Knowledge Centre
Van and Business Car Insurance Podcast
28th June 2007 Duration: 6m 46s File size: 3.1MBAn overview on the best way to go about insuring your business vehicles, the difference between van and fleet policies, and guidance on what to do in the event of a motor accident.
The MORE TH>N BUSINESS Podcast with Toby Langford.
Today - On the road - Insuring your Company Vehicles. Even the white vans!
Toby Langford – MORE TH>N BUSINESS: White van drivers have had quite a hard time over the last ten years or so – I notice that they’ve been fighting back recently in the news and saying how sensitive they are and I’m sure that’s our experience as well!
Jane Markham - Podcats: Whatever the colour of your vans and cars most businesses will need transport of some kind and today portfolio underwriter Toby Langford is here to map out the best way to go about insuring your company’s vehicles
Toby: If you’ve got what you might call a small fleet of vehicles - which might be three vans, four cars, you know, as many as perhaps 10 vehicles where you’ve got vans and cars and nothing unusual, then you may well be able to arrange it in exactly the same way as you do with your private car - where you have ‘no claims’ discount and you can add vehicles and take them away, as you would under your home policy.
You can save money by saying, I’m a small business I’ve got my business car which you use (which might be a BMW or something like that) and because that’s my most valuable vehicle actually I’m the only one who drives it so I can save money by saying ‘just me to drive that vehicle’. But you may have a few employees and you may have a van and you want all your employees to drive the van and actually if you hire someone tomorrow who is over 25 and they’ve got no claims, no convictions and you want them to drive the van then you can have it on that open basis so you can have that flexibility as well. So if you want to save money - name people on specific vehicles - but if you want to have flexibility, just have open driving. Jane: You don’t load the insurance on white vans do you?! Toby: No - absolutely not! (laughs) The colour of the vehicle, as far as we know, doesn’t influence anything! White van drivers have had quite a hard time over the last ten years or so – I notice that they’ve been fighting back recently in the news and saying how sensitive they are and I’m sure that’s our experience as well! Jane: But are people as careful driving a company vehicle as they would be in their own pride and joy? Toby: I think different people’s attitudes to risks vary. And this is what we take into account with the ‘no claims’ discount. Ideally I think you would want to be briefing people on what’s expected and this should be part of your standard company policy really. It’s not really acceptable for people to disregard company property.
Usually when we’re talking about vans we’re talking about vehicles up to 3 and a half tons so actually you’re talking about some fairly large vehicles (even though we’re not talking about 38 tonners) you’d want to make sure that the person who’s driving it has a responsible attitude and actually knows how to drive a large van. Jane: What does an insurance company need to know about your employees? Toby: You should let the insurance company know about all convictions that people have. You should also be aware of whether they’ve been involved in any accidents and you should let the insurance company know about that. We’d be particularly interested in any accidents that have occurred under your policy and particularly under the company policy. Jane: It might make a difference to the amount of money you pay on your insurance if somebody has convictions? Toby: If you’re recruiting somebody you should make sure that you know about their convictions at that stage. Jane: If you’ve got a lot of cars you can insure your cars as a fleet. So what’s the difference between insuring a fleet and a straightforward business car policy? Toby: The main difference is that you will earn ‘no claims’ discount on a typical van or business car policy and that ‘no claims’ discount is earned on individual vehicles. Now - it may well be that if you sell a vehicle to buy another vehicle you can transfer it across – that’s what we term a substitution of vehicle. When you come to fleets, then they are done differently and it’s a much more open relationship where it’s expected that you will have more vehicles and more different types of vehicle. The way that it’s rated is that it’s rated on the claims experience of that fleet. You may well have something like quarterly or annual declarations where you declare changes of vehicle. So your fleet policy is for larger numbers of vehicles and a wider variety of vehicles. Jane: But accidents happen – that’s why you have insurance - but do your staff have anything extra to think about if they’re involved in an accident in a company car? Toby: You shouldn’t really have to think differently at all, no. You would have the same kind of documents that you’d expect to have when you’re driving your own private car and ideally the person who is driving the vehicle will have access to those documents. They will have a copy of the emergency numbers - there’s a 24 emergency line – they’ll have all those numbers. And you would do what you would normally do in the event of an accident. Jane: After and accident – what to do: Toby: The number one thing is don’t accept responsibility or blame, and I think this is something that’s a very easy mistake to make, to say – ‘oh I’m sorry that was my fault’. And it’s really counterintuitive but what insurance companies urge people to do is not to accept blame.
You mustn’t drive away – if anybody has been hurt or if there has been any damaged caused you absolutely mustn’t leave the scene.
You need to get names and addresses of other drivers and any witnesses as well.
You should ask anybody else who’s been involved in the accident – you should ask them for either a certificate number or a policy number and make sure you get their registration.
You should write down what time the incident took place. You should make a note of the weather conditions and the state of the road at the time – it’s amazing how much stuff actually that you need to do.
If you can, sketch each of the vehicles’ positions – because these are the kind of things that - you know, there may be a court case later arising from this. Mark the positions of road signs, obstructions, streetlights, skid marks and any debris. So you’ve got your sketch – you know, there’s a lot to do but if you do all this it will make life easier later on. Jane: If you’ve just had an accident and you’re shocked and shaky it’s worth reiterating these things even though they are all things we probably know we should do. Toby: The strange thing that its one of those situation where you may well actually find yourself sitting around for a long time doing nothing but worrying because you’re waiting for emergency services or you’re waiting for your breakdown service or whatever. You may well find yourself sitting there doing nothing and if you do happen to have a pen and paper with you these are some of the things you could do. There other thing is that you should contact your insurers as well. For more information about insuring business vans and cars go to www.morethanbusiness.com
And I hope you’ll join us for the next podcast in this series.
I’m Jane Markham and this is a Podcats production for MORE TH>N BUSINESS.
You can save money by saying, I’m a small business I’ve got my business car which you use (which might be a BMW or something like that) and because that’s my most valuable vehicle actually I’m the only one who drives it so I can save money by saying ‘just me to drive that vehicle’. But you may have a few employees and you may have a van and you want all your employees to drive the van and actually if you hire someone tomorrow who is over 25 and they’ve got no claims, no convictions and you want them to drive the van then you can have it on that open basis so you can have that flexibility as well. So if you want to save money - name people on specific vehicles - but if you want to have flexibility, just have open driving. Jane: You don’t load the insurance on white vans do you?! Toby: No - absolutely not! (laughs) The colour of the vehicle, as far as we know, doesn’t influence anything! White van drivers have had quite a hard time over the last ten years or so – I notice that they’ve been fighting back recently in the news and saying how sensitive they are and I’m sure that’s our experience as well! Jane: But are people as careful driving a company vehicle as they would be in their own pride and joy? Toby: I think different people’s attitudes to risks vary. And this is what we take into account with the ‘no claims’ discount. Ideally I think you would want to be briefing people on what’s expected and this should be part of your standard company policy really. It’s not really acceptable for people to disregard company property.
Usually when we’re talking about vans we’re talking about vehicles up to 3 and a half tons so actually you’re talking about some fairly large vehicles (even though we’re not talking about 38 tonners) you’d want to make sure that the person who’s driving it has a responsible attitude and actually knows how to drive a large van. Jane: What does an insurance company need to know about your employees? Toby: You should let the insurance company know about all convictions that people have. You should also be aware of whether they’ve been involved in any accidents and you should let the insurance company know about that. We’d be particularly interested in any accidents that have occurred under your policy and particularly under the company policy. Jane: It might make a difference to the amount of money you pay on your insurance if somebody has convictions? Toby: If you’re recruiting somebody you should make sure that you know about their convictions at that stage. Jane: If you’ve got a lot of cars you can insure your cars as a fleet. So what’s the difference between insuring a fleet and a straightforward business car policy? Toby: The main difference is that you will earn ‘no claims’ discount on a typical van or business car policy and that ‘no claims’ discount is earned on individual vehicles. Now - it may well be that if you sell a vehicle to buy another vehicle you can transfer it across – that’s what we term a substitution of vehicle. When you come to fleets, then they are done differently and it’s a much more open relationship where it’s expected that you will have more vehicles and more different types of vehicle. The way that it’s rated is that it’s rated on the claims experience of that fleet. You may well have something like quarterly or annual declarations where you declare changes of vehicle. So your fleet policy is for larger numbers of vehicles and a wider variety of vehicles. Jane: But accidents happen – that’s why you have insurance - but do your staff have anything extra to think about if they’re involved in an accident in a company car? Toby: You shouldn’t really have to think differently at all, no. You would have the same kind of documents that you’d expect to have when you’re driving your own private car and ideally the person who is driving the vehicle will have access to those documents. They will have a copy of the emergency numbers - there’s a 24 emergency line – they’ll have all those numbers. And you would do what you would normally do in the event of an accident. Jane: After and accident – what to do: Toby: The number one thing is don’t accept responsibility or blame, and I think this is something that’s a very easy mistake to make, to say – ‘oh I’m sorry that was my fault’. And it’s really counterintuitive but what insurance companies urge people to do is not to accept blame.
You mustn’t drive away – if anybody has been hurt or if there has been any damaged caused you absolutely mustn’t leave the scene.
You need to get names and addresses of other drivers and any witnesses as well.
You should ask anybody else who’s been involved in the accident – you should ask them for either a certificate number or a policy number and make sure you get their registration.
You should write down what time the incident took place. You should make a note of the weather conditions and the state of the road at the time – it’s amazing how much stuff actually that you need to do.
If you can, sketch each of the vehicles’ positions – because these are the kind of things that - you know, there may be a court case later arising from this. Mark the positions of road signs, obstructions, streetlights, skid marks and any debris. So you’ve got your sketch – you know, there’s a lot to do but if you do all this it will make life easier later on. Jane: If you’ve just had an accident and you’re shocked and shaky it’s worth reiterating these things even though they are all things we probably know we should do. Toby: The strange thing that its one of those situation where you may well actually find yourself sitting around for a long time doing nothing but worrying because you’re waiting for emergency services or you’re waiting for your breakdown service or whatever. You may well find yourself sitting there doing nothing and if you do happen to have a pen and paper with you these are some of the things you could do. There other thing is that you should contact your insurers as well. For more information about insuring business vans and cars go to www.morethanbusiness.com
And I hope you’ll join us for the next podcast in this series.
I’m Jane Markham and this is a Podcats production for MORE TH>N BUSINESS.
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