When it comes to vehicle breakdowns, there is no distinction to the size of a vehicle. Most people are familiar with tow trucks and the extent of assistance they provide in the event of an accident or breakdown, but that’s usually from a passenger car perspective, just because the numbers make it the most visible.
Less noticed is the one involving commercial vehicles, especially goods vehicles, but with around 670,000 of them plying the country’s roads, you’d expect there to be a number of them requiring roadside assistance of some form at any given time.
Although breakdown services are available to them, this is usually done on an ad hoc basis, with the costs to be borne by the operator or truck/lorry owner, and it can be a costly affair. So the idea of offering dedicated 24/7 roadside assistance coverage for cargo vehicles should sound like welcome news to commercial vehicle operators.
The interesting thing about this is that it won’t cost the earth, not when it comes to an extension of an insurance coverage on the vehicle. This is precisely what Allianz General offers with its brand new Allianz Warrior Trucka program of additional benefits for its multi-risk goods transport vehicle policyholders, somewhat in the same vein as that offered by its Allianz Road Rangers for cars and motorcycles.
With a simple top-up of RM120 on top of an All-Risk Freight Vehicle Insurance policy from Allianz, policyholders opting for the Truck Warrior top-up cover can receive up to three times roadside assistance per year.
This includes the towing of goods vehicles up to 7.5 tonnes for round trips of up to 100km, which are provided by Allianz’s own dedicated tow truck fleet. The extension also covers on-site repair service in the event of a breakdown, as well as a flood relief allowance of up to RM5,000 per flood.
The company says the extension of RM120 per vehicle more than pays off, should the untoward occur. “The cost of a breakdown is not cheap. If you don’t have such coverage, towing will cost on average between RM450 and RM900, which a customer will have to pay out of pocket. For minor roadside repairs, apart from parts, the labor could be around RM400,” Allianz Deputy General Sales Manager Sazali Abdul Rahman said.
The idea behind the Truck Warrior service is to offer potential savings to commercial operators in the event of a vehicle breakdown. “In terms of coverage, car insurance is generally the same regardless of which company you take out a policy with. Allianz has developed something that makes us different, which is a service that you can’t get from others,” he explained.
“We are the first insurance company in Malaysia to develop such a service, not just for cosmetic purposes. We believe this will really help owners of freight vehicles get coverage for breakdowns and for minor roadside repairs,” he added.
To be eligible for Truck Warrior cover, the insured cargo vehicle must meet the following criteria – it must have an ‘A’ license and a ‘C’ license with full insurance coverage, weigh up to 7, 5 tons gross vehicle weight (BDM), and the truck must be no more than 20 years old, Sazali explained.
At the heart of the Truck Warrior service is the company’s fleet of 80 tow trucks, 50 of which are located in Peninsular Malaysia and 30 in East Malaysia. These are specially equipped Scania P380s with heavy-duty winches and truck-mounted cranes, with lifting capacities from 8.5 tonnes to 10 tonnes, depending on the vehicle. Each truck is equipped with two people, a driver and an operator.
While 80 tow trucks for the whole country doesn’t sound like a lot, Sazali said the company is very confident the number of vehicles is more than enough to provide coverage based on the portfolio it has, saying not all breakdowns will require no need for towing services.
“When someone calls to say there’s a breakdown, we usually send our Bike Warrior motorcycles out there first to find out what the problem is. Bikes have been proven to arrive at the scene very quickly, so they are very good at determining what action is needed.
If let’s say it’s a dead battery and it can be replaced on site, we’ll replace the battery so there won’t be a need for a tow truck. I would say few (breakdown) circumstances will require a tow truck,” he said, adding that if the fleet needed more vehicles, those would be added.
The biker units, 50 of which are stationed in the Klang Valley alone, not only serve as forward units on a call, they also provide an official Allianz presence should an opportunistic party, or callman, show up.
Although only a few months ago (it launched in January), the response to the add-on has been positive, according to Sazali. “Since its introduction, the response has been very positive. The current numbers are very encouraging – we can see very good pull in the attachment rate at the extension,” he said, adding that a fuller picture of the numbers and percentages will emerge when the bar six months will be reached.
Unsurprisingly, the company says it has also seen an increase in insurance policy take-up since it started offering the extension. “It’s because there is no other service like this there. It is a bold step taken by an insurance company to have tow truck roadside assistance at this level,” he said.
Sazali reiterated that Allianz continues to stand out from the crowd with Truck Warrior. “It’s quite common when you talk about car insurance, whether it’s for passenger cars or motorcycles, and now, cargo vehicles, that you can buy it anywhere. There really is no difference, except maybe in the premium cost.
Otherwise, the coverage is more or less standard, but what makes the difference between, say, Company A or Company B is the service, not only in terms of claims and speed and efficiency, but in the level of service they provide, and through unique value-added propositions such as this. These are the things that we put in place to make sure we are different,” he said.
Set up in less than a year, the Truck Warrior program completes the portfolio of insurance extensions offered by Allianz and now fully covers cars, motorcycles and goods transport vehicles.
