Why NTI’s Yellow Cover keeps getting better

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As NTI rolls out its latest round of Yellow Cover enhancements, brokers are being handed sharper tools, stronger wordings and a risk engineering service that’s already delivering measurable results

MOBILE PLANT and equipment (MPE) machinery can be heavy, expensive, at times irreplaceable, and often vital to the business operations that depend on them. Protecting these key assets requires an insurance provider that understands the sector from the ground up and keeps pace with how the industry operates. For brokers working with those clients, the real question is what happens before and after the moment things go wrong. Is the cover broad enough when a hired machine disappears? Will a client get practical help on site, not just a promise on paper? For more than a decade, NTI has backed businesses across Australia’s construction, civil engineering, mining, hire,

The vehicles, vessels and equipment NTI’s customers rely on have become safer, faster and cleaner. The cargoes they carry are now more delicate and time-sensitive than ever before. With over 50 years’ experience in the insurance industry, NTI has always been successful in finding new ways to keep its customers moving, across the heavy vehicle, mobile plant and equipment, and marine industries. Its combination of tailored products, experienced people, accredited repair and recovery networks and industry advocacy has seen NTI ranked as Australia’s #1 specialist insurer. Yet insurance is just a piece of paper, a promise. It’s not until you really need an insurer that you understand its point of difference – the NTI Difference.

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Risk engineering outcomes at NTI: FY25 vs FY24

drop in off-road days among engaged clients

“We can put ourselves in our customers’ shoes because many of our people have first-hand industry experience. We work hand in glove with our broker partners, and we don’t sit back on our laurels”

David Kidd, NTI

agriculture and landscaping sectors with its Yellow Cover product, reflecting deep expertise in protecting mobile plant, equipment and the industries that rely on them every day. The latest enhancements to its policy come out of sustained, direct engagement with brokers and their clients, and builds on a product that is already market leading. Through new automatic benefits* such as theft by hirer cover, an optional work tools extension, an upgraded Sunrise Exchange platform, access to risk engineering proven to reduce off-road days and claims, and a tightly integrated in-house claims and repair model, NTI continues to lead the market and give brokers more confidence to place complex machinery risks with a provider that understands how work actually gets done on site.

NTI’s Yellow Cover already carries more than 60 automatic benefits, the product of annual refinements since launch. Each iteration responds to what brokers and clients are encountering on site, and this latest round is no different. The focus this time is on areas where NTI identified room to extend its coverage further, with the most significant addition being theft by hire, now written in as an automatic benefit.* For brokers with clients who hire out equipment or offer damage waivers, this is a meaningful change. Conditions apply: signed hire agreements must be in place, hirer contact details and identification must be recorded, and handovers must be properly controlled. But for clients who meet those requirements, the cover is simply there.* David Kidd, NTI’s national product manager for mobile plant, says the competitive context makes this a genuine point of difference. “A lot of our competitors appear to be silent on it. A lot of them don’t offer theft by hirer. It’s always been an outright decline or put on as a policy option … [but] they’ve got the coverage of the wording behind them now. It’s automatic,” he says. A new work tools extension is also being introduced, available for selection on Sunrise Exchange, the platform through which NTI distributes its products to brokers. If selected, it allows customers to apply for up to $2,000 on miscellaneous portable work tools per item, capped at $40,000 per event.* It sits alongside the existing downtime cover and liability options as part of a broader Yellow Cover suite that brokers can configure online.

are handled by dedicated expert services teams and business development managers across all regions, and NTI has structured its commercial staff distribution to ensure that support is genuinely accessible rather than nominally available.

NTI compiled outcomes from its risk engineering engagements comparing FY24 and FY25, and the results are striking. Among clients who engaged with the service, days of productivity loss dropped by 52% in 2025, with 30% of those clients eliminating them entirely. Total off-road days across the group fell by 73%. Claim numbers reduced by 45%, claim costs fell by 12%, and 14 clients achieved zero claims over the period. Because the service is accessible to Yellow Cover clients, brokers may choose to position it as an extension of the cover itself rather than a separate conversation about risk management consulting. The data gives that conversation a concrete foundation.

customers directly to NTI’s authorised accredited MPE repair network. When it comes to parts, the approach is unambiguous. Alexander says original equipment manufacturer (OEM) components are always the first protocol. “We only use OEM parts where possible. First protocol is straight to the OEM. We don’t use aftermarket parts like some others will. Obviously, we have our repair guarantee as well, so we have to warrant what part we fit. So that’s why we always go straight to the OEM in the first instance,” he explains. Independent research commissioned by NTI has found that it gets trucks back on the road nine days faster than the industry average,* a result of the Accident Assist program and direct access to its repair network. NTI is replicating that result for plant equipment, with dedicated MPE repair facilities being brought on board so that machines can be towed or floated directly to an authorised repairer and work begun immediately upon NTI’s authority. There is also a less widely known element of the service that Kidd believes is genuinely underappreciated in the market. “Our customers tell us NTI’s crisis communications support and trauma assistance plays a big part in recovery,” he says. “It’s well known that being involved in an incident can have an impact on wellbeing, but further to that we support our customers and their family members who have witnessed traumatic events resulting in a claim as well. We extend our trauma services on a case-by-case basis to ensure people have access to the support they need.”

Looking at big haul truck. Two men in uniform are working together in the quarry

Keeping pace with what brokers need

The numbers behind the risk engineering results

Published 23 Mar 2026

“We meet with clients to analyse, understand and assist them to further develop their focus on areas of improvement in their risk management space”

Steven Alexander, NTI

NTI’s presence on Sunrise Exchange is also getting an upgrade, with changes expected from March. The intent is to simplify the broker experience: fewer, clearer questions and a more intuitive interface for managing the full policy life cycle for SME clients. “Our intent is to make life a lot easier for our brokers to manage their SME customers, and that’s going to be across both transport and MPE,” says Kidd. For brokers managing high volumes of smaller fleet clients, this kind of platform improvement is where efficiency gains show up in practice. For larger fleets, more complex exposures

A platform upgrade to match

Beyond the policy wording, NTI offers something that few providers in the MPE segment can match: a dedicated risk engineering service, accessible to all Yellow Cover clients. Steven Alexander, NTI’s mobile plant and equipment risk engineer, works directly with clients to understand their operations and identify areas where risk management can be strengthened. “We meet with clients to analyse, understand and assist them to further develop their focus on areas of improvement in their risk management space,” Alexander explains. “The service is complementary to NTI customers and takes approximately 60 to 90 minutes. It’s then supported with a written report with key recommendations and potential solutions to further support the client.” The issues Alexander encounters are consistent across the industry, though one challenge continues to surface in conversations with operators. “Building and retaining a skilled workforce remains difficult. Many businesses rely on experienced team members who hold critical operational knowledge and practical expertise. That experience is invaluable, but it also underscores the importance of developing the next generation. Without a clear focus on training, mentoring and succession planning, businesses risk losing capability when key people step away,” he says. The workforce pipeline problem has direct implications for claims risk. Smaller operators, those with 10 to 20 employees, often don’t have the capacity to take someone off a machine to train a new hire. External trainers may fill some of the gap, but employee turnover remains a persistent source of exposure. It’s exactly the kind of systemic risk that face-to-face engagement can surface and begin to address.

What risk engineering looks like in the yellow space

Even with risk engineering in place, incidents occur. How NTI responds is where the rest of its in-house infrastructure comes into play. Claims are typically activated within the day, and repair managers are often on site within a week to survey damage and support the customer through recovery. The claims service operates through NTI Assist and connects

What happens when something goes wrong

52%

of clients eliminated off-road days entirely

30%

fall in total off-road days across the group

73%

reduction in claim numbers

45%

reduction in claim costs

12%

clients achieved zero claims

Source: NTI Risk Engineering Impact Review

Source: NTI Risk Appetite and Yellow Cover Benefits flyers

Owner-operators Trade industries (plumbers/builders/fencers) Crane fleet operators Earthmoving and excavation contractors Quarry operations Underground mining operators (hard rock) Plant hire industry Farming and agricultural operations Civil and road contractors Asphalt and paving contractors Landscaping industry Large mobile crane fleets (10+)

NTI Yellow Cover preferred appetite

Mobile Plant and Motor Vehicles

Preferred Exposures include:

Liability*

Preferred Exposures include:

Earthmoving Excavation Site preparation Land site clearing Trenching, drainage Pipe-laying (NOT gas) Quarry operations Plant hire and rental (dry hire) Road construction Demolition (<10m, non-CBD, incidental only) Drills (no blasting; CSG or oil/gas occupations) Directional drill (non-CBD)

*Only available if taken alongside Policy Product 1 (Mobile Plant & Motor Vehicles)

Risk engineering, trauma assistance, repair management, OEM-only parts protocols and claims advocacy: all of these services are built and managed internally. That’s a deliberate structural choice, and it has a practical effect on how NTI underwrites and on the confidence brokers can have when placing risks. “The expertise and experience we have in the mobile plant market is a true asset when it comes to customer satisfaction,” says Kidd. “When you’ve got that behind you, you’ve got the opportunity to freely underwrite exposures more collectively, knowing that you’re backed up. One of the main things in our industry is claims service. We have the industry recognition and accolades that attest to how we deliver the extraordinary, when it comes to claims.” NTI tracks its quote traffic, strike rates and retention rates closely, and Kidd describes all three as consistently strong. He attributes this directly to the service model. “Service is our differentiator; our people are committed to making extraordinary our ordinary. We can put ourselves in our customers shoes because many of our people have first-hand industry experience. We work hand in glove with our broker partners, and we don’t sit back on our laurels. That’s how NTI’s Yellow Cover has continued to be a leader for 10 years now,” Kidd says. A provider that keeps enhancing a product that’s already among the best in market, at no additional cost to clients, is one that understands what market leadership actually requires.

Why the in-house model matters

*Coverage is subject to the terms, conditions, limits, exclusions and endorsements of the relevant policy. Automatic benefits, extensions and services may be subject to eligibility criteria and underwriting acceptance. Any statements regarding claims response times, repair timeframes, productivity outcomes or comparative performance (including references to average time savings) are based on internal analysis or commissioned research and are indicative only. ©2026 NTI Limited ABN 84 000 746 109 AFSL 237246. This article contains general information only and you should obtain your own professional advice based on your personal and business circumstances. Furthermore, this article is not intended to constitute financial product advice, legal advice, risk management advice or any other professional advice. When making decisions about our insurance, consider the PDS and TMD at https://www.nti.com.au/. NTI bears no responsibility, and shall not be held liable, for any loss, damage or injury arising directly or indirectly from your use of or reliance on the information in this article.

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Terms & conditions

Glossary

People

Underwriters and Insurers

Specialisation

IB Markets

Catastrophe & Flood

Claims

Construction & Engineering

Cyber

Environmental

Hospitality

Legal Insights

Life & Health

Marine

Motor & Fleet

Non-Profits & Charities

Professional Risks

Property

SME

Transformation

Travel

Workers Compensation

Specialty

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E-mag

Editorial Panels

Events

Guides

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Insurance Companies

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