Tar sprayer cover
Tar sprayer insurance for bitumen sprayers and surface dressing lorries
Surface dressing sprayers, hot binder tankers and patching units. One short form reaches brokers who know road surfacing risks.
- Spray bar and lance units
- Council and highway contracts
- Single sprayer or fleet
Quick answer
Tar sprayer insurance is cover for a lorry that carries heated bitumen binder and sprays it onto road surfaces, usually during surface dressing or patching, together with the liability risks that come from that spraying work. The motor side protects the vehicle and other road users while it travels. Overspray onto cars and buildings, loose chippings, burns and fire are separate questions, and they are often answered by public liability (opens in a new tab) and employers' cover as much as by the lorry policy.
Tar sprayer cover at a glance
- Most sprayers do their real work at walking pace in a coned-off lane, which insurers treat as a separate exposure from the drive to site.
- A heated tank with burners brings a fire risk that ordinary tankers do not carry.
- Binder drifting onto parked vehicles, fences or shopfronts is often handled as a liability claim rather than a motor one.
- The spray bar, heating system and controls can be worth a large part of the whole vehicle.
- Contract work for councils and highway contractors often comes with set liability limits in the tender.
What tar sprayer insurance covers
A bitumen sprayer policy has to follow the lorry from the depot to the job, then through a shift spent spraying with traffic passing close by. These are the areas brokers tend to work through.
Types of bitumen sprayer and surface dressing lorry
Sprayers range from large rigid units on resurfacing schemes to small patching lorries working through a list of potholes. The table sets out the main kinds.
| Vehicle | Typical work | What insurers look at |
|---|---|---|
| Rigid surface dressing sprayer | Spraying binder across a full lane width ahead of a chip spreader | Value of the spray bar, heating system, crew training |
| Spray injection patching lorry | Blowing out and filling potholes and cracks with binder and stone | Number of stops in traffic, operatives on foot, compressor and hopper value |
| Tack coat or emulsion sprayer | Bonding coats laid ahead of a paving crew on resurfacing jobs | Overspray near homes and parked cars, overnight storage on site |
| Articulated bulk binder tanker | Supplying hot binder from a refinery or depot to sprayers and plants | Load temperature, dangerous goods declaration, distances run |
Tankers moving fuel, chemicals or food-grade liquids rather than road binder are covered on our tanker insurance page.
Spraying your own contracts or supplying others
Who owns the binder in the tank and whose contract the sprayer is working on both shape how the lorry is declared.
Your own surfacing work
A contractor carrying its own binder to jobs it has won usually insures the sprayer for carriage of own goods. See own goods cover.
Supplying sprayers or binder to others
Hiring a sprayer and driver to another contractor, or hauling bulk binder for a supplier, can be treated as hire and reward. It is a point for the broker, as the line varies between insurers.
Which class of use fits a sprayer hired out with its driver to another contractor?
- NoSocial, domestic and pleasureHas no place on a working sprayer lorry.
- NoCarriage of own goodsSuits your own binder on contracts your business holds, not work supplied to others.
- YesHire and rewardUsually the fit when your sprayer and binder are supplied on another firm's scheme for payment.
Hot binder and dangerous goods
Binder carried above a certain temperature can be classed as dangerous goods, which may mean marked vehicles and drivers with the matching training. Brokers usually want to know the binder types and how hot they are carried, so having those details to hand helps when you begin a tar sprayer quote (opens in a new tab).
What affects the price of tar sprayer insurance
Premiums reflect what happens around the lorry as much as the lorry itself.
On the job
Live lanes, road closures, narrow village streets lined with parked cars, and windy days that carry spray further than planned.
In the yard
Overnight storage of a tank that may still be warm, burner servicing, and security for valuable spray equipment.
- Binder type and temperatureEmulsions sprayed warm are viewed differently from binders that are heated much higher before use.
- Equipment valueA modern computer-controlled spray bar can push the insured value well above a standard tanker of the same size.
- Crew experienceDrivers and sprayer operators with a track record on surfacing work count in your favour.
- Where you workTrunk roads with traffic management, rural lanes and busy town centres each carry their own mix of risks.
- Claims historyPast overspray, windscreen and fire claims are weighed alongside ordinary motor claims.
- Number of vehiclesSprayers, chip spreader feeders and support lorries can sit together on HGV fleet insurance.
Cover that often sits alongside tar sprayer insurance
A surface dressing gang is a convoy of different vehicles and people. These covers fill the gaps a single sprayer policy may leave.
Before you buy
Questions brokers raise on tar sprayer cover
Sprayer policies tend to differ in how they treat heat, spray and the time spent working at the roadside. A broker can set out how each one is treated on the policies offered.
- Is fire from the heating system covered?Some insurers add conditions on burner use, servicing or leaving a heated tank unattended.
- Is the spray equipment valued separately?The bar, pumps and controls may need their own figure so a total loss is settled properly.
- Who pays for overspray damage?Cleaning binder off a row of cars can sit under motor or liability cover depending on the policy.
- Are windscreen claims from loose chippings included?Damage to passing vehicles after a dressing is often handled under liability, sometimes with an excess.
- What liability limit does the contract ask for?Council and highway tenders frequently state a minimum public liability figure.
- Is the lorry covered while working at low speed in a closure?Spraying behind traffic management is usually part of normal use, though policies differ.
- Who can drive and operate the sprayer?Named drivers, minimum ages and training for the spray controls vary between insurers.
- Is the sprayer declared for the right class of use?Your own contracts and work supplied to other firms may be declared differently.
How it works
How to get a tar sprayer insurance quote
HGV Insure is an information site, not an insurer or a broker. We link to MyMoneyComparison.com, a comparison service that can put surfacing contractors in touch with specialist brokers.
- 1
The quote form
Get my tar sprayer quote takes you to our partner, MyMoneyComparison.com.
- 2
Your sprayer and the work
The form asks about the lorry, its weight, your operator licence, if the lorry needs one, and who drives. The broker then follows up on the spray equipment, the binders used and the contracts you work on.
- 3
Options from a broker
A specialist broker gets in touch with options, subject to insurers' acceptance criteria. There is no obligation to buy.
FAQs
Tar sprayer insurance FAQs
What is tar sprayer insurance?
It is cover for a lorry fitted with a heated tank and spray equipment for laying bitumen binder on roads. It joins HGV motor cover for the vehicle with protection for the spray gear and, often alongside, liability cover for the spraying itself.
Is it still tar that these lorries spray?
The name has stuck, but the binders used on UK roads today are bitumen based, either hot binders or emulsions. Insurers are more interested in the binder type and the temperature it is carried at than in what the lorry is called.
Does my lorry policy cover overspray on parked cars?
Usually not on its own. Binder drifting onto vehicles or buildings during spraying is often treated as a working risk under public liability (opens in a new tab), which may need a working-risk extension, so the two policies are read together.
Who pays for cracked windscreens from loose chippings?
Claims from drivers whose vehicles are hit by loose stone after surface dressing are often made to the highway authority or the surfacing contractor, and where the contractor is responsible they usually fall to its liability cover. Whether they succeed depends on the circumstances, including warning signs and speed limits on the site.
Are burns to my crew covered?
Injuries to people you employ, such as burns from hot binder, normally fall under employers' liability (opens in a new tab), which most UK businesses with staff are required to hold.
Is a heated bitumen tanker treated as carrying dangerous goods?
It can be. Binder carried above a certain temperature may be classed as dangerous goods, which affects vehicle markings, driver training and what has to be declared to the insurer.
Can the chip spreader go on the same policy?
A self-propelled chip spreader is normally insured as plant rather than as a goods vehicle, with road risks cover added if it travels on public roads. Some brokers can arrange both through linked policies, while the tippers feeding it are usually added as lorries.
Do I need cover for the season only?
Surface dressing is largely done in the warmer months, but a sprayer laid up in the yard is still exposed to fire, theft and vandalism, so many operators keep at least that cover in place. Some insurers may reflect lower winter use, which brokers can discuss.
What licence does a tar sprayer driver need?
A rigid sprayer over 7.5 tonnes needs a category C licence, and an articulated binder tanker needs C+E. Insurers may also ask about training on the spray controls and, where hot binder is carried as dangerous goods, the driver's matching qualification.
Does HGV Insure sell tar sprayer insurance?
No. HGV Insure is an information site and an affiliate of MyMoneyComparison.com, which matches operators with specialist brokers. When you start a quote you continue to MyMoneyComparison.com, and we may be paid a small commission if you are matched with and speak to a broker.
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