News

Last week's storms cost UK industry in the "high hundreds of millions" according to the Association of British Insurers, with the road transport industry picking up a large chunk of the bill.

Fleets stood idle across the UK as record numbers of trucks were tipped over by gale-force winds which hit the North-East and North-West particularly  hard.

About 35 trucks were blown over despite urgent warnings from the Highways Agency that high-sided vehicles should get off the road as soon as possible. In addition, some operators report that north-south journey times were doubled.

The Highways Agency and the Met Office fear such storms could become more frequent as a result of climate change.

Calculations suggest that if just 10% of the 430,000 UK vehicles over 3.5 tonnes were parked up during the worst of the storm, the cost to the industry was almost £50m. Trucks written off, including recovery costs, could amount to a further £2.6m.

The Association of British Insurers says the increase in claims will be calculated at the end of the quarter, but spokeswoman Kelly Ostler adds: "We know it cost a lot of money. Overall we're reckoning it in the high hundreds of millions."

Catastrophe risk  modeller AIR Worldwide estimates that the total cost across Europe could be as high as €10bn.

In addition to immediate costs, there is the consequential loss of undelivered freight and road closures. Geoff Dossetter, external affairs director at the FTA, says: "Although warnings were there on Wednesday, no one anticipated the severity of the storm. Operators were not being cavalier or foolhardy - no one foresaw this."