As a trades business, the opportunity of taking on a large project can be daunting, but it allows you to grow your business thanks to the networking and client opportunities available. Whether it’s a building project for the local government or a large skyscraper construction project, it’s important that you protect yourself during these high-risk trades because there are many factors that could go wrong and ultimately harm your business.
What is a high-risk trade?
A high-risk trade is described as anything that could result in the loss or gain of millions of pounds. For instance, a large-scale construction project, diamond drilling, steel erecting or even quarrying can be considered high-risk especially if the project involves hundreds or even thousands of employees. Even if the project doesn’t inherently involve millions of pounds, there could be situations where your employees are put in dangerous or hazardous locations.
As a business that willingly takes on high-risk jobs, it’s only fair that you are offered insurance that benefits your business and helps to protect your company and its employees. To help you understand the definition of high-risk trade, here are a couple of examples of businesses and projects that should be protected with high-risk trade insurance:
- Demolition work
- Civil engineering
- Building contracts and allied trades
- Home maintenance and improvement
- Steel fabricators and erectors
- Scaffolding work
- Landscaping
- Groundwork
- Plumbing and heating work
- Quarrying
- Tree surgery
- Welding
Businesses that are involved in handling hazardous waste or renewable energy manufacturers can also benefit from high-risk trade insurance. If you’re still unsure if you need these services or not, it’s a good idea to get in touch with a specialised insurance service to learn more about what a high-risk trade is and the benefits.
Benefits of high-risk trade insurance
One of the biggest benefits of high-risk trade insurance is risk management. As a fundamental part of the full coverage service offered by a high-risk trade insurance provider, effective risk management helps to assess the proposed project against your own ability and team, offering you high-quality cover at competitive premiums. In order to receive the best coverage, it’s important to speak to an insurance provider that offers full coverage and has knowledge of high-risk trades and the projects they take on.
As each project and company has different insurance needs, the coverage you can expect will change depending on a number of different circumstances. Thankfully, specialised requests can usually be catered for by a high-risk trade insurance service. In addition to providing coverage, experts can also assist you on the level of cover required by law in order to suit the project and the size of your business. Other factors, such as the number of employees involved, your annual turnover and your experience, will also be taken into consideration when assessing your high-risk trades insurance premium.
In short, contractors involved in high-risk trades will find that it’s best to speak to an expert when it comes to covering themselves during a risky project. In order to protect your workers and your rights, specialised insurance is a must in order to minimise risk not just to yourself and your employees, but also others involved in the project.