Truck, jinker and crane
Damage to the prime mover or rigid, the log trailer, bolsters and any self-loading crane fitted to it.
Log Truck Insurance
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Log Truck Insurance
Cover for log trucks and jinkers hauling pine and hardwood on forestry roads.
Log haulage puts a very heavy, shifting load on narrow forestry roads with steep grades, blind corners and no phone reception. Rollovers on coupe roads and unsealed descents dominate the claims, and recovering a loaded unit from a plantation can cost as much as repairing it. The truck, the jinker, the loading crane and the timber are four separate questions.
What is it?
Log trucks in Australia run as rigid-and-trailer or B-double combinations with bolsters, stanchions and jinker trailers built for pine and hardwood haulage in Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and the south-west of Western Australia. Many carry a self-loading crane, and configurations vary with each state's forestry access and mass limits. Trailers are frequently carried piggyback on the empty return leg.
What does log truck insurance cover?
Rollover and recovery
Overturn on coupe roads and unsealed descents, plus the cost of recovering a loaded unit from a remote location.
Timber on the load
Logs shifting or falling from the load, with the timber itself generally addressed separately from vehicle damage.
What affects the cost?
- Combination type and configured mass
- Share of travel on forestry and unsealed roads
- Whether a self-loading crane is fitted
- Driver experience in log haulage specifically
- Fire season exposure and where trucks are parked
Worth raising on the call
- Recovery and salvage costs deep in a plantation are worth confirming, because they are rarely a small number.
- Bushfire exposure to parked units and depot yards is a genuine seasonal question in most log regions.
- Contract haulage for a mill often carries liability limits set by the mill rather than chosen by you.
Claims we are commonly asked about
Bolster fails and logs spill
A stanchion lets go on a corner leaving a public forestry access road and part of the load rolls off onto the carriageway. That single event usually involves damage to the trailer, loss of the timber, road closure and clean-up, and questions about how the load was secured.
Self-loading crane hits an obstruction
The crane boom catches a standing tree or an unseen stump while slewing at a landing and bends the boom and slew ring. Crane repairs are specialist work and often take the truck out of the roster longer than the truck damage itself would.
Piggybacked trailer works loose
The trailer carried on the back of the truck on an empty return leg shifts on a rough section and damages the deck and headboard. Cover while a trailer is being carried rather than towed is a different use, and is worth checking rather than assuming.
Worth confirming in the wording
- Worth confirming whether the trailer is covered while carried piggyback on the empty return leg, since being carried is a different use to being towed.
- Worth confirming what recovery, salvage and clean-up limit applies deep inside a plantation, and whether that limit sits inside the sum insured or on top of it.
- Worth confirming how the wording treats bushfire damage to units parked at a coupe, landing, depot or roadside during fire season, and whether any conditions apply on total fire ban days.
Common questions
Is the timber I am carting covered?
Generally not by the vehicle damage section. Timber carried for a mill or a forest owner is usually addressed by carriers liability or goods-in-transit cover, with its own limit and conditions. If you also own timber you are moving, that may need a different section again.
Is the self-loading crane included in the truck's cover?
Usually only where it has been declared and valued. A self-loader is a substantial value in its own right and is commonly scheduled as an item, and operating it may also raise liability questions the motor section does not answer. It is worth listing it explicitly rather than assuming it is included.
Does working on forestry roads push the premium up?
It generally affects appetite and terms because unsealed grades, blind corners, rollover exposure and remote recovery are all harder risks than sealed highway work. Insurers commonly ask what proportion of travel is on forestry and unsealed roads. Declaring that honestly is better than a figure that does not match the routes.
What does log truck insurance cost?
It depends on the combination and where it runs. Configuration and configured mass, the share of travel on forestry and unsealed roads, whether a self-loading crane is fitted, log-specific driver experience, fire season exposure and parking arrangements all feed in. A broker who knows the forestry market can approach the insurers that write it.
General information only. Cover, limits and exclusions depend on the PDS, TMD, eligibility, underwriting and the policy terms. See truck insurance for the wider picture.
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