You may think that you have to settle for the first offer you come across in the insurance coverage area, but that is not the case. No matter how dire your situation, the insurance costs are never outside your sphere of control – you can do much to bring down the premium.
For one, you could look for a cheaper insurance package, but even with your current insurance provider, there’s a lot you can do to bring down the premium rates. Insurance premiums are affected by several factors, and you have control over some of them; and you can also manage your way through the select few that are beyond your control.
With the spike in insurance costs and ever-expensive premiums, it is important to know how you can secure the most favorable deal for your business.
This article will help you do just that!
Here are some important considerations to help you get the most competitive fleet insurance premium for your startup:
Table of Contents
#1) Understand The Importance Of Your Fleet’s Claims Performance
Hopefully, you understand well enough things like “what is fleet insurance,” so we’ll dive straight into this one. Your first step, if you’re already bound by a commitment to an insurance provider, should be to check out your claims performance.
How can you do that?
Simply call your insurance provider and ask them to give you a copy of your claims experience form that details all aspects of your fleet’s insurance performance, such as:
- The overall performance of your fleet over the past three years
- The level of exposure during this whole time
- The claims frequency of your business, i.e., how often you submitted a claim
- The costs you’ve paid so far
- The amount to be paid in the future
This data is based on the size of your fleet.
If you want to get a quote from another insurance provider, getting your hands on the insurance claims experience report would be step one. But hold your horses, don’t go galloping away from your current deal just yet. Your insurer also knows this much, and when you ask for the form, they’ll be willing to negotiate things; you might end up getting a much fairer deal from your current insurance provider.
Of course, that’s not to say that you should not explore other options, even if for the sake of comparison.
#2) See How Things Will Be For Your Insurance Provider
Profit and loss analysis is the basic deciding factor for any number of financial discussions, and setting your insurance premium is no different. You need to see if your proposed cut makes economic sense for the insurer. Will they lose money if you slash down the premium?
First, understand your position and see how much do you need to bring down the premium, i.e., the necessary cuts you need to make. Then you need to negotiate things with your insurer and see how much profit they’re making from your coverage deal.
Based on the information you get, you’ll be able to assess whether your demands are reasonable or not. If the insurance provider continues to make a profit despite the cut, then you’re golden. Usually, 72.5% is the break-even point for insurers which means that if they cover the costs any more than this, it will be a loss – but this break-even level is different for everyone.
In the end, the more you know, the better you’ll be able to negotiate.
#3) Reconsider Your Cover
Do you absolutely need everything covered? Use data and past records to make a judgment here – you should only be paying for the cover you need. There are two options: fully comprehensive coverage and third-party cover; both cost almost the same, the difference is meager.
You should also reconsider stuff like having a cover for your windscreen – have there been any claims for it in the past, and were the costs high? See how much you can save (if you can) by eliminating certain aspects of your cover, but of course, you can’t do away with those segments which have a higher claims frequency and cost more.
Also, see if you can get a better deal from a repair service other than the one brokered by your insurer.
#4) Location Matters
It is best if your vehicles are situated somewhere other than the city center, but if you’re based there, then go through the locations of your drivers. Maybe your workforce is not based in the center and if that is the case, be sure you tell your insurer so.
Provide the details of your drivers, alongside their postcodes, to the insurer, for their reference.
Smartly assess the information you want to share and the parts you want to skip, but if the insurer asks for something, you’ll have to tell them truthfully about the same.
#5) Track The Performance Record Of Your Drivers
If your drivers have had trouble with the law in the past, it will be a factor. But make sure you go through the nature of convictions, if there were any, to see whether your driver made an error in assessing the situation or were they prone to negligence.
The latter will be more troublesome for you.
Also, note that the claims for female drivers usually have smaller claims, and thus having females on board will lower the costs. Lastly, explore the age policy of your insurer to see if you can expect some flexibility for over-aged drivers in your crew.
Bottom Line
The idea that feet insurance has to be overly expensive and that there is no cheaper alternative for you simply because there was an accident a couple of years back, and even though you’ve done much to change things in your safety protocol, is just not right. Fleet insurance, as with all other forms of insurance coverage, is variable, and your premium will depend, more or less, on how well you manage things in your business. If you’ve gone the extra mile to ensure safety for your fleet cars and trained your drivers to be extra vigilant about all the things that matter, then you should not be forced to pay any more than you have to. Hopefully, this article will help you get the most competitive insurance premium for your business and allow you to save up funds for business growth and expansion.
