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A Guide To HGV Fleet Insurance

While transportation of goods is essential for businesses, driving HGV’s can be an incredibly dangerous activity.  Based on research from Campaign for Better

Transport, HGV’s accounted for 52.3% of fatal accidents on motorways.

This is a very worrying statistic, so it’s no surprise that HGV’s can be difficult to control and have devastating consequences. 

Correct compliance should be prioritised by every fleet manager and reducing potential risks should be a main focus for your business. 

This is why you need to be aware of HGV fleet insurance and find the best policy for your business.  

So, let’s get straight into the details. 

 

What is Truck/HGV Insurance?

Truck Insurance, or HGV insurance, can be defined as an insurance policy that covers individuals or businesses using trucks or any other type of heavy goods vehicles. 

The insurance policy will be made up of different forms of cover, categorised depending on the number of vehicles that need insurance. 

While there are many individual truck or HGV insurance policies on the market, in this blog, we are going to focus on HGV fleet insurance. 

A fleet insurance policy for trucks or HGV will allow your business to cover a range of vehicles, from service vans to articulated vehicles. 

A fleet policy allows cover for either the carriage of own goods or for hire and reward.

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What type of insurance do I need for an HGV Fleet?

If your business has a fleet of trucks or HGV’s then you will need a HGV fleet insurance policy. Like other vehicle policies, the cover you select will determine the premium you receive. 

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The types of cover can be broken down into three levels:

Third-Party Only

Third-Party only insurance is the minimum level of insurance cover. This type of cover will protect other people, vehicles and property in the event of an accident that was your fault.

Third-Party Fire and Theft

This type of insurance will cover you for the same as third party but will also let you claim for replacing your truck if it’s stolen, damage to your truck as a result of attempted theft and fire damage to your vehicle.

Comprehensive

Comprehensive insurance will cover damage to others, yourself, your vehicle and will also cover you for theft and fire damage. This is the most extensive level of vehicle insurance.

While there are other levels of cover available, these are the 3 most common types of cover.

You can expect to pay much more for comprehensive cover as opposed to Third-Party Only.

Do I need a license to get insurance as a HGV driver? 

Looking to insure a vehicle that carries goods for trade or business purposes on public roads? 

Before you get on the road, you are going to need an operators licence if the vehicle exceeds 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight. 

If this sounds like it would apply to you, just be aware that it can take 9 weeks to apply for a licence. However, you may be granted an interim licence in some particular cases. 

Depending on the type of job you have, you will need to either apply for a Restricted Operators Licence, a Standard National Licence or a Standard International Licence.

Restricted licence:

  • Allows you to carry your own goods, but not other people’s goods.

Standard national licence:

  • Allows you to carry your own goods in the UK and internationally.
  • Allows you to carry other people’s goods in the UK.
  • Allows for you to take loaded trailers to or from ports within the UK as part of an international journey, as long as your vehicles don’t leave the country.

Standard international licence:

  • Allows you to carry your own goods, and other people’s goods, both in the UK and on international journeys.

 

How many vehicles do I need to get HGV fleet insurance?

While some insurance brokers may be different, at Fleetcover, we will only cover HGV fleets from 5 vehicles and upwards. However, we do offer another product for HGV operators within the range of 1 to 5 vehicles. 

If you are a truck driver, you will, of course, have trailers that you need to transport goods in. 

It can sometimes be confusing as to whether a fleet policy includes cover for trailers too. 

To help any confusion, let’s break it down.

A HGV fleet policy will allow cover for trailers, but this is dependant on them being declared to the underwriter. This will then cover the trailers on a specified or unspecified basis. 

Specified

To go into further detail, specified trailers will be identified by make, model or serial number. These will usually be rated based on their individual value. This means that whether the trailer is attached or detached, the cover for the vehicle will be the same as the trailer. 

Unspecified

Trailers covered on an unspecified basis, however, are slightly different. 

A trailer on an unspecified basis could be a trailer that you are towing that isn’t directly yours.

Examples of this could include a clients trailer or one that is borrowed or hired.  

In this situation, the trailer would be covered when being towed and covered whilst temporarily detached. If the trailer was left in a lay-by, at the side of the road overnight, then it would not be covered. 

 

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HGV insurance for young drivers 

If you are a younger driver looking to get HGV insurance, you need to be aware of a few things.

The first thing you need to decide is whether you need individual insurance for a truck/HGV or if you need a fleet policy.

For drivers looking for an individual policy, you can receive cover on the basis that you are a named driver.

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A fleet policy, on the other hand, is a different matter.

Usually, a fleet policy can:

exclude drivers aged below 17
exclude drivers aged below 21
exclude drivers aged below 25
exclude drivers aged below 30.

Based on this, you would pay more for a fleet policy excluding drivers below 17 as opposed to one that excludes drivers aged below 30.

A HGV fleet policy will typically restrict any inexperienced drivers who have had a HGV licence for less than 2 years.

While this may be the case, insurers are constantly reviewing their policies to ensure that they are catering to a wider demographic. Because of this, there is an increasing number of policies available that may have no restrictions on experience at all.

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How much does HGV insurance cost?

Now, you may be wondering, okay, so how much is truck insurance going to cost me? 

Firstly, you need to know that fleet insurance can be hugely cost-effective over individual policies. 

This is due to the fact that fleet insurance offers a greater range of cover and is generally less restrictive than individual insurance policies. 

One of the most important factors that will affect your HGV insurance premium is the number of vehicles you want to insure. 

Not only this but the geographical radius in which you operate can also have an effect on your insurance premium. 

Companies may also receive discounted prices if they operate in the base of a 100-mile radius. 

At Fleetcover, we work with the UK’s largest Insurance providers for fleets to get you a professional, hassle-free policy proposal.  

We have access to a carefully selected panel of over 20 different insurers, meaning we can provide you with a competitively priced, comprehensive HGV insurance policy. 

 

If you would like more information regarding a HGV fleet insurance quote, contact us today and receive guidance from one of our trusted advisors.

 

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