Finch helped one haulage company make substantial savings. How could they help you?
One of our biggest success stories is that of a haulage company based in outer London, operating over 200 vehicles.
We met the Transport Manager at a networking event and had a relaxed conversation about each other’s businesses, naturally insurance premiums came up in the conversation and we continued on this topic for some time.
Having listened to the client we went on to advise how we work with clients to ensure premiums remain competitive and fleets of vehicles run efficiently. Their fleet policy was not due for 5 months but we advised there is no harm in us having a meeting to discuss the available options and for us to really understand their business, how it works and what they needed as a customer.
We penned in a date and duly attended the meeting, for us this is the time to understand your business, find out how the fleet is being run, operated and administered. The discussion was heavily focused on the current cost of the fleet policy, having looked at the Confirmed Claims Experience for the last 3 years it was clear to see why the frequency and the cost of the claims were increasing year after year. This combined with increased vehicle numbers meant unless something was done the fleet could become unaffordable or even uninsurable.
There was no structure in place for the reporting of claims or even licence checks. We advised that procedures were vital going forward, our recommendations were:
- Six monthly licence checks
- Immediate reporting of claims to the Transport Manger with ‘what to do cards’ in the vehicles
- Online driver profiling to see the good and bad drivers
- Quarterly meetings with the Broker to review claims
- Telematics technology that tracked the vehicles and monitored hard braking/accelerating etc
- Claims management company
Having demonstrated our knowledge and expertise in this field, we suggested that we could be appointed to the policy and start making changes with immediate effect. Although we would be working for free for five months we would be in control of the policy going forward and could carry out a full broking exercise.
Over the five months we implemented licence checks, claims reporting mandates and obtained in-depth information on the claims and drivers. We discussed with insurers the upcoming renewal and the Risk Management technology we would be implementing, we were conscious of the costs of both the Risk Management and Renewal Premium so needed to negotiate acceptable terms to both the client and insurer.
The expiring premium was £227,000 and the insurer wanted a renewal premium of £315,000. Due to the history of the policy no other insurer other than the existing wanted to offer terms as it was losing money every year. The cost to add CCTV cameras, full telematics combined with claims management and driver profiling technology was in the region of £30,000. The insurer agreed to reduce their premium to £265,000 if the Risk Management was implemented, the premium saving far outweighed the initial offering so the Risk Management was put in place.
The drivers were profiled and any drivers with bad behavioural habits and or a number of accidents we sent on a driver improvement course, the CCTV made the drivers aware they were being monitored and harsh braking and accelerating was picked up by the telematics company and reported to the Transport Manager. Vehicles that were stolen were more often than not recovered with the tracking software so very quickly the frequency of claims reduced, in line with this the costs also reduced.
We have quarterly meetings and update the client with claims information and where any trends of bad driving are picked up and addressed.
We have turned this fleet around. Not only have we saved the client substantial amounts we have reduced claims which in turn has meant less down time for the insured, less employee injuries and a more seamless operation.
We take the same approach on any size fleet so please feel free to contact me should you wish to discuss any aspect of your fleet insurance.
Simon Dicks
Finch Commercial Insurance Brokers
