If you are looking to cover a range of vehicles owned by the same corporate body, you can do this with a fleet policy. Most corporate entities that do this are business, services or a local government. Occasionally, families with several vehicles may have a private fleet, but these are usually for a small number of vehicles and will be considered the same as a private car policy, so they will not be discussed here.
A fleet insurance policy is a policy that is designed to by as flexible as possible, to meet the driving needs of a business as a whole. This means providing cover for various drivers, various kinds of vehicles and various applications.
As an example: a company may have a sales force, a delivery force, and maintenance or service personnel who will all need different types of vehicles.
Claim Free Bonus
On a fleet insurance policy, your no claims discount works in a different way to your private car. Firstly, it is generally known as “claims experience”. This is because a large enough fleet will have at least one vehicle involved in an accident every year, so the overall “experience” or “history”, across all the vehicles in the fleet, is taken into account for a “no claims discount”.
What about drivers?
Fleet policies are flexible, so there will be a variety of different options for drivers, such as:
* Any driver over 25 * Any driver over 30 * Any driver, any age * Named drivers only
It is worth noting that the category – any driver, any age – needs a little clarification. The category does not give carte blanche to put any Tom, Dick or Harry onto the policy, and there are usually several caveats. To use a company vehicle on this basis a driver must have a clean licence, a claim free driving history and no disabilities or illnesses that would affect their driving.
Fleet Management
One of the major differences between running a fleet and a personal car is the issue of management, which ties in with insurance.
It is not uncommon and very easy to see why drivers with a few claims and points on their licence, may not be completely honest about their driving history. To them it could mean the difference between being employed or unemployed. To counter this, it is necessary to have a driver policy which sets out the rules for company drivers. This usually entails taking copies of each driver’s licence at regular intervals, say every 6 months, as in the event of an accident, this is the sort if information an insurer will want to check up on.
But that’s not all. If an employee is hurt in a road traffic accident whilst on company business, the company may be liable if they have not met their own responsibilities under Employment Law. This means the company must be able to show they have met their duty of care towards their employees by checking vehicles used on company business are safe and roadworthy. This applies to any vehicle used on company business, regardless of who the vehicle actually belongs to. So another policy for vehicles is also required, showing evidence of regular maintenance and safety checks.
M Withers works as Marketing Manager for Coversure Insurance. For help or advice about commercial vehicle insurance, or fleet insurance visit Coversure’s site where there is a comprehensive FAQ section.