When running a business your unexpected costs can quickly become the difference between achieving a profit and ending the year in the red. If your commercial fleet of vehicles is involved in accidents or any other unexpected occurrences the cost to repair or replace can be catastrophic.
But how do you ensure that your motor fleet claims are kept to a minimum? In this article, we have compiled a few handy tips that will help your company keep it’s fleet costs to a minimum.
Claims themselves are inevitable, so getting the correct business fleet insurance is essential. Opting for a policy created by an experienced broker, who will be able to source the ideal policy for your needs. Using a broker vs. a standard comparison site will give you the reassurance that your policy has been reviewed and recommended by a human, not an algorithm.
Keep Your Drivers Motivated
Incentivising drivers to perform well is the easiest way to prevent unnecessary accidents. You could do this by offering ‘Driver of the Month’ awards with a prize, or a small end of year bonus for going a full year with no accidents. While it may cost you the price of the odd bottle of wine, it’s certainly cheaper than paying for repairs on your fleet!
A slightly less positive way to keep accidents to a minimum is to enact a policy whereby drivers are responsible for preventable damage.
Whether you choose the carrot or the stick, you can be sure that keeping your drivers motivated is one of the best ways to reduce the number of accidents.
Screen Your Drivers
While generally, anyone can drive a car, many are not qualified to drive larger vehicles. Even so being legally allowed to drive a van may not mean the driver is experienced. Older drivers will be allowed to operate a greater range of vehicles, as allowances once you have passed your test have changed.
When you do recruit new drivers look for experience and qualifications where possible. You can’t rely on word of mouth when it’s your companies finances on the lines.
Driving Training
Even the most seasoned of professionals require training regularly to keep accidents to a minimum. For drivers, this is especially prevalent. Rules from the DVLA are ever-changing and violating the modern rules of the road can lead to fines or put your vehicles and staff in danger.
Monitoring and assessment of driving standards are essential when it comes to keeping your staff trained. Over time bad habits are easy to develop and can be hard to spot at for the driver’s themselves.
Use Route Planners
We’ve all been caught out on unknown roads when driving in our personal life. For those that drive for a living that is a constant disadvantage, and not knowing the best routes to take often leads to accidents.
When operating larger commercial vehicles this could mean navigating through streets that are too narrow to pass, causing damage to your fleet. Ensure all your drivers have a sat nav built-in, or available on a phone.
Ensuring each delivery is given adequate time as well will help reduce strain on the driver. With tighter windows comes a much-increased risk of accidents.
But Post-Incident Procedures In Place
Accidents will happen, it’s inevitable. But ensuring your drivers know exactly what to do when they do occur is crucial. When it comes to making a claim the depth of information available at the time of the accident will be crucial to ensuring the claim is effectively settled.
Train your drivers in the correct processes and ensure that your processes make sense. Once and an accident has happened then undertake a review following to assess what caused the incident. Was it lack of driver training, tight deadlines or simply unavoidable? The more you know the better you can plan for the future.
