The driver's licence decides more of these claims than the accident does.
Commercial motor claims are refused on paperwork far more often than on the facts of the collision: the licence, the permit, the fitness, the load.
In orderPeople first, then the police; tell the insurer before the vehicle is moved for repair; photograph the scene and the vehicle; check the driver's papers immediately; pull the vehicle's papers too; do not admit fault at the scene or to the other party; do not authorise repairs until the survey is done; treat the goods loss as a separate claim.
- People first, then the policeGet the injured to hospital. Then report to the police -- an FIR is expected in any accident involving injury, death or third-party damage, and its absence is noticed.Immediately
- Tell the insurer before the vehicle is moved for repairTowing to safety is fine. Delivering it to a workshop and starting work is not, until the surveyor has seen it.Same day
- Photograph the scene and the vehicleThe position of the vehicles before they are moved, the road, the damage from several angles, the registration plates, and the load.Before moving
- Check the driver's papers immediatelyLicence, and specifically whether it is valid for that class of vehicle and endorsed for a transport vehicle where required. Do this before you make any statement, because it is the first thing the insurer will examine.Day 1
- Pull the vehicle's papers tooRegistration, fitness certificate, permit for the route and the load, pollution certificate, and the goods documents. An expired fitness or a route outside the permit is a live defence for the insurer.Day 1
- Do not admit fault at the scene or to the other partyExchange details, cooperate with the police, say nothing about who caused it. Third-party liability is decided by a tribunal, not at the roadside.Throughout
- Do not authorise repairs until the survey is doneAnd keep the replaced parts. A workshop that has already fitted new parts and scrapped the old ones leaves nothing to assess.Before repair
- Treat the goods loss as a separate claimDamage to the cargo is a marine or transit claim, not a motor one, and it has its own intimation and its own carrier notice. Two claims, two files, two clocks.Day 1
Marine Cargo Claim
Goods damaged, short-landed or lost in transit by road, rail, sea or air.
Employee Injury Claim
An employee, contractor or site worker injured or killed at work.
Where it comes up most: Transport and Logistics. The letters that start it: Intimation of loss · Notice to the transporter or carrier.
Take this with you as a text file. It opens with no signal, prints on one page, and forwards to whoever is actually standing at the loss.
Vehicle already in a workshop and no survey done?
Whoever placed your policy, and whatever stage the claim has reached.
Commercial Vehicle Claim: What to Do, Claims Desk by RFS, https://claimsdesk.in/procedures/commercial-motor. Checked 13 September 2026.
Quote it, link to it, or reproduce it with the address attached. If you are writing about a claim and need the rule behind a line here, the desk will point you at the source: press and citation.
- Tell the insurer now, not after the assessment.
- Notice to anybody else responsible the carrier, the contractor, the police, within the time your policy sets.
- Every document within the time the insurer asks for it.