Skip Insurance

When choosing a skip lorry and waste and recycling insurance policy, it’s important not to just buy on price, albeit price is always an important consideration.  Look closely at other things too like:

• Making sure the insurer is financially sound and will be there to pay a claim should things go wrong.
• Making sure the cover provides the protection you need; that there is no ‘small print’; that takes away vital protection.
• Whether your broker has been recommended to you and is a skip lorry insurance expert, meaning you can rely on the advice they give.
• What sort of service you can expect from your broker and insurer should you need to make a claim.

Exactly how much each operator must pay varies from insurer to insurer and depends on a variety of factors. These may include:

• Whether any of your lorries are of exceptional value.
• Where your lorries are driven and whether they go abroad.
• The nature of your business activities and whether you ever visit hazardous sites or carry hazardous loads.
• The profile of your drivers in terms of age and experience, and accident and conviction history.
• Whether you have telematics devices or camera systems deployed actively to monitor and improve driving style and behaviour.

A skip lorry operator running up to five vehicles will usually see their lorries rated individually. Above that number of vehicles, policies tend to be fleet-rated with the premium dependent on past claims experience across your fleet.

If you prefer to spread the cost of your annual premium, we offer a quick and easy direct debit scheme.

When you choose to pay premiums in instalments, you will be paying under a Premium Finance plan. We will give you full details of the finance provider, and the additional cost of finance, when we provide you with your payment plan quotation. This will include the total payable, the number of monthly instalments and the cost of each, as well as the representative APR.

‘Comprehensive’ skip lorry and waste and recycling insurance policies do much more than simply provide you with protection again loss or damage to your vehicles. They provide unlimited cover for third-party injury or death and cover for damage to third-party property. If your vehicles are articulated, cover is available for trailers as well as tractor units.

If you have an employee, or employees, even if only occasionally, or temporarily, then you are legally required to have employers’ liability insurance unless an exemption applies, such as family businesses where every employee is a close family member, providing they are not incorporated as a limited company.

We can offer employers’ liability cover alongside your skip lorry insurance policy and the other essential non-motor business insurance covers.

See more information on the HSE website. 

Yes. At Towergate, we know starting up a business can be expensive and insurance cover adds to the cost.

We’ll work with you depending on your circumstances to find the very best discounts we can for you, such as introductory discounts and no-claims discounts for companies using drivers with a claim-free driving history. Discounts can be applied subject to the insurer's underwriting criteria and individual circumstances.

Care needs to be taken when taking out truck insurance to make sure the cover you are buying is what you need and that there are no exclusions that are detrimental to the cover you need.

In addition to exclusions such as war risks, damage or contamination caused by radioactive materials, and terrorism, exclusions under a truck insurance policy typically include:

• Claims arising out of contractual agreements (unless a claim would have been accepted in any case)
• Claims whilst your vehicle is being:
  • Used for any purpose that the certificate of insurance does not allow, such as racing and speed testing
  • Driven by someone not allowed to drive by the certificate of insurance, such as someone who does not have the permission of the policyholder
  • Driven by you, if you do not hold a licence to drive the vehicle or you are disqualified from having such a licence
  • Driven, with your permission, by someone who you know does not hold a licence to drive the vehicle (unless that person has held a licence and is not disqualified from getting one)
• Claims involving a vehicle being driven ‘airside’. (Here at Towergate, we know how important ‘airside’ cover can be for skip lorry operators and can usually arrange that cover on request when it’s needed.)

We have provided a summary of the significant key exclusions, but please note that full terms, conditions, and exclusions can be found in the policy wording, a copy of which is available through the quotation process.

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