05/12/2022
5 minutes with Rachael Rodden
With several years working in insurance claims under her belt, Rachael Rodden joined the One Broker Ambulance team in late 2019. In this article, she reflects on her insurance career to date – and her daring jump out of a plane to raise money for the team’s chosen charity.
Building relationships
Rachael has been with the One Broker Ambulance team since 2019, having initially joined the Group’s Claims department on a maternity cover contract in 2018.
“Before moving to Norfolk [from Scotland], I worked in motor claims for an insurer for around 4 years,” she explains.
“I’ve never worked for a broker before and I really enjoy it; it’s interesting and fast-paced. It’s also a lot more personal. While I enjoyed working in motor claims, we only ever spoke to people when something had gone wrong – once claims were resolved, that would be it. In this role, I get to build lasting relationships with my clients.”
Her day-to-day responsibilities certainly support that desire to build relationships. She helps with enquiries, renewals and mid-term adjustments, while also adding and removing ambulances from client insurance policies when required.
Rachael comments: “The One Broker Ambulance team has received positive feedback about the fact that clients have a single point of contact for their insurance. They don’t have to explain themselves every time they call. We know what’s going on with them and they don’t have to repeat themselves. I know my clients so well that most of them don’t need to introduce themselves on the phone!
“My claims experience is a real benefit when I speak to clients,” she adds. “It helps me to describe policies and risks. I can think of examples to illustrate what I mean, so they understand what’s covered and what’s not and it makes more sense to them. I would have found broking hard without that experience.”
She points out that the team’s collective experience is also vital to building insurer relationships.
“The ambulance sector is really niche so it doesn’t have many options for insurance,” she explains. “Insurers generally aren’t keen on blue light, 999 and frontline activity because they imagine ambulances racing around on every journey, but we know that’s not the case.
“Most of the time, not even half their activity involves blue lights. They might only use them one way because, when they get to an incident, they discover it’s not critical; they don’t need blue lights on the way back.
“We have worked closely with insurers to explain this, so we can reduce the perceived risk and the cost of insurance.”
Read more: 3 Considerations for Private Ambulance Companies Tendering for NHS Contracts
Critical Covid Support
When the pandemic hit, things changed dramatically. “Coronavirus had a huge impact on ambulance companies, especially on the event support side of things,” says Rachael. “Not everyone was able to fill the gaps in their business.”
She goes on to explain that cost savings are one of the key benefits of working with One Broker Ambulance. In fact, the team went one step further to help ambulance firms in 2020.
“Lots of clients’ turnovers reduced as a result of Covid-19. That meant they tended to have a lower liability risk, which may have reduced their premiums and helped them save money. We offered this advice and explained how to make the saving.”
She also adds that One Broker proactively worked with insurance companies from the start of the pandemic to help its clients make additional savings.
She says: “Some ambulance companies had large ambulance fleets that were then registered as being off the road. In these cases, we adjusted their policies so they only had laid-up cover.
“We also worked with insurers to secure a good rate for laid-up vehicles so that they were covered for theft and fire while off the road. This helped ambulance companies to save money on their premiums. We worked hard to communicate that to clients who highlighted financial issues, so we could help them get through the pandemic.
“It also meant that they didn’t have to cancel their policies. Now that they are back out on the road, we have returned their policies to fully comprehensive cover, so they didn’t have to go through the process of finding a new policy.”
She adds, laughing: “We always do as much as we can to help, except pay their premiums!”
Throwing herself into fundraising
When One Broker Ambulance chose The Ambulance Staff Charity (TASC) as their Charity Of The Year, Rachael was keen to add to the fundraising total.
She therefore decided to combine a long-held ambition with a money-raising attempt. “I’ve always wanted to try a skydive!” exclaims Rachael. “This enabled me to cross something off my bucket list while also raising money for a fantastic cause.”
And so, on the auspicious date of Friday 13th May, Rachael took a brave leap from a plane. She landed safely and raised a fantastic total of £710 for the charity, beating her original fundraising goal.
Since then, Rachael has opted for less high-octane fundraising attempts. In October 2022, she contributed to the Halloween One Broker bake sale, earning a runners-up prize for her magnificent Mummy Brownies.
Get in touch
Want to know how Rachael and the One Broker Ambulance team can help your business? Don’t hesitate to get in touch on 01603 218222.
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