Taxi Driver Online

My insurance is due for renewal next week. I have just received our claims history.
I have asked a couple of brokers to have a look at the market for us. I've had an email from one saying that he can't get any quotes unless I tell him what my renewal quote is from my current insurer. To me that is just a [edited by admin] way to keep the price as high as possible by just beating the renewal by a bit rather than just offering their best price.

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Grandad,

Mine FC over 40 on a saloon full NCB, screen and protected bonus was £1150 this year, £950 last year, it's all hiked up recently, good luck but I doubt you'll get it under a grand.

Last year it was £900 per vehicle based on 12 vehicles. This year so far it is £1431 per vehicle.

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Grandad,

There's no such thing as cheap insurance nowadays, I'm affraid you've got to bite the bullet and let them take your pants down and pay it.

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Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

Believe me, don't get Mercury X2

Haggle it, make a figure up like £950 and a fake company and watch em try to beat/match it, if they try to rumble you say it was a broker in the PHM who quoted you, if they ask for more details simply say I don't have it with me right now, expect to pay around £1200.

Best quote so far is £1300 per vehicle and the broker that I have used for the last few years thinks he can get it down to £1050-1100 per vehicle.

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Grandad,

Yes I am getting all that tell us what you've already been quoted but I always tell them no one has got back to me with a price and then you usually get a quote with the request to phone them back once you have quotes and they will see if they can shave anything off so far for the Zafira I'm getting a range of £1148 ( Tradex) to £1542 ( Swinton) my existing broker is £1219 so I will now be phoning back to see what I can shave off !

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Hey driver, did you say £65 to the airport? Bloke down the road said he'd do it for £50. You'll agree £57.50 - deal!

As I've said before, I will never disclose who I work for nor will I advertise on this forum, but always happy to give general advice.

Fleet underwriting is like betting on the horses (so I'm told, I don't do that). What happens is an underwriter looks at your "form", claims experience", then looks at his statiistics for where you are and a range of other data to arrive at a price that will hopefully make him a profit. The agent/broker can make a commercial decision to dicount his commission but take care as everyone has to turn a profit to stay in business. Even insurance people. Be wary that if you drive down the intial commission too much, you will get caught with mid term adjustment fees.

Any taxi fleet premium these days of less than £1000 per vehicle regardless of cover is a rarity.

You may stand a better chance of getting a cost reduction by asking for a deal on the finance rather than the actual premium, assuming you want to pay monthly.

Carefully choose no more than 3 or 4 brokers for fleet quotes as that will more than cover the whole fleet market. Underwiters that see the same risk presented by a whole bunch of brokers are quite likely to decline to quote on those grounds alone.

Find a broker or agent you feel you can trust and build a rapport with. Trust works both ways, I have clients I trust and will do things for them instantly without question knowing we will get any money due and the paperwork is straight. Sometimes going for the cheapest is not always the best plan.

I have clients that have insured their fleets with me for many years, the longest being 21 years. It would have been 22 but I did lose him for a year but he came back.

Here is one of my favourite quotations:

It is unwise to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little. When you pay too much you lose a little money - that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought for. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a litte and getting a lot. It cannot be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better. JOHN RUSKIN (1819-1900)

If anyone really wants to know more about fleet underwriting and pricing, PM me and I will send you some stuff that will make it a lot clearer. It is from an industry training system and will be an eye opener.

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Nobody told me to use my initiative. To err is human to arr is pirate.

I thought you were about to give us some prices there

I forwarded the prices that my current broker has quoted to another broker and he has declined to quote now.

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Grandad,

My new Vito was £880.

Looks like I got a deal !

Mind you, that was up from about £750 the year before.

My E7 is £940/year with Westminster. Full NCB and owner only driving tho'. I had a quarterly policy with them for yonks but it became too expensive that way.

They won't do 1/4 now anyway iirc the last time I was with them, excess is excessive as well.

Mine is £680 30 years nc protected

Coughs*

You need to tell them it's for hire and reward Skip, I've defended you before, but right now you look like the guy who drives a 55 mpg 300C.