While selecting an insurance policy, the insurance company should be informed about the nature of work the machine will be used for.

Amit Agarwal, Director, Ideal Insurance Brokers Pvt Ltd

Being an expert in the field of construction equipment insurance, how do you see the acceptance of this concept?

Construction and earthmoving machines are very expensive and the nature of work they do is again not easy, and they are in extreme situations of mining or road constructions. For years, these machine owners have been misguided without any sort of assistance from a specialist in this field. So, the moment we started giving them the right advice, they started seeing the results by the claims being paid to them, the acceptance has immensely increased within a very short period of time.

What happened is, till the time brokers were allowed to work in India, this insurance work used to be done by agents who had no adequate understanding of CE or earthmover insurance. Different insurance policies need to be given to different kinds of machines and different kinds of industries. There is no single insurance solution which can cater to all the various kinds of construction. Me and my brother Rahul started this business way back in 2005. It took 5 to 6 years for us to create that awareness and credibility about ourselves to help them get insurance and once we work with them for 2-3 years acceptability becomes very easy. Also, events like EXCON have enabled us to create awareness about such insurances.

How to select the right insurance for right machine?

Machine owners should interact with the insurance brokers to have a clear understanding about the policy and other terms and conditions. While selecting an insurance policy, the insurance company should be informed about the nature of work the machine will be used for. Different work areas attract different insurance like, working in tunnels, water bodies, etc. Based on these factors, the insurance company would have to change the rates and conditions.

How do you facilitate the insurance claim settlement?

Claim settlement is not very easy in India today because of the way the policy is designed. We help in getting the paper work done and provide any other assistance needed for getting a claim settled. Also, it’s very important to get a surveyor appointed immediately who can go the accident site to inspect the damage. A lot of cases are rejected since the initial survey takes very long and by the time the customer has already moved the machine to some workshop.

How proactive the insurance companies are while creating new insurance products for Earthmovers?

That’s the bottleneck! I’ve a list of things that I want to do with my customers but to get it approved with an insurance company or finding an insurance company which would underwrite that kind of a risk is rather more detrimental than getting a customer a today. So, it’s another way around. I’ve a lot of customers who have a requirement but I’ve a very few companies who are ready to underwrite that kind of risk for my customers at the right price. However, they are also maturing, and the good part is that private companies have also started coming into this industry which was almost a no-no for them.

Could you name few of the corporates who are your clients?

If we talk about manufacturers, we are working with Kobelco, LiuGong, Sany, Hyundai CE, and Tata Hitachi. We are also in discussion with JCB to create a deal with them. So, in OEM sector, we are the only broker who has a clientele as such. Insurance is also a very service-centric business and the number of claims are so high that lot of brokers don’t want to get into it. They would want to underwrite bigger projects with bigger premiums where the chances of losses are also very less. But we are working with all these customers with more than 1,000 policies on an average with one customer out of which say at least 70 or 80 claims might be submitted. We have adequate manpower to deal with this.

What is your target to achieve in 2018?

As a company, our turnover is around Rs 125 crore and we have set a target of crossing Rs 300 crore by March 2019. We are extremely confident about achieving this number!