Agenda-driving Broker to Accelerate Support at The Big Coach Conversation

Specialist fleet insurance broker, McCarron Coates, is viewing its sponsorship of the forthcoming March 27, Big Coach Conversation event, as a means of applying the  accelerator on its support for the bus and coach sector.

The broker got involved through its strong relationship with organisers CMAC, viewing the proposed programme as added value for operators, through both networking and the speaker programme proposed.  However, McCarron Coates’ involvement is also in keeping with its long track record of supporting causes that matter to the bus and coach sector.  

The broker regularly attends the annual Blackpool-based UK Coach Rally and was the headline sponsor of Freight People’s ‘Trial by Roadside – the Corporate Cost’ mock trial event in January.  During the pandemic, it supported Honk for Hope but also created its own dynamic lobbying campaign – Wish You Could Hear – which put pressure on local MPs to support their coach-sector local constituents.  This resulted in a parliamentary debate on support for coach operators unable to earn a living during lockdown.

In this way, McCarron Coates demonstrated it is more than just an insurance broker for the fleet sector and a true partner for its clients, acting on issues that matter to them.

In the same way, it has developed solutions that help protect clients by mitigating their risks in unique ways.  It is the only insurance broker to offer its clients a free service that provides drivers who are involved in blue-light incidents with face-to-face, industry specific legal advice, from the moment an incident occurs and right through police interviews and any possible trial.

At The Big Coach Conversation, it will further demonstrate its commitment to operators by presenting its brand-new Accelerate proposition.  This has been developed in conjunction with highly respected solicitors, JMW, whose Partner and Head of the Commercial Road Transport team, Laura Hadzik, is one of the event speakers.

Accelerate provides bus and coach operators with a policy providing comprehensive legal cover, aimed at protecting the fleet business, its finances, its directors and the O licence. It also offers access to a wide range of other specialist legal advice and covers both legal fees and a settlement figure of up to £50,000, if a case is lost. 

It delivers pro-active, upfront legal advice ahead of any employment tribunal or Traffic Commissioner’s hearing, rather than when things have progressed too far. The policy covers any investigation or case mounted by authorities including: HSE; DVSA; Trading Standards, the Police and the Environment Agency.  It also protects an operator, should an employment dispute result in a tribunal, and provides legal advice for any criminal matters relating to the use of the operator’s commercial vehicles.

The Big Coach Conversation event will be attended by McCarron Coates director, Paul Coates, and a new face within the team, Morgan Bryant.  Morgan will need no introduction to some attendees, having been a fleet specialist insurance broker at Gallagher Insurance.  He has now joined McCarron Coates, to further strengthen the fleet insurance broking team.  

Paul Coates says: “The Big Coach Conversation will provide us with another opportunity to interact with our clients at an event that is coach community focused and seeking to strengthen the resilience of that community.  

“Our new Accelerate proposition does the same and dovetails perfectly with our RTC Crisis Line offering. Whilst the former protects the ‘entity’, in terms of the coach business and its managerial team, the latter is concerned with protecting the driver, their livelihood and the impacts of their behaviours on the corporate body.  We shall be delighted to explain the complete umbrella of legal protection that both provide, as we meet with friends, clients and new contacts at Derbyshire Cricket Club.”

McCarron Coates believes this deep understanding of the coach sector is the key to its success.  The brokerage has won six prestigious national insurance awards, most recently two Silver Insurance Times Awards, scooped in November 2024.  It continues to drive the agenda in the fleet insurance broking market, as well as the coach conversation.

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Editors notes

McCarron Coates is an award-winning insurance broker, based in Morley, Leeds, which is a specialist in fleet transport insurance and other niche areas such as roofing, scaffolding and woodworking insurance. It also supplies many other types of commercial insurance policies and risk management services, to clients nationwide and is highly respected as an industry thought-leader, within its individual spheres of influence.