For fleet carriers, a hardened insurance market is driving costly renewals.

Over the last decade, an increase in severe crashes has led to numerous bodily injury settlements with sizeable verdicts - and these settlements are being passed off to fleet operators in the form of higher premiums and deductibles. Fleet carriers can expect annual renewal increases of 5 to 10% across the board.

What can fleet carriers do?

There are a number of best practices and renewal strategies aimed at reducing these rate increases. Consider the following:

1. Pay attention to the insurance market. Don’t let premium increases catch you by surprise. Your broker should be alerting you of the insurance market’s ups and downs so you can better anticipate renewal increases, and budget appropriately.
2. Know your DOT scores. Develop a strategy to improve – or maintain – your DOT score. Leverage the FMCSA’s new Crash Preventability Determination Program (CPDP), which allows fleet carriers to demonstrate that a DOT recordable crash was non-preventable, thereby removing it from the fleet’s CSA calculations. Crashes that occurred on or after August 1, 2019 and fall into one of 10 categories are eligible for a Request for Data Review (RDR).
3. Start thinking about your next renewal at least 120+ days out. Check in with your broker regularly to examine your losses a few times throughout the year, especially in the four months leading up to your renewal. Understanding your losses will allow you to better negotiate the renewal.
4. Don’t take your policy to market every year. If a business goes out to market every year, it could negatively affect pricing. Discuss with your broker and develop a strategy to go out to market every two to three years.
5. Assume more of your own risk. Consider shouldering more of your own risk and taking it off the insurance company as a way to reduce your premium. Increasing your deductible is one way to do this.
6. Create a culture of safety. Best practices that support and enhance workplace safety correlate to lower insurance premiums. For example, institute regular vehicle inspections, fatigue management and training on defensive driving.
7. Engage in good hiring practices. Obtain a copy of your insurance company’s preferred hiring guidelines. Communicate all hires to your insurance company.
8. Communicate with your insurance broker. As you make changes and/or improvements to your fleet operations, tell your broker so he/she can work with the underwriter throughout the year. Consistent communication throughout the year will demonstrate your continued commitment to improvement.
9. Tell your complete story. Because the underwriter will eventually find out anything and everything there is to know about your business, take a proactive approach and be upfront about your fleet strengths and weaknesses. Let them know what you’re doing today to turn poor practices around.
10. Prepare a complete submission. Your thoroughness will assist the insurance company in quoting your account early. Understand what a complete submission means. The more complete your renewal submission, the better chance you have to save.

Contact your HUB Transportation Specialist to find out how you can keep fleet carrier renewal increases at bay. You can also learn more about HUB’s commercial trucking insurance services here.