Dangerous Goods Freight Extension Turned Around in Under 24 Hours

A Sydney-based road freight operator came to Tank Insurance with urgent work lined up. They already had commercial motor insurance, but the issue was the dangerous goods component. The client needed their insurance position sorted before they could commence the work.

Their existing advice channel had already spent several days trying to solve it, and the client could not afford more delay. They needed someone who could quickly identify whether the market would support the dangerous goods exposure and get terms in place.

The freight included categories such as flammable liquids, corrosive liquids, oxidising agents, toxic gases, and non-flammable gases. The client needed $20 million Public Liability insurance for point-to-point transport, with no storage of goods during transit.

We treated this as an urgent underwriting appetite problem, not a simple price comparison.

The key was to separate what the client actually did from what underwriters might assume. This was not bulk storage, tanker operation, warehousing, or uncontrolled handling of hazardous stock. The risk was limited to point-to-point transport.

We prepared the submission around:

• the transport-only nature of the work
• no storage of goods during transit
• the absence of prior claims
• the defined operating radius
• the specific dangerous goods classes being carried
• the need for $20 million Public Liability before the client could commence lined-up work

The market response was exactly why this needed broker handling.

Seven insurers declined the risk outright. Three more referred it for further underwriting review rather than quoting immediately. The issue was not that the business was poorly run, or that anyone before us had done something wrong. It was that dangerous goods transport sits outside standard Public Liability appetite for many insurers.

We arranged $20 million Public Liability with a specialist insurer at a premium in the low-thousands range.

This case shows why dangerous goods transport needs to be presented carefully. Underwriters need to understand the difference between transport exposure, storage exposure, tanker exposure, and general logistics work.

For businesses that carry hazardous or regulated freight, the right broker submission can be the difference between a blanket decline and a workable policy.