What Is Fleet Insurance?
Motor Fleet insurance is a product designed to allow you to insure multiple vehicles under one insurance policy. The majority of insurers in the UK market will offer this product if you are looking to insure 3 or more vehicles, with no upper limit giving businesses the room to grow their fleet of vehicles in line with the growth of their business.
The product does also allow for different vehicle types to be insured on the same policy whilst used for commercial purposes. There are different types of fleet insurance available depending on your business type. From own goods, to the carriage of goods for hire and reward to perhaps the carriage of passengers for hire and reward, there are many policy types available to suit various industries.
Perhaps the most attractive element of a fleet policy is the ease it gives the consumer with policy administration. Everything is held under one easy to administer policy which avoids the need to manage multiple renewal dates, freeing you up to concentrate on what is important, running your business. The key benefits of a fleet insurance policy are laid out below.
Benefits of Fleet insurance
• Any driver declaration – In the main, fleet policies are issued on an any driver aged 21, 25 or 30+ basis, as long as that driver meets the specific UK licence requirements, which is usually a minimum of 2 years. This saves on the administration required on your vehicle insurance policies, negating the need to add, remove or change drivers to meet the business needs.
• On hire/ Off hire vehicles with ease – Add and remove vehicles as you wish. Whether you are growing your fleet and putting another vehicle on the road, swapping an old vehicle for a new one or simply taking a vehicle off the road. This can all be done quickly and without the need to take out additional policies or cancel existing ones (a minimum of 3 vehicles is required).
• Insure multiple vehicle types – We touched on it above, but fleet insurance allows for multiple vehicle types to be insured on one policy to save speaking to multiple insurers. From cars, to vans, to trucks to pickups.
Commercial vehicle insurance
Commercial vehicle insurance covers your vehicle if it is being used in connection with your business. Whether you are transporting goods as a tradesman, carrying goods for transport purposes, or delivering goods to customers, commercial vehicle insurance will ensure you have the right cover in place in connection with your business.
You need commercial vehicle insurance if you; –
• Transport goods or equipment
•Transport clients or employees.
• Perform a service that you’re paid for.
• Charge passengers a fee to ride in your vehicle.
• Charge people a fee to transport goods in your vehicle.
• Haul heavy, work-related loads.
• Tow a trailer used for business.
Benefits of Commercial vehicle insurance
• You can usually cover selected employees as additional drivers, so employees with a valid license can use the company vehicles.
• Take out additional insurance policies as your business grows so you can put more vehicles on the road.
• Ensure you are covering your vehicle correctly, to meet the requirements of the law in connection with using your vehicles for your business.
Assessing your insurance risk
The underwriting process of insurance policies differs depending on the policy type. While individual commercial vehicle insurance typically uses a traditional system driven actuarial approach, fleet insurance requires a more intensive underwriting process. While with individual vehicle insurance cover you are rewarded with no claims discount for claim free driving, fleet insurance is different.
Fleet insurance is rated using the performance numbers of the Fleet Claims Experience document, which will tell an underwriter how the fleet insurance policy has performed with respect to claims performance. Therefore, the management of your fleet insurance policy is vitally important to obtaining competitive insurance premiums. Below we look at several ways you can manage your fleet insurance effectively, to keep claims costs to a minimum.
Employee management;
Checking employee driving licences, appropriate driver training and provision of driver handbooks all aid fleet efficiency and safety, resulting in a better quality of driver.
Telematics;
Using telematics and on-board computers to collect and transmit driver and vehicle data has many benefits. It displays driver behaviour, and helps you manage your drivers effectively to get the most out of your vehicles and curb bad driving habits. It also aids in the recovery of vehicles if the worst was to happen in the event of a theft claim.
Cameras;
Front and rear facing cameras are a growing technology within the insurance industry. The footage is vital to the settlement of claims, helping insurers identify almost instantly where the liability for a claim will fall. The footage is also immensely important in keeping claims costs to a minimum, helping insurers act quickly to in terms of third party liability, vehicle repair and credit hire.
Why use BCD for your Fleet Insurance?
When it comes to Fleet (and other business) insurance, we have years of expertise, so you can be confident of getting the best advice to suit your business needs, individually tailored to your requirements. We pride ourselves in taking time to really understand your business needs and consider all the variables involved. Without specialist knowledge you may not be fully covered for your business needs. Our business is built around high-quality service and ensuring that we are talking to all markets and a range of underwriters, with a detailed understanding of each product’s USPs and restrictions.
We specialise in road transport, courier and construction vehicles; however, we also provide specific products and prices for many other industries. Whether you operate vans, cars or HGVs we can cater for most vehicle types and we have no limitations on the number of vehicles covered. Plus, we automatically insure your drivers within the agreed policy driving restriction, giving you flexibility on who drives your vehicles.