Business Fleet Insurance: Do you have a protective maintenance plan?

If you are an expanding business looking to insure your fleet of vehicles, you’ll want to make sure you’re getting the best price. Business fleet insurance is legally required in order to protect your business and your truck fleet. That being said, there are certain things you can do as a business to keep the costs of your insurance policy down when looking into commercial vehicle insurance companies.

One way you can manage costs for your truck insurance is by implementing a protective maintenance plan for your fleet. This helps to minimise the risk of costly accidents which is not only beneficial to your business budget, but it also can lower the cost of your insurance.

As some of our top tips, we’ve put together a guide of things you to form your own protective maintenance plan to help keep costs down in the long term.

Invest in telematics

Telematics is technology that helps you to monitor information relating to your vehicles. They allow you to monitor driver behaviour across your whole truck fleet and manage it from a remote central portal. At your fingertips you can have access to a manager web dashboard which gives you a birds-eye-view of any erratic driving, speeding, harsh braking or any behaviour that could lead to an accident or injury.

This data can be used to improve driver training for best practice, so that the risk is lowered. Not only will this improve the safety of your employees on the road and save you money, but the data can be shared with insurance providers to demonstrate safety and good behaviour which could lead to a reduction in insurance costs.

Besides this, all employers have a duty-of-care under Health and Safety legislation of managing work-related road safety and telematics gives you the platform to be able to manage this effectively. Worryingly, a recent survey showed 47% of business owners don’t monitor employees on the road and 68% were unaware they needed to change their insurance to cover business use. Being in the know can not only save you pennies, but also protect you from any legal implications.

Utilise GPS vehicle tracking

This is a brilliant tool in time management, both for your fleet and your drivers. It optimises the quickest, traffic-free routes to take which minimises wasted time idling and allows drivers to squeeze more into a day. Trips are shorter which not only saves you fuel costs, but also can provide more time-efficient workforce and can give you the option to avoid busy traffic routes where accidents are more likely. Not only that, but when employees know they are being tracked they eliminate unnecessary stops and work more responsibly.

GPS tracking reports changing traffic conditions in real-time, including road closures, accidents, bottlenecks and traffic jams. Another benefit is the ability to track a lost driver, pin-pointing the vehicle’s exact location and enabling you to send routing information straight to your driver’s phone. This eases the stress off for your employees, which can encourage them to drive safely.

Encourage driver training courses

establishing regular training courses for your drivers, can help to improve road safety and lower the risk of vehicle damage. In turn, this can help to reduce insurance claims and therefore, your insurance premiums.

Not only that, but it can encourage high-calibre employees that remain loyal to the company and build up good driver behaviour in the long term. In addition, it can help to reduce fuel consumption too!

Manage regular vehicle maintenance

It’s recommended to regularly check tyre pressure, brake pads and oil levels for your truck fleet as well as keeping a regular service record to keep them in tip-top condition. This reduces the risk of a blown-out tyre or engine fault that could cause an accident or take a truck off the road, which could impact business activity.

Having a full service and MOT history, can help keep your vehicle’s in good condition, enabling you to reduce any risk of accidents. With your truck fleet has a good reputation through maintenance, you can keep the cost of your truck insurance premiums down for longer.

Invest in security options

You can also reduce your truck insurance costs by parking them in a secured location. If you have a CCTV monitored car park and/or locked garages to store them in then this will help save you money on your premiums. You can also install immobilisers inside vehicles which will reduce the risk of them being broken into and stolen. Any of these measures can lower fleet insurance costs, whilst giving you peace of mind.

Hire more experienced drivers

Employing drivers with clean driving records who are over the age of 25 can reduce the cost of truck insurance in the UK. They are generally considered to be more experienced driving vehicles and safer on the roads.

However, this doesn’t mean hiring young drivers isn’t out of the question. Putting measures in place to only allow them to drive accompanied or during the day, as well as limiting their mileage could help to reduce costs. Plus, as previously mentioned, with a good driver training programme in place, you can encourage good driver behaviour from the start which always helps to keep your fleet insurance costs down.

Install dash cams

Dash cams are excellent tools for recording all road activity day to day. These can be fitted in the front and rear of vehicles, allowing recorded footage from all sides in the event of an accident or collision. These are useful for providing evidence if there is an incident on the road which is especially important in the event of any legal disputes.

With dash cams fitted on every vehicle within your fleet, it can not only be used as proof to insurers in the event of a claim but can reduce insurance premiums on the outset.

When you’re looking to reduce the cost of your truck insurance, a protective maintenance plan for your fleet can be really beneficial. These 8 tips can really help you to reduce risk and keep costs down for longer whilst also improving the efficiency of your business and increase customer satisfaction.

If you’re looking for truck insurance for your fleet, please do not hesitate to get in touch today. Give us a call on 0333 577 0331 or contact us.