Commercial Motor Vehicles Fleet
Insuring a fleet of commercial vehicles is complex and it can be hard to know whether you’re getting the best deal for your needs and budget. Working with a transparent, independent commercial motor vehicle fleet insurance broker can help you get the right cover.
If your vehicles are central to your business, then you know the cost of downtime when any of your vehicles aren’t on the road. When the worst happens and one or more of your vehicles has been in an accident, damaged, or stolen, you need to know you’re covered.
The cost of having that vehicle off the road could be huge, and it gets higher the longer you wait before putting it back into service.
Working with a commercial motor vehicle fleet insurance broker can help you get access to a better range of coverage with more affordable premiums. For example, did you know it often costs less and achieves more flexible cover when you put all your fleet vehicles onto a single policy, rather than insure each one individually?
NZbrokers is a network of independent brokers with extensive experience in commercial motor vehicle fleet insurance, and we have a broker close to you.
A member of the NZbrokers network can help you:
- find the best insurance cover for your business’s needs
- review cover from the broadest range of insurers
- understand premiums and risk management
- manage insurance claims for a better chance of success.
*Talk to one of our independent brokers today to find out more. Click here to find the broker closest to you
What to look for in commercial motor vehicle fleet insurance
It can be tempting to choose insurance cover based on price. But if your vehicle fleet is critical to the operations of your business, the cost of not being adequately insured can far outweigh the money you’ve saved on lower premiums.
Commercial motor vehicle fleet insurance lets you insure multiple vehicles with multiple drivers, and can account for all the different variables in how you deploy your fleet.
Commercial vehicles, from cars and utes to trucks and tractors, are used differently from private vehicles in many ways, so they need to be insured accordingly. For example, commercial and fleet vehicles spend more hours each day on the road, often do longer trips, and tend to carry heavier loads. One of the most important things to remember is that your company will suffer financially and reputationally when a fleet vehicle is off the road compared to a private vehicle owner.
The vehicles in your fleet are assets and need to be managed accordingly. Those assets must constantly be working for the company, otherwise they’re just costing you money. That means downtime needs to be minimised: if a vehicle must be taken off the road, it’ll need to be repaired or replaced as fast as possible. Being able to do that depends on being adequately insured.
Here are five things to look for in a policy to ensure you get the right cover for your needs:
- Hire vehicles. If your vehicle is going to be off the road, you’ll want your insurance to cover the cost of a hire vehicle so you can keep your business running smoothly.
- Downtime cover. If you can’t hire a replacement vehicle, your business is likely to suffer losses because of the downtime. Does your insurance policy provide compensation for this?
- Accessories cover. You may keep specialist equipment in your vehicles. Does your insurance policy cover the cost of replacing this?
- Load cover. If you’re insuring trucks, does the policy cover the value of the loads as well?
- Premium calculation. There are different ways to calculate premiums so what looks like a good deal now could be different if you have a good or bad run of claims during the year. Make decisions with all the premium options properly explained.
Assessing the market value of vehicles in your fleet will be important to how you insure your commercial motor vehicle fleet. The complexity of this type of insurance means there is a real chance you could be under- or over-insured. The risk of being underinsured is huge, while the cost of being over-insured can be equally significant.
The safest approach to getting the ‘just right’ insurance cover is to work with a commercial motor vehicle fleet insurance broker from the NZbrokers network. You may even end up paying less than you think for the policy recommended by your broker.
Find a broker today to find out more.