HH Driveright Offers Advice for Fleets Seeking to Control Insurance Premiums

Van security and compliance specialist, HH Driveright, is advising fleet managers to tick insurers’ boxes, to combat the impacts of both a hard market and inflationary pressures on insurance premiums.  They can also consider taking advantage of new premium discounts that its award-winning products can access.

HH Driveright, recent winners of the AA-sponsored, Logistics UK Award for ‘Keeping Your Show on the Road’, says insurers are recouping losses incurred in major classes of business, by taking a stricter view of risks.  They are typically either asking for higher premiums, or imposing restricted policy wordings.  They are also looking to reward well-run fleets. These are the usual actions of insurers at times when the market is ‘hard’, as is the case now.

Since the market hardened in 2020, other factors have brought new challenges for fleet managers seeking to contain insurance premiums. The cost of spare parts for vehicle repairs has soared, due to problems in accessing parts from manufacturers, micro-chip shortages, Covid-19’s pressures and global shipping disruption.  All factors combined are inflicting inflationary pressures on the cost of repairs funded through insurance claims, which will lead to higher premiums.

The cost and availability of new vehicles is also an issue.  If vehicles have to be hired as part of an insurance claim, the period of hire is typically being extended because of new vehicle shortages, driving the overall cost of the claim up.

“The best way to tackle a fleet insurance renewal is to present the insurer with evidence that all steps are being taken to avoid having to make a claim,” says HH Driveright’s managing director, Rebecca Hall.  “Insurers want to see robust risk management measures in place and a holistic approach to vehicle and driver safety.”

In this regard, managers should be able to demonstrate they are focusing on intuitive driver training – addressing the faults that individual drivers demonstrate on the road and encouraging better driving behaviours – to help prevent accidents. 

They should also be highlighting to insurers that they are doing all of the things required from a compliance and safety point of view, such as the daily walkaround vehicle checks, and also have effective systems in place to make this as efficient as possible.

Furthermore, they should use technology to help keep vehicles and their goods in transit protected from theft and to ensure aspects of compliance are well-managed, whether this is checking on permissions to drive or ensuring, from a liability standpoint, that driver signatures are on file.

Becoming accredited through a scheme such as Van Fleet Excellence, is also a signal that the fleet takes risk management seriously.

As well as having a suite of different products that assist fleets with driver training, compliance and vehicle security, HH Driveright is further assisting fleets, by teaming up with award-winning fleet insurance broking specialist, McCarron Coates.  Together, the experts are offering fleets a way to help reduce their premiums.

Those fleets making use of the risk management tools in HH Driveright’s product portfolio, are rewarded by McCarron Coates’ insurer partners, once the experienced fleet broker has presented the evidence of the risk strategies deployed.  Lower longer-term premiums can also be achieved by focusing on the KPIs on which HH Driveright reports.  

“Fleets need to take a hard look at their costs given the current climate and insurance is one of those.  Better risk management can deliver tangible benefits, so we are doing all we can to not only assist fleets by providing the tools that underpin dynamic risk management but also by engineering an insurance premium reward for those fleets that make use of them,” says Rebecca Hall.

Further information is available at www.hhdriveright.com or by calling 01937 830144. 

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Editors notes

HH Driveright is a van security and courier fleet compliance specialist, with exciting and advanced solutions for van drivers wishing to protect their vehicles, livelihood and reputation. It is launching a variety of exciting new options for van fleets in 2022, with relevance for all offering delivery and courier services.