Your business is your lifeline, so you want to ensure your fleet is protected against any financial risks. When choosing your HGV fleet insurance provider, you want a policy that covers you for breakdowns, legal issues, public liability, goods in transit insurance and employer’s liability. You may be thinking that this sounds like a lot to manage, but there are ways to easily manage your insurance policies and keep the price down at the same time.
Implementing a protective maintenance plan is a smart way to drive down your insurance premiums whilst also minimising the financial risk to your business should the worst happen. To form your protection plan, there are a number of steps you can take.
Install Telematics
Telematics technology allows you to monitor information relating to your business fleet vehicles all from a remote central portal. You can access a manager web dashboard to give you a broad overview of any erratic driving, speeding, harsh braking or other dangerous road activity that could cause accident or injury.
This information can be used to improve driver training for best practice so that risk is minimised within your business fleet. This data can also be shared with insurance providers to demonstrate safety measures your business is taking which could lead to a reduction in your HGV fleet insurance premiums.
Introduce driver training courses
By establishing regular driver training courses, you can help reduce the risk of damage to your business vehicles whilst simultaneously lowering your insurance premiums. Drivers who feel confident and skilled-up on their driving ability will be much safer on the roads.
This will not only benefit your business efficiency but reduce potential risk of accidents and claims against your insurance policy. Prioritising driver training will also encourage a company culture of good driver behaviour and encourage high-calibre employees to remain loyal to your business.
Improve security measures
To protect your business from the financial implications of having a vehicle stolen or vandalised, you can make sure they are parked overnight in a secure location. The cost to you would be severe if one or several of your vehicles were stolen, so having a CCTV monitored car park or locked garages will lower the financial risk to you considerably.
You can also install immobilisers inside your vehicles to further reduce the risk of them being broken into and stolen. These security measures will lower your insurance premiums as well as giving you peace of mind.
Make use of dash cams
Dash cams can be fitted to the front and rear of fleet vehicles to record footage from all angles in the event of a road collision. This provides invaluable evidence in the event of claiming against your policy or any possible legal disputes. Not only this, but installing dash cams across your fleet can lower insurance premiums right from the offset.
Using dash cams won’t just keep your business financially secure in the event of an accident, but will also save you pennies in the long run.
Take on more experienced drivers
Employing experienced drivers with clean driving records over the age of 25 can reduce the cost of haulier’s liability insurance for businesses in the UK. Drivers in the over 25 age bracket are considered to be more experienced on the road and therefore safer behind the wheel. Although, this doesn’t mean that hiring younger drivers is out of the question. You can implement measures such as, limiting their mileage or allowing them to only drive accompanied or during day light hours.
All of these things will not only lower the risk of potential costly accidents, but can also lower your fleet insurance premiums.
Maintain regular vehicle maintenance
Keep your vehicles in tip-top condition to reduce the risk of a blown-out tyre or engine fault which could impact your business activity. Having a vehicle stuck in the garage for several days awaiting a major repair is less than ideal, especially when regular maintenance could prevent this from happening altogether. Having a full MOT and service history for your fleet can evidence that you are taking the proper measures to lower risks for insurance providers as well. This can lower the cost of your premiums, whilst also protecting your business from an unexpected mechanics bill.
Getting adequate cover
Another way to protect your business finances is to make sure you are adequately insured. Getting fleet insurance will enable cover on multiple business vehicles under one policy to keep things simple as well as secure. There are multiple layers of cover that you can add on to your policy to make sure you are covered for every scenario. Employer’s liability is compulsory in the UK in the event of an employee becoming injured as a result of their work. This will cover any legal fees, compensations costs including loss of income as well as any medical fees. Skipping out on this would not only leave your business finances vulnerable should the worst happen, but could also land you with some hefty fines so it is essential to make sure this is sorted.
Public liability is an important add on to minimise risk to your business, especially for those working with heavy machinery in the event of causing injury to a member of the public or their property. It will cover medical costs, legal fees and any damage repair costs which would quickly mount up without appropriate cover.
Another add on is goods in transit cover, especially for those business transporting goods for other companies such as, courier service fleets. Should a roadside accident occur and goods become damaged or broken, this will cover the cost of replacing goods. Without goods in transit insurance, replacing a truck-load of goods could be very costly and leave you out of pocket, so it may be worthwhile adding to your policy.
There are many measures you can put in place to minimise financial risks to your fleet business within a protective maintenance plan. Insurance providers reward businesses that use risk management strategies, so don’t miss out on potential savings for your business.
These 7 measures are key to keeping your business fleet financially secure.
