If you have a business, chances are good that you rely heavily on delivery trucks and a traveling sales team to transport products and recruit new customers. To avoid financial disaster, you might also rely on commercial fleet automotive insurance, which covers your vehicles and employees in the event of an accident. If you are shopping for this kind of insurance coverage, here are three policy perks you should look for and why.
1. Convenient Payment Options
As your business continues to grow, you might find yourself buried in financial paperwork—especially if you don't have a dedicated accounting team. Unfortunately, if you rely on paper billing or have to remember to log in online to take care of that monthly fleet vehicle insurance payment, you might unintentionally miss a month or two, which could leave you floundering without coverage.
To make sure that your payments are paid in-full and on-time, look for a commercial vehicle insurance provider that offers convenient payment options, such as paperless billing or automatic payments. Keep in mind that not all automatic payments are created equally.
While many insurance carriers accept debit and credit cards, more and more insurers are accepting ACH payments. Unlike debit or credit card transactions, which require a working number and a valid expiration date to process, ACH transactions are essentially transfers directly from your business account to the insurer. In addition to reducing errors like forgetting to update your credit card information with your insurance company, ACH transactions are less expensive for your insurer, which might drive down your monthly insurance premiums.
2. The Option To Adjust Your Policy
You might assume that your delivery drivers will be with you for the duration, but businesses and employee rosters change all the time—which can make it hard to keep your auto insurance coverage. As employees come and go, you might notice that your fleet auto insurance rate varies depending on who is driving for you. In fact, research has shown that adding a single driver with a poor driving history can raise your company premiums as much as 10%. To put that number into perspective, if you spend $1,000 on fleet auto insurance to insure 10 drivers and their trucks, insuring the wrong person could inflate your premium to $1,100, which is the same price as paying for 11 drivers' coverage.
Fortunately, some insurance companies allow businesses to adjust policies as needed, making it simpler to add drivers, remove people from the policy, or even to change coverage levels based on changing needs. For example, you might be able to drop your interior vehicle insurance when those trucks reach a certain age or add GAP insurance to your policy when you invest in a few new vehicles.
As you shop for auto insurance, talk with your agent about the ease of making changes to your policy. While some companies allow users to adjust coverage limits and insured drivers online from the comforts of their own homes, others may ask that you wait until the end of your policy to make changes.
3. Friendly Claims Handling
Hearing that one of your employees has been involved in an accident is stressful enough, which is why the easier the claims process is, the better. Before choosing an insurance company, research their customer service policies carefully to learn how they manage claims processing.
Look for a company that offers convenient services such as mobile claims, email status updates, and complimentary rental cars until your vehicle is fixed. Also, read reviews online to see if other customers have enjoyed their claims process experience. The more convenient the claims process, the more you can focus on your employees, your customers, and keeping your business afloat.
By knowing what to look for in a new commercial vehicle insurance policy, you can keep costs low, make things easier for your team, and adjust your coverage to your meet your business's changing needs. Contact a company like NFP, P & C, Inc. for more information.
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