Fleet Insurance vs Commercial Vehicle Insurance
When it comes to protecting your business’s vehicles, it is essential that you have the right level of insurance in place.The most common types of insurance are fleet insurance and commercial vehicle insurance, and in this guide we’ll explain the differences between them to help you decide which is the best for you.
What is fleet insurance?
Fleet insurance is a type of insurance policy that covers all vehicles in your business’s fleet. This means instead of insuring all of your vehicles individually, they are all covered under one comprehensive policy, helping you to save costs and streamline your processes.
It is designed for businesses that rely heavily on their vehicles and can include:
How many vehicles count as a fleet?
Fleet insurance is usually available for businesses with 2 or more vehicles in their fleet, however, the minimum number will vary between different insurance providers.
What is commercial vehicle insurance?
Commercial vehicle insurance is a policy that covers individual vehicles that are used for business purposes. Each vehicle needs to have its own policy, which may not be the most cost effective solution for companies with more than one vehicle.
Commercial vehicle insurance is usually tailored to the specific vehicle type, meaning if you have more than one type of vehicle, they again will need separate insurance policies.
Can you only insure commercial vehicles on a fleet policy?
No, you can insure a number of different vehicles on a fleet policy and they don’t just need to be commercial vehicles.
Fleet insurance policies are flexible and can include a number of different types of vehicles, including those which are owned outright, leased, hired or borrowed by a business.
What is the difference between commercial vehicle and fleet insurance?
The main difference between commercial vehicle and fleet insurance is that commercial vehicle insurance can only cover one company vehicle, whereas fleet insurance can cover multiple different vehicles under one policy.
If your business has a large number of vehicles, fleet insurance is likely a more cost effective solution. If you only have 1 or 2 different vehicles, individual commercial vehicle insurance could be a better option for you.
Benefits of fleet vs commercial vehicle insurance
Before you choose which insurance option is better for your business, it’s worth taking a look at the benefits of both.
Benefits of fleet insurance policies:
- Insure multiple vehicle types – As we’ve mentioned, fleet insurance allows for multiple vehicle types to be insured under one policy, which saves you from speaking to multiple different insurance providers.
- Any driver declaration – Fleet insurance policies allow your drivers to drive any vehicle in your fleet, granted that they meet UK driving licence requirements and any specific guidelines from the insurance provider. This saves time on administration and negates the need to add or remove drivers to meet the business requirements.
- Add or remove vehicles easily – With a fleet insurance policy, you can add and remove vehicles as you see fit. This means if your business needs to hire a piece of equipment, you can easily add it under your policy until the hire period ends. This can all be done quickly, without the need of taking out additional policies or cancelling others.
Benefits of commercial vehicle insurance policies:
- You can take out additional insurance policies easily as your business grows, meaning you can put more company vehicles on the road.
- Some policies allow you to select some employees as additional drivers, allowing employees with valid licence to drive the company vehicles.
- Commercial vehicle policies ensure your vehicles are always covered correctly in order to meet legal requirements.
