside ACC rather than replacing it, and the useful question is what falls outside ACC — income above the ACC cap, and the cost of covering the run while someone is off.
What does the personal accident section actually pay, and where does it sit relative to ACC?
What happens after the phone call
Claims service is hard to compare on a website and matters more than most things on it. What is worth asking is concrete: who answers when a unit is on its side at 2am, whether there is a nominated repairer network, and how quickly a downtime payment actually starts flowing.
Who do I ring at 2am, and how soon after that does money start moving?
Association schemes and fleet risk services
Several New Zealand transport associations run member insurance arrangements with a nominated broker, and some brokers offer fleet risk assessment or claims review programmes alongside the policy. If you are a member of an association, that scheme is worth asking about — it is one of the few places a genuine structural difference exists.
Is there a scheme for my association, and what does it actually change about the terms or the service?
A word on price
No New Zealand insurer publishes rate tables for heavy vehicle cover. It is individually underwritten on your fleet, your drivers, your routes, your claims history and what you actually cart, which is why any site quoting a monthly figure for HGV insurance has invented it.
The cheapest quote in front of you is usually cheapest for a reason, and the reason is normally on this page — a lower downtime limit, a road clearing sub-limit that would not cover a real recovery, an off-road exclusion, or an extra excess that only appears when you claim. Compare those first. Then compare price.
Let a broker do the comparing
Tell us what you run and where you run it. We will put you in front of a broker who writes heavy vehicle risk, and who will go through the points above with you. No cost, and no obligation at the end of it.
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