Europe’s fleet insurance estimated at €15.8bn
Motor insurance premiums for fleet vehicles across ten European countries has valued at an estimated worth of €15.8bn (£13.7bn) for 2011.
The research from Finaccord, which specialises in market research consultancy for financial services, also guessed €980m (£854m) on premiums for road assistance vehicles. The combined value of these premiums could rise to €18bn by 2015, Finaccord reckoned.
“Among fleet passenger cars, the segment of car hire companies is expected to have the best growth in premiums between 2011 and 2015,” revealed David Parry, Managing Consultant at Finaccord.
“This is because the number of cars for rental is expected to rise significantly and because policy prices are high for these vehicles.
“A lot of car hire companies have captive insurance operations because it is difficult to insure them, but the size of this segment and its prospects for growth mean that there is a substantial opportunity here.”
Huge potential value
The study included the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Fleet commercial vehicles were split into couriers and postal services, the motor trade, operating lease firms, removal firms, road haulage firms, van and lorry hire firms, and other fleets.
Road haulage was by far the biggest dog in terms of premiums paid, added David: “But it is a mature market, operational leasing is becoming more popular in many European countries, and these fleets are expanding faster than average.
“This means that insurance and assistance providers stand to gain more by targeting a relatively small number of leasing companies rather than a mass of small and medium-sized fleets.”
Mr Parry urged providers of fleet insurance to devise ways of reducing costs, either by rating large fleets on their own claims record or having a greater reliance on telematics.
“For smaller fleets, affinity schemes with trade associations can play a similar role, by underwriting a large number of vehicles with a similar risk,” he explained.
“There is huge potential value in the use of telematics for both large and small fleets.
“At present, it helps insurers mostly with assistance and with recovering stolen vehicles and it can be essential when working with car hire companies in particular, not just to reduce theft but also to provide detailed information about collisions to assist with claims settlement.
“The next steps are to introduce pay-as-you-drive – and pay-how-you-drive – insurance policies, which have been launched for fleets in the UK. Widespread adoption of this could revolutionise fleet insurance and assistance over the next five years.”
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