Please, please, please, insure your own goods

I have advised and provided the insurance for a local haulage contractor for the last 30 years and consistently come up against the same fundamental mistake made by their customers.

They forget to insure their goods.

They assume,  incorrectly, that as soon as they pass their goods to a haulage contractor to transport them from point A to point B that their responsibility for the goods ceases.  This is not the case. The goods remain the property of their owner and the haulage contractor, if they are worth their salt, will carry these goods under terms and conditions which, very often, are provided by the Road Haulage Association. This will limit the extent of the hauliers liability to, typically, £1300 per tonne carried and impose certain time restraints on claims.
 
Therefore, if the goods are particularly valuable, or weighty, they will almost certainly not be fully covered for loss or damage under these conditions.
 
 The owner of the goods must insure them at all times. 
 
 If you are sending any goods by any form of transportation, make sure you speak to your insurance adviser to ensure they are adequately insured. Then if the worst happens, and it does, all the time, you can claim for your losses from your own insurers. They will then claim back anything that the haulier is liable to pay under their terms and conditions.
 
Believe me, the haulier doesnt want to damage your goods but, to have a dispute with their customer who has failed to insure the goods properly, always leads to bad feeling all round. 

So make sure that your goods are properly insured at all times, not just when they are in your hands.