Taxi Insurance
Taxi insurance, whether you
are a private hire owner driver or run a fleet of black cabs, is a more
complex subject than normal motor insurance thanks to the obligatory cover
for "carriage of persons for hire or reward". There are a number of ways of
reducing the premiums, some of them by substantial amounts, but every
method has both advantages and disadvantages and need to be looked at very
carefully. Here are a few which are worth considering:
1) One of the main factors that an insurance company will consider when
working out your premium is the postcode of your office. An inner city
address is likely to cost quite a lot more than a suburban, let alone
rural location but before you head for the hills to save a few, or even
not so few, pounds on your insurance policy you need of course to look at
just where your business is coming from; inner cities tend to produce a
lot more trade than areas further out.
2) If you have more than a couple of taxis it may be worthwhile looking at
fleet cover. The advantage of it is that you can have a mix of vehicles on
the same policy and some insurance companies will also allow you to
include privately owned cars as well. This can very often work out much
cheaper than insuring every vehicle individually. Whether you insure the
vehicles for named drivers or any driver can be a debatable point; if the
vehicles are insured for any driver it gives you maximum flexibility to
change drivers around if one is ill or you have a sudden surge of work to
cover. The disadvantage is cost; named drivers can be much cheaper
particularly if they have good driving records; it is very rare for every
driver to be equally claim- and conviction-free, and it is sometimes an
advantage to take a driver with a less than perfect record, or a young and
inexperienced one, out of the fleet policy and insure this person
separately.
3) Whilst we're on the subject it is worth bearing in mind that many
insurance companies see female drivers as being safer risks than male
ones, and whilst it would be illegal to discriminate on the basis of a
driver's sex it is a fact that many insurance companies could offer you
lower premiums if you had a fair proportion of drivers of the fairer sex.
4) How the business operates can have a great bearing on premiums.
Insurance companies tend to prefer a situation under which drivers go out
in the morning to regular work for pre-arranged contract clients rather
than irregular business which comes from picking up passengers from the
street or those that the driver is directed to via a two way radio
contact.
5) As with a normal car insurance policy, you can save a great deal by
insuring the vehicle itself for third party only risks since this is the minimum
legal requirement (although check that your local licensing authority is
happy about this first). The drawback to this of course is that since the cab
would be essential to your livelihood you could find yourself completely
unable to earn your living if it was damaged or stolen. A less risky
alternative could be to accept a much higher voluntary excess on the
policy, and many insurers will give quite substantial discounts for this.
6) taxi insurance, as we stated above, is a complex and specialised
subject so you might find it far better talking the whole thing through
with a specialist broker, rather than try to navigate through the
minefield of different options by yourself. Good luck! |
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