Motor Fleet

Motor Fleet

Self-Insured Programmes

Traditionally, business insurance transfers risk from you to the insurer via your premium. However, a changing and increasingly complex market means there are alternatives. For instance, if you’re spending a six-figure sum on annual business insurance premiums with a high volume of claims, self-insurance enables you to pass on less risk to your insurers. We can help you decide if this a viable solution and help you set aside a fund in your business that means you can handle the minor claims yourself, or with our own in-house claims team, reducing costs overall.

Our solutions are tailored to meet individual needs and to strike your desired balance of risk transfer (to an insurer) and risk retention (by you), utilising a broad range of techniques, including deductible funding or captives.

Vehicle insurance management

Our motor department offers a wide range of services tailored to our clients’ needs with innovative risk management tools for small, medium and large fleets in an insurance environment ranging from traditional risk transfer solutions, to full self-insurance.

Consulting and advice

Vehicle fleet insurance requires both a financial and an operation evaluation of the possible scenarios of self-insurance. Our team are ideally placed to perform this study in an objective manner, taking into account your specific business sector & performance in order to reduce the total cost of risk.

Analytics & integration

We provide fleet-risk related data which will provide our clients with an in-depth view on their costs, accident causes and driver risk profile, so that actions can be taken to increase risk awareness, driver training and internal communication to further reduce the number of claims and – therefore – the total cost of risk.

Implementation

We will agree a Service Level Agreement, and ensure a smooth transition from the existing to the new programme by clearly defining the process with all the parties involved.

Services & cost planning

After a thorough evaluation of the potential risk financing options, we will tender the market so as to obtain the best possible quote on price and service levels. Our structured and tested approach will deliver the most optimal long-term solution for your vehicle fleet

Claims and accident management

Our state-of-the-art claims management platform with real-time internet access will ensure the most efficient communication between the driver, the body repair shop, the surveyor and the insurer in order to reduce administration and keep lead times to a strict minimum. Moreover, self-insured clients such as lease companies and large corporate fleets can benefit from this platform to monitor their suppliers’ performance.

Servicing

Our service can be split into several different menu options, ranging from placing, to full claims and accident management. Specialised and dedicated client teams will deliver a tailor-made service to our clients.

Specialist consultancy

Fleets can reduce their costs by opting for self-insurance and improved risk management.

Risk sharing with self-insurance

Whilst a deductible or excess is often viewed as a type of self-insurance, a self-insured retention increases a company’s financial interest by requiring it to pay and actively manage claims up to a certain pre-determined amount.

When adopting a self-insured retention, an awareness of insurance, claims handling and risk control is required. Consequently, this approach is best suited to larger companies that have the resources and knowledge to manage their claims exposures. By creating an awareness of these exposures, providing you with access to our risk management portal & applying resources to manage them, we can help you take that first step towards a broader self-insurance arrangement.

Often, clients reach the stage where they perceive that the cost of the premium is excessive given the nature of the risk and their own claims history. This is where a decision has to be made. Do we continue to pay away premiums and subsidise the insurers and their clients with higher claims histories? Or do we investigate alternatives to conventional insurance? If we choose the latter, this is called “Alternative Risk Funding”.

The most basic form of “Alternative Risk Funding” is self insurance. Self insurance may take the form of just accepting the risk, doing nothing and dealing with each loss as and when it happens. Alternatively, it may include setting up internal funds specifically set aside for the particular risks involved.

The form of self-insurance chosen will depend on the size and number of losses expected. High frequency, relatively low cost losses such as Motor Own Damage are well suited to self-funding. We suggest that third party injury and damage losses are, initially, omitted from the exercise. Third party claims are less controllable than Own Damage. It is preferable that the funds set aside for self-insurance are closed off as soon as possible at the end of each year to ensure the accuracy of loss data upon which the following year’s self-insurance will be based. Typically, third party claims, especially those involving injury, take far longer to settle than “in house” own damage losses.

Insurers apply varying level of analysis to past claims histories to establish future premiums. For large motor fleets, the “Burning Cost” basis is frequently used. Other, more statistically accurate, methods are also used. However, for the purpose of this exercise, we will follow the method commonly used in the industry.

You don’t have to pay insurance premium tax (IPT), on any self-insured fund which is now 12%.

There are, however, additional set up charges and normally a letter of credit will be required by the insurer who will step in at a pre-agreed claim level.

Fleets that self-insure need to ensure that all drivers are focused on the cost of collisions, preventing them and – in the event that they do occur – reporting them quickly and efficiently so that the third party claims can be handled appropriately.

Self-insuring fleets need to have robust risk management procedures. Fleets that place a strong emphasis on risk management are more likely to actively consider implementing self-insurance.

We have noticed an increase in the number of queries from fleets looking to implement self-insurance recently, although the numbers involved are still relatively small in the context of conventionally insured fleets, once costs have been reviewed.

Would you like to find out more?

We work with clients to determine the economic feasibility of a self-insurance fleet model & work hand-in-hand with legal and financial representatives to help form and manage the programme.

Once our client makes the decision to develop an SIR, a designated team will guide the development, structuring, execution, operation and management of day-to-day activities. Our Executive Management’s long-standing relationships with national and regional underwriters, service providers, actuaries and claims providers are essential to ensuring smooth operation and success.

Each solution is delivered based upon a comprehensive study of the client’s individual risk profile and with a full understanding of key business goals.  The client’s needs’ analysis will ensure the optimal structure & what type of programme would be the best solution.

 

Interested in finding out more?