Watch: Autumn risk management guidance

Neil Shaw: Hi, I'm Neil. And today I'm joined by Gus and we're gonna talk about some of the seasonal impacts that can affect our clients and what we can do at Aviva to support them.

Gus Teruel: Thanks, Neil. Typically, as we move into autumn, we get a lot more weather-related claims, a lot more named storms. Traditionally, you'll get more bad weather in winter. But last autumn, we saw four named storms. [Storm] Babet had huge flooding impacts, but it's not just flood claims, there was two named storms that caused widespread wind damage.

Neil Shaw: I think, you know, as these weather patterns change and it would appear that storms are happening earlier in the season, particularly with high winds and high rainfall. This can have a detrimental impact on a lot of our business clients by causing damage to property and their ability to operate, provide goods and services, etc. So I feel it's really important that you know, businesses and our clients start to prepare earlier rather than later and get that ‘prevention first’ strategy in place. So one of the things that our clients can do is start becoming more aware of some of the potential risks. For example, if they've got flat roofs, taking the opportunity to check that there's no pooling water and that they're maintained correctly just to prevent that water actually getting into the building and causing damage to, you know, electrics and contents of the property. In addition to that, I think one of the things that's really important is making sure, guttering and downpipes are free of leaves and debris. Leaf litter can be a problem with the high winds. It can block drains, for example. So it's important to make sure that all those are kept clear so that any pooling of water has a means of escape, rather than going into the property and causing damage. So it's also important to have a tree maintenance plan in place. That way you can identify, you know, unhealthy trees, overhanging branches, and they can be dealt with in a professional way before they become a risk and cause or potentially cause damage to property.

Gus Teruel: Absolutely Neil. Autumn is very much the time for preparing for the change in weather. Typically people are using their chimneys, log burners for the first time, putting the heating on. So it's important to service boilers, get chimneys and flues cleaned and make sure that those don't become a problem or cause any issues. Beyond the increased risk for property claims and property damage, the wet weather also brings higher risks of slips, trips and falls. Wet weather combined with fallen leaves, wet paths, moss, can cause, if not cleaned, more people to trip and fall. Fallen leaves can easily block drains and guttering, causing water to escape and perhaps damaging third-party properties. From a public liability perspective, autumn sees an increase in public events such as bonfires, Halloween, those sorts of displays and, if not managed correctly, can pose an increased risk of injury, property damage, disturbance of livestock. So it's important to understand the risks associated with any events.

Neil Shaw: OK, Gus. So by preparing early, for example ordering grit and salt, identifying hotspots and areas where there's high footfall, we can really start to reduce the risk of somebody being involved in a slip or a trip or a fall. Therefore, enhancing our overall safety for employees and other people that access and egress our properties.

Gus Teruel: As we move into autumn we also need to give some consideration to motor risks and the increased difficulties in driving in the winter - making sure your car's properly prepared, so winter screen wash, tyres at the right pressure, keeping lights and indicators free from dirt and grime to increase visibility, will certainly help. In autumn generally, we see an increase in motor accidents particularly accidents not involving any other road users, so where people may sort of skid, leave the road, and hit objects on the side of the road.

Neil Shaw: A really, really good point, Gus. You know, when we're talking about vehicles losing traction, and people losing control on the roads. I mean, a lot of this is obviously down to speed, but one of the most important things is about the serviceability of tyres. I think it's important, you know, when you look at different fleets, you know, there are different rules around tread depth and wear, etc - from heavy commercials to vehicles that are operated off-road. But if we just talk about general car tyres, van tyres - this time of year, it's very, very important to start thinking about preparing, preparing for the poor weather conditions. So carrying out, you know, checks on your tyres, for example. And if we look at a normal car tyre, the rules or the legislation states there should be 1.6 millimetres of tread depth - over 75% of the central band. But it's also important to check side walls for damage and things like that. So you know, why are tyres so important? Tyres are important because the average contact patch of a tyre on an average vehicle is around the same as a size eight footprint, and that size eight footprint has to be able to move water, has to be able to control stability under breaking, which is hence, why tyre pressures are so important. But this is, you know, something that is absolutely vital - that one thing is giving you the ability to not only break, but steer and control the vehicle. And then on EVs, for example, you spoke about tyre pressures. Absolutely crucial. You know, if you want to get the most out of the performance of the vehicle, particularly in autumn, when it starts to get cold and you want to get the most out of that battery. So tyres - really, really important.

Gus Teruel: You mentioned fleet, but obviously within a fleet, there will be a multitude of different experiences and ages, so it would be a good idea to have some of the younger drivers or less experienced drivers get increased or additional training.

Neil Shaw: Obviously, we work really closely with our fleet clients and particularly this time of year, where we start thinking about maybe younger or inexperienced drivers, who've not had the opportunity to drive in any adverse weather conditions, what we're finding is that, you know, training is absolutely key, particularly for that group, because we're building experience as we develop, but it's important to give them every opportunity to improve their driving, particularly the skills, behaviour and how to avoid getting themselves into dangerous situations in poor road and weather conditions.

Gus Teruel: And possibly there may be vehicles that they're not familiar with. So rather than driving their own vehicles, they're driving the fleet, hopping into a car for the first time. It's important to be familiar.

Neil Shaw: Yeah, familiarisation training is absolutely key because sometimes, you know, we think that people know, and people only know what they know. So it's this thing around how can we give them the necessary knowledge and understanding and more to that point, particularly with fleets moving more to EVs, on cars, because they behave and they handle differently, familiarisation is absolutely key, because if you've driven a manual or an automatic, you get into an EV, particularly some of the more high-performance cars, that acceleration can catch you out quite quickly, particularly if you're dealing with poor road weather conditions as well.

Gus Teruel: Thanks, Neil. That's some great advice. But of course, not all road users use motor vehicles. What advice and considerations would you give to motor vehicle users in respect of vulnerable road users?

Neil Shaw: What is a vulnerable road user? You know, a vulnerable road user, the definition is that it's somebody that has less protection than somebody that's driving a car or a van or whatever. And therefore they're more vulnerable to being killed or injured in a collision. And particularly this time of year as you know, we're getting more rain, we've got fog, we've got all these poor road weather conditions - vulnerable road users can be more vulnerable. So for example, whether it's a pedestrian cyclist, motorcyclist, people riding horses, there are lots and lots of vulnerable people on the roads. You know, it could be new drivers, there's all kinds of things. And what we need to remember is that, we all share the same space, OK? And it's really important that we're patient, that we give other people opportunities while we're on the road. An example would be in heavy rain for example, if you're overtaking a cyclist, what you don't want to do is you don't want to actually splash them with a jet of water and put them off balance, etc. You know we all share that space, so give them a little bit more room. What else can we do? We can raise our awareness, right? Things like not using your mobile phone while driving, to limit that amount of distraction can also help you identify where there are vulnerable road users. So we've also got what is now an emerging risk, which is the use of escooters, for example, and the challenge with these scooters is they are a vulnerable road user. We do have to share the same space. However, we need to be a little bit more aware because they can be unstable, they can be difficult to see because of the profile and also particularly at night, because if they do have lights or reflectors, it's quite low down so it's difficult to see. So we need to think about, making sure that we stay aware and we stay focused on driving the vehicle as safely as we can, negotiating all these hazards that we do on a daily basis.

Gus Teruel: So it's pretty clear that now is the critical time to prepare for autumn and winter and make sure you have all those preparations in place to help mitigate any risk and any losses. But of course, should the worst happen then obviously, it's vitally important that any claims, no matter how small, are notified to Aviva. The earlier we can get a claim notified to us the more help we can be, we can assist in mitigating the risk and minimising the impacts of those claims.

Neil Shaw: OK Gus, so today we've covered the basics and there is a lot more involved in managing your risk of your property, your employees and people out on the roads. We have a lot more information on the Aviva website, from loss prevention standards to guides, etc. So my advice would be, if in doubt, go on to the website and have a look at the information that's on there because that will be of great help to our clients.