If your transport manager is struggling to keep your vehicles on the road, then Cornerstone Fleet Insurance have 5 great tips
Cornerstone Fleet Insurance offers great fleet premiums but we also offer a speedy vehicle claims solution to businesses to keep you moving. Time costs money? you bet, if a sales car or contractors van is off the road it could be costing your business £450 EVERY WORKING DAY!
If we have your attention here is some great advice to get the best from your fleet insurance:
1. Stop losing time getting crash repairs organised
You want a damaged vehicle back on the road within days, but reality is sadly different.
The dream claim (does not exist) but lets see what should happen:
Your van, car, lorry has an accident and requires repairs. Your driver rings you with the incident details and you call your insurers claims line. You are told to take the vehicle for an estimate and you are told the authorised repairer can see you straight away, they prepare an estimate and the insurers motor engineer agree the costs and you book the vehicle in that afternoon. Amazingly the garage can get hold of all the parts within 24 hours and just two days after the accident your vehicle is being repaired. Incredibly no further damage is found and your vehicle is ready for collection 5 days after the accident. This is a dream claim and yet it in 5 days it could have cost you £2000+ in lost servicing, sales, or contracting.
Time lost – where in reality a 5 day claim takes 10+ days.
Lets look at what often happens to cause your fleet transport manager to lose their patience…
The reporting of the incident may appear to be straight forward but Cornerstone know that clients often only make the call to the claims line with 40% of the information needed to start the claim. Its typical that the driver details are incomplete, policy number is missing, location of the accident is confusing and description of the damage is vague. Calling the claims line with incomplete or vague data will slow your claim down!
Cornerstone Fleet Insurance have experience managing the claims line team, we roughly know the best times to call, we know what to say, predict the problems of incomplete data and still keep the claim moving. If your broker lets you call in the claim don’t be surprised if your repairs take longer to complete.
Did you realise that the gaps between the claims reporting line, motor repairers, motor engineer, insurance company claims handler and you often generate infuriating losses in your time? Here are few examples of how simple slips delay your claim by days, then weeks.
The wrong registration number on the estimate is a big Time Loser – unless your broker handles the claim from start to finish your insurers can be waiting weeks for an estimate. Cornerstone Fleet Insurance insist on being copied into correspondence to check for these simple errors.
“I didn’t receive it”. Massive frustration and an obvious time loser, again Cornerstone Fleet Insurance avoid this by operating a diary system to check not only that people do what they say they promised to do but also that the right people then receive this information. Does your broker do this?
Time problems – Our solution
The time solution is to change your broker to Cornerstone who will manage a claim from start to finish. We know problems occur with fleet claims and its comforting to know Cornerstone will be proactive managing the process and not just leaving it to chance. From the information gathering to the tracking of the claim through to return of your vehicle. – Cornerstone Fleet Insurance Management is your perfect partner.
2. Don’t get lumped with a rubbish courtesy vehicle after an accident
If your insurers offer you a “noddy car” courtesy vehicle to replace your Mercedes for the duration of your accident repair you’re with the wrong broker!
We have all witnessed the visitor spaces filled with loan cars daubed with a local crash repairers logo but its going to do nothing for your reputation or sales figures. Demanding a like for like car replacement only happens if your not at fault for the accident and the third party is going to pay for it. When you smash up the BMW its a long walk across the company car park to your waiting Nissan Micra in white.
You never checked the insurance small print that states comprehensive cover entitles you to a vehicle at the discretion or availability of the crash repairer. Its pretty useless if your service engineer, contractor or delivery driver can’t get into a van after a smash. The cost of a hire vehicle could set you back £75-£100 a day not to mention the disruption.
If you want a half decent car to keep up appearances or a handy Ford Transit after a crash you should be talking to Cornerstone Fleet Insurance, taking the pain away after an accident.
3. If you’re operating a fleet with luxury cars don’t accept crash repair quality
Having an Aston Martin repaired at a crash repairers is like having your tooth filings done by a block paver. On a quest to give our clients a brilliant service we visited a number of specialist repairers that handle hand built, rare and high value cars.
Our selection was based on not just the quality, experience and number of manufacturers approvals but also the care the staff took to look after you the customer. Cornerstone’s choice of repairers has been borne out by the satisfaction reviews we receive. The standards we want to achieve is driven by customer feedback, and on luxury car repairs we have a winning team. Don’t let your broker send your sports car to be repaired at the local crash repairer, talk to Cornerstone Fleet Insurance about getting the repairs done by our craftsmen.
4. Its not your fault, but your fleet insurance cost continue to rise
Your fleet premiums are affected by the claims you make. Even with a no fault incident beyond your control you will have cost your insurance company time and money to get your vehicle repaired. The cost of claims handling staff, engineers, accounts dept staff and claims costs recovery will have an invisible cost to a no fault incident. If you want cheaper premiums, don’t make claims, not even no fault incidents…
Cornerstone are pretty tenacious and when one of our clients sales reps Mercedes car was hit by flying debris from an accident on the opposite side of a motorway crash barrier our client was furious they could potentially need £800 worth of repairs with no prospect of recovery. However we tracked down the police report, obtained the third party details and managed to get repair authority from the third party insurers to protect our clients fleet experience. Does your broker deliver this kind of support?
Windscreen replacement also affects your fleet experience both as a cost and in terms of incident numbers. We have a number of clients that run every day cars and vans with no windscreen cover under their fleet insurance. The reason is that the cost of replacing these screens does not cost a great deal with smaller independent windscreen replacement firms. The trade off for the client is lower premiums and improved fleet experience. Does your broker discuss fleet cost management?
5. Drivers are both the problem and the solution
“Its takes a lifetime to build a business but it takes 72 hours to destroy a perfect claims experience”. Words from one of our oldest haulage clients. In three short days three agency drivers managed to have consecutive accidents including knocking a cyclist out as they opened the cab door, driving into a low bridge and meandering over a white line in a 44 tonner to clear three cars up heading in the opposite direction!
What an experience. What a nightmare at renewal. The good news is that the agency staff are rare, if they are needed there is a management process to be followed and driver assessments made before letting them lose on the road.
Cornerstone know what fleet insurers like, its not all about the fleet crash experience. There is other management tools that can catch the underwriters attention. We can’t give away our inside knowledge but we can help you when the premiums head north.
If you’re worried about the spiralling claims experience or fleet renewal costs give Cornerstone Fleet Insurance a call.
Getting a second opinion on your fleet could be the best thing you ever do. Choosing Cornerstone Fleet Insurance would be an experience you’ll never forget. Join the winning team and call Kim Francis today 0116 3440040
Tim Lee,
Managing Director – Cornerstone Fleet Insurance