Guide to Business Insurance (Series) – Fleet Insurance

Whether your business owns two vehicles or multiple, it can be extremely time consuming and expensive to manage a fleet of vehicles. Certainly one of your biggest expenses in running a fleet of vehicles is insurance, and arranging cover for multiple vehicles at different times throughout the year can become a full-time job. Meet Fleet Insurance, a policy that will make your life in fleet management that little bit easier.

So, what does Fleet Insurance do for me?

Essentially, it’s one policy from a single insurer that covers multiple vehicles and drivers. There’s no limit to the amount of vehicles that the policy can cover however, you certainly will need a minimum of two. It’s important to note though, the majority of insurers require a minimum of three vehicles. Your fleet can be worth millions to a few thousand pounds, it makes sound business-sense to take out a fleet insurance policy as you’ll remove the time in managing multiple policies and you can be safe in the knowledge that you will not have to worry if the person driving is a named driver on your policy.

Additional benefits provided by Fleet Insurance

1. ‘Any Vehicle’ – whilst having fleet insurance covers multiple vehicles, you’ll still need to inform your insurance provider when you purchase a new vehicle for the business. Without doing this, effectively the vehicle won’t be covered. Obviously with this option, any vehicle as defined in your policy terms will be covered.
2. ‘Any Driver’ – for extra flexibility, you can cover any driver from a certain age range. Obviously the younger you specify, the higher the risk, however you can allow any driver employed in the business from aged 18 to drive a business’s vehicle.

What are the different types of Fleet Insurance?

Generally most businesses will be covered with standard fleet insurance, however there are exceptions and this list is not exhaustive.

1. If you run a taxi fleet or a hire business, you will need either public or private hire insurance
2. If your business fleet carries goods, then you will need to ensure extra cover is added to the Fleet policy to cover tools or company products being transported
3. If you offer long distance hire and reward services, then you will need Haulage insurance
4. If you are a local courier, then you’ll need courier insurance.

Ultimately, it’s important you discuss your needs with a specialist insurance broker to ensure you receive the right cover.

Important to note

Alterations can be easily made to your policy so don’t forget to keep your fleet insurance provider up-to-date with new vehicles or drivers. In addition, whilst fleet insurance may prove cheaper and will add convenience, it’s still important to reduce risk as much as possible. For example, when purchasing vehicles for business-use, consider vehicles that are not excessive (i.e. sports-related) and look to add things like alarms and immobilisers, vehicle trackers, camera’s, etc.

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