In the fast-paced world of commercial transportation, ensuring that your insurance premium and policy are as hardworking as your road operations is crucial.
Check out these tips to help get the most value, while still transporting goods safely.
Factors impacting commercial truck insurance
First, let’s understand what drives the premium. Insurers consider:
- Vehicle type, including the size, model, and truck age and condition
- Vehicle value
- Type of carrier, so what you transport be it tradie tools, standard freight, dangerous goods, animals, etc. and their value
- Radius class (or limits), such as the truck distance travelled, areas covered, whether interstate, commuting to and from work, etc. If you venture outside the radius limit of your policy, you may face extra excess fees or claim issues
- Drivers’ age, experience, safe driving record and no-claims history, and
- The safety rating of your trucking business.
Add to those risk factors, the stubbornly high inflation rate, and supply chain issues increasing claim and repair costs. The more coverage a commercial truck insurance policy offers, the higher the premium. Typically, though, most truck insurance policies will cover your truck for theft and fire.
Using dashcams
Investing in dashboard cameras may indirectly help reduce your insurance costs over time. Here’s how:
- Motivates drivers to improve their driving behaviour because you’ll be able to monitor individual driving habits
- Gives you analytics for timely feedback about driver performance, so you can intervene with safety coaching
- Offers useful evidence – video footage – to determine who’s liable if there’s a claim. Fewer at-fault accidents mean lower excess payments for your business
- Along with a safe-driving policy, dashcams send a strong message about your safety culture to would-be recruits.
Typically, truck dashcams and outward and inward facing cameras (so they can monitor driver attention) are particularly useful for fatigue management. There are even artificial-intelligence powered dash cams that use machine vision; handy for real-time audio and visual alerts, plus live streaming. Trucking companies are using them to record drivers and look out for speeding and heavy braking.
These may sound like something out of Big Brother, but dashcams can also boost security. Consider using them to record break-ins or suspicious behaviour. That evidence can help police locate your stolen assets.
Augment your excess
Opting for a higher excess figure on your insurance policy is another strategy to reduce your overall premium. By agreeing to pay a larger sum out-of-pocket in the event of a claim, policyholders can often secure lower monthly or annual insurance costs.
This approach can be financially beneficial for those who are willing to accept a higher immediate expense during a claim, in exchange for long-term savings on their insurance premiums.
Get the same carrier to insure your personal care and truck
Bundling your policies into a package is a great way to slim your premiums. Insure your personal car with the same insurer and you may get an even better premium.
That’s where we can come in. We pledge to help you find the lowest possible premium rate without compromising your coverage and safety. Let us do the shopping around for you and present you with options for customised cover.