Proposed Fuel Duty Rise
Fleet and business car operators must have been delighted to hear that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne has decided to defer the planned January fuel duty rise until 1 August next year. All we need now is a bit of help with finding cheap fleet and business car insurance.
Osborne made the announcement as part of his autumn statement. There was other good news too. Business car and Fleet operators also heard that the Government had decided to scrap the inflation-linked rise that was due in August 2012.
What all of this means for the business car and fleet owner is that(assuming no oil price increase) unleaded petrol and diesel will go up by only 3p in the next nine months. It’s not exactly a reduction in costs, but it helps to slow down the constant increased costs of running business cars and fleets.
So what other things might business car and Fleet owners to reduce their costs. I am pretty convinced that one of the things they could look at is insurance. There are loads of things they could do to help themselves… and it’s not always to simply fine the cheapest fleet or business car insurance. For example:
- Find a good insurance broker to look at the market then advise you on the best value policies rather than simply the cheapest
- Look at the excesses you are paying on claims and weigh them up against the discount you receive – big excesses do not always constitute best value
- Look after your claims record. Insurers will always look at your history when they underwrite. This can be done by educating drivers. Some fleet and business car operators even reward careful drivers or penalise the careless ones.
It seems to me that in these difficult times all businesses should be focussed on saving money and it is often the case that the cars, lorries, trucks, vans, busses or coaches that a business runs constitute a key cost. To save money a good fleet or business car operator will have to look at all these areas to help run his business more efficiently.
As I mentioned, using a broker can be the best way to get not only the cheapest but the most suitable insurance for your fleets of trucks, busses, coaches, vans, cars, and lorries. A good insurance broker will also be able to find the right cover for a single business car van truck lorry bus or coach.
