For a business that operates a fleet of vehicles, keeping them running smoothly on a day-to-day basis could be of paramount importance. Also crucial is typically a good insurance policy that helps ensure problems could be taken care of promptly.
Motor fleet insurance allows a business to buy insurance coverage for all vehicles in the fleet with one single policy. This allows the business to benefit from a bulk discount, and makes insurance for a large fleet easier to handle. These policies are specifically designed to be simple, flexible, and tailor-made to a business’s specifications, thus reducing the administrative burden that insurance may place on a business. Motor fleet insurance could cover fleets of all sizes, from three vehicles to hundreds or thousands.
Levels of Coverage
A wide variety of businesses including public & private taxis, couriers, and hauliers could benefit from motor fleet insurance. UK law requires that all vehicles have third party insurance, at a minimum, but additional levels of coverage might often be necessary to properly protect the vehicles in the fleet, and protect the business from associated liability.
Although third party insurance is the minimum required by law, some motor fleet insurers may actually decline to provide this level of insurance for a fleet. Instead, they may provide comprehensive insurance as the standard form of coverage. These insurers typically only offer third party coverage alone for vehicles that are special or limited use, such as construction vehicles. When motor fleet insurers do offer third party insurance choosing this option may result in lower premiums, but when an entire fleet of vehicles is involved this may come at the cost of a significant amount of insurance protection.
Typical exclusions for motor fleet insurance could include theft of an unattended vehicle, theft by deception, mechanical breakdowns, and tyre replacements.
Apart from the structure of the motor fleet policy, one of the main ways they differ from other kinds of car insurance is the lack of a no-claims discount. This is because for very large fleets, the likelihood of maintaining a zero-claims record is usually low. Instead, insurers operate an alternative claims costs system where the total cost of claims is tallied over a fixed period of time. The premium is adjusted depending on the total value of claims, with a lower total value earning a higher discount.