EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management Damaged equipment in transit

Good question Roger. We were led to believe by our Supplies department that we had adequate cover for equipment in transit. The technician involved asked this very question before the item was sent. We had no reason to believe otherwise as we had previously never had an 'incident'. This goes for other departments on site that over the years have used the same courier without incident.

Since the event in question, we have contacted the claims department of the courier who informed us that if we had expensive items to be carried, we should have told them and they would have increased the charge to us, thereby increasing their liability. We would then have had a larger amount paid to us for damaged goods in transit. Unfortunately, this will cost us more in transportation costs in the future. Taxpayers paying again.

What concerns me is this - quite a lot of times in the past we (EME) have returned loan items to companies using this National carrier. What would have happened then if they would have become damaged? Who would have been liable then?

Geoff - good question about a NHS transportation service. Seems like a money saving scheme to me.

Yes good suggestion to have your NHS transport. The onus is on NHS.

We use Interlink who for a small extra offer "Extended Insurance" which covers up to £15000.

Lee

That is a good solution but not show if it is in writing. How long would a claim be in this case if the piece of equipment is beyoud repair?

I mean "not sure" if it is written in black and white.

The agreement we have shows clearly that items are covered up to this value, this was a major factor in us chosing this courier, fortunately I cannot remember ever having to make a claim against them.

Lee

Unfortunately, all these 'extra charges' cost and someone has to pay for it. Whose budget would it come out of? Does anyone have a certain treshhold where a item to be shipped becomes viable for insurance? We ship a large amount of parcels every day and very occasionally we have a lost or damaged parcel. Our courier uses the weight not value line every time, which is nice of them.
Slight change of tack, but we recently had some items sent back to us for routine service. The items were very poorly wrapped and all of them had been damaged in the box. The cost to repair them was substantially more then he cost of the original service. Although this is a rare occurrance, it is tax payers money being wasted because someone couldn't do their job correctly. (GH will be along in a minute regarding this last comment )

... nothing new there Mark. A glance at the national news any day of the week shows that, unfortunately.

Extra cost indeed. The taxpayer pays again. We (EME) will have to pay the extra charge for extended cover for each delivery for valuable items when we send them off. I suggest it's your own decision as to what level of value of equipment you take out extended cover. I don't fancy having to explain to the 'powers that be' here if the problem happens again. We have enough problems trying to get the money to replace the damaged kit as it is.

We will certainly be taking extended cover out for transportation of equipment like Electrical safety analyzers, Infusion testers and NIBP Analyzers etc, but certainly not for lower value equipment such as Flukes etc.

The extra charge works out at £7.50 per item. With regards to our specific problem, we recently sent a begging letter to Interlink (poor cash strapped NHS, goodwill, used company for many years etc) to see if we could get more of a payment and we have now been told that their claims team are 'looking into' our case. We are not holding our breath though.

You might get some 'free' pens and mouse mats...