Fleet insurance has completely different considerations when compared to choosing personal vehicle insurance. Scania, a Swedish automotive industry manufacturer, is an excellent example of how companies are tailoring their insurance offers to suit individual fleet needs.
The fleet industry is all about optimised operations – schedules are tight, routes are pre-planned, drivers are trained to drive as efficiently as possible, because every wasted cent or minute is an unnecessary cost to the company. Fleet managers simply can’t afford excessive vehicle downtime due to insurance obstacles.
According to an article published in Capital Equipment News, Belinda Felix, Insurance Manager at Scania South Africa, is of the opinion that every hour a truck is not operating, customers are losing money and there’s an increased risk they won’t be able to pay their finance premiums. Felix knows that customers with less downtime are better for Scania itself, as they are less likely to terminate their contracts due to insufficient funds caused by excessive downtime.
Scania has therefore come up with some brilliant fleet insurance solutions that help fleet managers ensure a smooth process with minimal (often zero) downtime in the event of a claim. Nearly three years ago, Scania decided to move its insurance offering in-house, instead of working through third parties and brokers. This has allowed the company to be a lot more flexible and offer their clients insurance that’s crafted to suit their needs.
This is brilliant insight and makes perfect sense for all parties involved. Since the above-mentioned article was published, Scania has partnered with Commrisk Insurance Brokers to oversee the process while the company upskills and licenses its own in-house staff. Scania’s insurance programme will eventually be fully integrated into the business.
Felix believes it is important for Scania to be a one-stop-shop as this will greatly reduce admin and downtime related to insurance. This is a massive benefit to clients as they can deal directly with Scania when it comes to insurance related matters. For Scania, it means they are much more involved and will have access to valuable data that will allow them to further optimise their vehicles and services.
As a truck manufacturer, Scania has in-depth knowledge of the risks and costs involved with running such a fleet. The company can therefore look at each individual client’s needs and set up a tailored financial plan to help optimise funding cost, tax, and cashflow management.
To further reduce delays, Scania also offers the support of specialist teams to help manage the claims process. The aim is to ensure everything is clear from the start and that the claim process is handled as quickly as possible.
One of the best aspects of this pro-active insurance solution is that Scania’s insurance covers all truck brands. The company knows that many of their clients have multi-brand fleets, and true optimisation can only happen if the insurance offer can be applied to all vehicles in a fleet.
This method of insurance – and the fact that it’s being done by a company that understands the unique needs in the fleet industry – is already proving successful less than three years after being introduced. In the article quoted above, Felix says that since the new partner structure was implemented in September 2015, they already have over 135 customers who have opted for Scania insurance.
The industry response to this fresh take on industry insurance has been fantastic, and Felix expects Scania’s insurance division to grow by 10% year-on-year.
*EQSTRA Fleet Management applied the same methodology when we created EQSTRA Financial Services.
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