Fleet Insurance During The Covid-19 Pandemic

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03/04/2020

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Fleet Insurance During The Covid-19 Pandemic

One Broker is aware that many of our clients may suffer a reduction in work due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. While we appreciate that it’s a last resort, you may have no choice but to temporarily take your vehicles off the road and adjust your Fleet Insurance policy. To help guide you through that process, our team has put together some useful tips and advice.

The main thing to note is that every insurer has its own approach to this unique situation. However, there are some commonalities between them. Here are some important points to consider:

Contact the DVLA

The most important thing to do is declare your vehicles as being off the road.

You need to register a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) with the DVLA for each vehicle. If you don’t do this, you are legally required to have insurance covering road risks, whether they are in use or not.

Laid-Up Insurance

Even though your vehicles aren’t on the road, they are key business assets that must be protected. This is where Laid-Up Insurance comes in.

Offered by most Fleet Insurance companies, this policy protects your vehicles against losses made while not in use, without the cover for third-party damage and road risks.

There are two types: Laid-Up Fire & Theft Insurance and Laid-Up Accidental Damage, Fire & Theft Insurance. The latter policy covers more risks, including impact-related damage.

Insurers may be able to adjust your existing policy and transfer you to a much cheaper laid-up rate for those vehicles, but this is down to each insurers’ approach to underwriting and discretion. Some insurers, for instance, may consider processing quicker premium adjustments, while others may take these changes into consideration at your next fleet declaration.

Handy Information

In order to handle your requests, insurance companies need you to provide certain information, including:

• The registration numbers of the vehicles to be laid up.
• The value of each vehicle.
• Where the vehicles will be kept (some insurers will insist they are in locked yards or premises). See Spread Your Risk below.

Some insurers will also ask:

• Are any additional security measures being taken, beyond locking them up and removing keys?
• Are additional fire precautions being taken?

Other details may also be requested but these are the core questions we’re being asked by most insurers right now.

Spread Your Risk

Some insurers set a maximum single loss limit at any location. What that means is, there may be a limit on the amount you can claim for an incident at a single location.

As such, store your vehicles in small groups, as far apart as practically possible. If you have multiple locations, insurers recommend that you split the vehicles between sites. This reduces the chance of a catastrophic loss from a fire.

Of course, if you need any help managing your Fleet Insurance policy, we’re here to help. We’ll guide you through the process as quickly and painlessly as possible.

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