If you are a dedicated professional who spends your days installing and maintaining phone, TV, broadband and fibre optic systems, then there’s no two ways about it. You need Telecommunication Engineer Insurance.
This cover is as important to your work as your van, your set of tools and your years of training. Simply, you shouldn’t start any job without it. Telecommunication Engineer Insurance is what’s going to step in to protect you financially from a range of risks that you face in your work.
Let’s take a look at what this essential cover contains, and why it’s so crucial.
Much like a film starring Tom Cruise, but your job is risky business. On any given day, you could find yourself perched 20 feet in the air, repairing damaged cables or monitoring power outputs during gale-force winds. The next day you could be working perilously close to electrics while your well-meaning customer leans over with a cup of tea to see how you’re getting on.
Here are some of the main risks you face (aka – why all telecommunications engineers need insurance):
This is one of the main workplace hazards that anyone can face. Whether you’re using a cherry picker or scaling a ladder, the higher you climb, the harder you fall. It’s not just you who can get hurt – the risk of damage to third parties and property is also ramped up at height. Health and safety adherence is your first line of defense, but a solid insurance policy will help pick up the pieces should anything happen.
A contender for the top spot of the most dangerous element of any job, even when you know what you’re doing. Electricity is safe in an ideal world, and you may be highly skilled, but the truth is you never know what variables are at play which are out of your control. Physical harm to yourself, your employees or third parties is the number one concern here.
In this day and age, it’s not just physical risks you need to contend with in your work as a telecommunications engineer. It’s virtual ones, too. According to On The Tools, nearly 1 in 4 tradespeople were victims of cyber-crime in 2023. Working with customer data means you’re always at risk of a data breach or data leak. An insurance policy which includes cover for professional indemnity, including damage caused by data breaches, is important to cover off this significant area of risk.
When you’re working outdoors, you’re at the mercy of the Great British Weather. This means you might find yourself working through a gale, downpour or snowdrift. Hot weather also brings hazards, not least to the way your equipment functions under extreme temperatures. Accidents like slip, trips and falls are all much more common during inclement weather, as is the potential for dropping equipment and causing inadvertent harm to passers-by. You may call off a job when the weather’s like something out of a disaster flick, but the reality is that in the UK you’re going to be working through bad weather approximately 1/3 of the year.
Damage, loss or theft to your tools and equipment is a serious blow to any self-employed telecommunication engineer. Devastating though it can be, there isn’t much you can do when you fall victim to tool theft, aside from reporting it to the police and hoping for the best. This is why a tool insurance policy is such a good idea to cover the cost of repair or replacement should your tools be compromised.
Does a 35-hour week sound like a relaxing break to you? That’re a sure sign you’re working too many hours. There’s often no let-up in a trade like this, and where there’s money to be made, it can be hard to know when to switch off. However, fatigue and exhaustion lead to technical errors and on-site accidents, and the more people you have working under you, the greater this risk becomes.
This risk may be less well-known, but self-employed engineers and tradespeople in the UK often run into tax and legal issues. This is an unfortunate side-effect of being a self-employed tradesperson in the UK, where one wrong move can land you in hot water with anyone from clients and employees to HMRC. A legal expert in your corner is like a guardian angel when a knotty legal problem presents itself – which is why legal expenses cover is a great choice.
So, we’ve looked at some of the key risks you face in your work as a telecommunication engineer. Now, let’s look at how you can protect yourself with insurance.
Every telecommunication engineer who works for themselves should have Public Liability Insurance. This policy will protect you from the costs and consequences arising from third party compensation claims for injury, harm and property damage caused by your business activities. In simple terms, this means that if you cause injury or damage to someone or something while working, you won’t have to pay for it out of your own pocket.
Public Liability Insurance isn’t legally required, but it is usually a requirement of contracts, especially for contracts with companies or government bodies. And in this day and age, most private customers won’t touch a tradesperson who doesn’t have Public Liability Insurance as they know it’s not worth the hassle if something goes wrong.
Professional Indemnity Insurance offers financial protection in case of professional negligence, mistakes, or bad advice that could lead to your clients suffering financial losses. Errors in your work as a telecommunications engineer can have significant consequences, which can cost your clients big time. For example, if you make a professional error, it can cause major inconvenience to the client whether you’re working for a business or a private individual. Professional Indemnity Insurance will also cover your back when it comes to accidental data mishandling – a growing area of concern among trades contractors in the UK.
You won’t get far without tools in your profession. From the humble spanner to the pricey electronic testers – should they be lost, damaged or stolen, you’ll face a choice. Rent a new set at great expense in order to get yourself through the next few jobs or take the financial hit and buy your set again from scratch. Tool Insurance is a valuable policy to have in your arsenal, as tool theft is increasingly common. We heard that tools are stolen in the UK every 23 minutes – some have probably been nicked while you’ve been reading this!
Your employees are a great asset, and a sign of your success. Once you start hiring and firing, you can say your business has truly taken off because you don’t have to do everything by yourself! However, with employees comes responsibility. You need to make sure that they’re catered for should they get hurt while on the job. Workplace accidents in a field like telecommunications engineering aren’t uncommon, so it really pays to be prepared with this policy. By law, you need at least £5m of Employer’s Liability Insurance in place, which should give you a good idea of how much claims can cost.
Remember how we talked about legal issues that can rear their ugly heads in a self-employed tradesperson’s world? This can be something that comes totally out of the blue. For example, a client, employee, landlord or supplier might decide to sue you for breach of contract, negligence or unfinished work. As you don’t have a full-time legal department on standby, this insurance cover is the next best thing. It gives you access to legal experts and representatives who can take the hard work (and stress) out of those pesky legal matters.
Going to any old insurer for your Telecommunication Engineers Insurance is like asking your GP to perform your colectomy. Just because they are in the same field, it doesn’t mean they’re the best person for the job.
You should choose a trade insurance specialist like Rhino Trade Insurance. That way, you know that you’re getting insurance solutions perfectly tailored for your industry. You need the specific risks of your trade adequately reflected in your coverage. – whether that’s working at height, working with electrics or being responsible for keeping businesses, schools or hospitals online.
Take Rhino’s Telecommunication Engineers Insurance, for example. We designed a core bundle of policies to suit your trade, and the best part? Once you have your core Public Liability Insurance (Rhino’s best-seller) in your basket, you can personalise your cover to your business’s exact requirements.
Don’t have any employees, so don’t need Employer’s Liability Insurance? No problem – simply remove it from your bundle and you won’t have to pay for a policy you don’t use. Fancy a high indemnity limit on your tool cover to reflect a recent investment into your equipment? Absolutely – simply adjust your limit accordingly.
Rhino Trade Insurance are the UK’s market-leading specialist insurance broker for trade insurance. Our experienced team know trade insurance like the backs of our hands. Rhino’s passion is supporting hardworking tradespeople in the UK to get the cover they need at a great price – ensuring that when a good day on the tools turns sour, you won’t be faced with a financial nightmare at the end of it.
Rhino’s smart quote engine analyses your business’s needs in a flash before giving you your quote. Or if you’d rather speak to a friendly voice, we’re available on 0116 243 7904 live from our Leicester HQ six days a week.
Alex’s Day From Hell
Alex from Derby is a telecommunication engineer. He’s new to the business but already has an apprentice working under him and has built a great reputation among local businesses and private individuals. Alex hasn’t got around to renewing his lapsed insurance policies yet, but that’s OK. Alex is so good at his job that he never makes mistakes, so it can wait.
In the morning, Alex heads to a client, Mrs B, to install fibre broadband. As he is busy drilling the external wall, Mrs B appears with a plate of biscuits. She doesn’t see Alex’s extension cord which is trailing across the garden path. Mrs B trips over it and injures her elbow. Alex watches the ambulance speed off and returns to his van. He sees one of the rear doors is now ajar. On investigating, he realises an opportunist thief has grabbed his tool bag and made off. Alex is hopping mad but can’t do anything – the thief is nowhere to be seen.
Then, Alex looks down at his smartphone to see an email from a previous client. “I clicked that link you sent me – now my computer has a virus.” After a quick investigation, Alex sees that he fell victim to a bogus link which has forwarded to all his contacts including his client database.
Alex heads to his next job at a local school. He won’t get much done without his tools, but he decided to go and recce the job to see what needs to be done. He’s distracted, and accidentally knocks a low wall as he’s parking.
Alex’s smartphone buzzes again. It’s a text message from his apprentice. ‘Been to the Dr about my wrist pain. It’s carpel tunnel mate. I need to make a claim…”
If Alex had a comprehensive Telecommunication Engineer Insurance policy in place, he wouldn’t have needed to panic. He’d have simply contacted his insurer to file the five claims that his day from hell has brought.
Luckily, Alex’s bad day is a hypothetical scenario. But it clearly demonstrates the potential for things to go wrong, and every tradesperson knows Murphy’s Law – what can go wrong, will go wrong!
Don’t be like Alex. Get your insurance coverage sorted today with Rhino. You can grab cover during lunchtime and have the policy documents in your inbox by the time you’ve finished your break.
So, whatever life decides to throw at you as a Telecommunications Engineer, just know that being insured with Rhino means you never have to face bad days like this alone.
Call our friendly, expert team today on 0116 243 7904.
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