Delta Insurance New Zealand on “no-brainer” drone proposition

Delta Insurance New Zealand on “no-brainer” drone proposition | Insurance Business New Zealand

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Delta Insurance New Zealand on “no-brainer” drone proposition

Niche provider talks about why it flies to where many don’t

Insurance News

By
Terry Gangcuangco

“We saw a need and we filled it.”

Those were the words of Delta Insurance New Zealand senior claims handler Sharna Garbett when she and liability underwriter Sean O’Neil (pictured) sat down with Insurance Business to talk about the underwriting agency’s UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) operators insurance product.

Unlike those who have shied away from providing comprehensive commercial drone cover, Delta Insurance NZ is keen to be there for the growing market, having recognised the emerging risks about six years ago. According to the underwriting agency, it is very much a part of its DNA to look where others don’t, in line with anticipating customer needs.

“Most insurers in the market – they will cover either a little bit of the liability or some of the first-party losses,” noted O’Neil. “There are only a few in the market that will offer the full, comprehensive cover.

“We cover the first-party losses… And then on top of that we cover the third-party losses, so if the drone crashes into third-party property and causes damage. And then also the statutory liability exposures, with regulators coming after UAV operators around privacy breaches or health & safety concerns.”

The liability underwriter cited a different full cover provider but highlighted that it’s not on Kiwi soil.

“That’s where we can come in and have our underwriters in New Zealand; our claims handled in New Zealand,” he said. “So, that’s a really big benefit for us. And then there are other insurers as well who might do pieces of the puzzle, and they have exclusions here and there around weights and all that kind of stuff. So, we try and be as open as we can in the New Zealand market.”

For Garbett, Delta Insurance NZ’s proposition – which is also available in the Pacific Islands – means an easier time for insureds.

“It helps them when they have a claim, because if they have a claim where it does trigger those different coverage clauses in the policy, they’re only dealing with the one underwriter, which is us,” she told Insurance Business.

“So, we can help them through the whole process rather than saying, ‘We can only do this little aspect for you’; we can just take care of it altogether. That makes life easy for them, because we can resolve it through to the end for them without them having to deal with multiple insurers. It was also that aspect that we wanted to provide that comprehensive cover. We saw a need and we filled it.”

No-brainer offer

One of the industries benefitting from commercial drone use is agriculture, and Delta Insurance New Zealand has an extension specifically for using UAVs to spray and spread fertilisers over crops.    

“This is quite unique in the market that we’re able to do this,” declared O’Neil. “That’s a bit of a bolt-on from what we first started, but it’s a niche that we found in the market that not many others were doing.

“The drones are becoming more and more advanced, efficient and effective, and ultimately cheaper for the farmers themselves to use – as opposed to the alternative, helicopters or planes, which is more dangerous. So, if we can offer this cover for them, and then it’s a no-brainer, really.”

Claims-wise, high on the agenda for the underwriting agency is immediate resolution, given the fact that policyholders rely on the technology as part of their operations.

Garbett said: “They’re using the drone for commercial purposes; they’re running a business. As Sean explained, we have a lot of agricultural farmers that use the drones for spraying. And so when they have these accidents, they really need to get this drone either repaired or replaced, to get it back up in the air, because it is impacting their livelihood.

“That’s one thing that I’m quite acutely aware of when I get those claims, is to try and get it resolved as quickly as I can. We’ve set up quite a good process that our insureds are taken through to an authorised repairer, DJI, who will assist them, work out if the drones can be repaired or replaced, and then we can move quite quickly to make that happen.”

According to Garbett, for first-party damage, the claims journey is very straightforward 98% of the time.

“In fact, there’s a good portion of what we call the ‘open, pay, close’,” she told Insurance Business. “So, I get the claim in, open it, and I pay it and I close it on the same day. That’s the aim… We see insurance as that partnership with businesses and their risks, so whatever we can do to help them get back up and going.”

With businesses now using UAVs more and more, “who knows what the future holds,” O’Neil said.

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