Texas Business Owners are always looking for ways to cut expenses to help them improve profitability. If your business owns vehicles, you understand that the costs of using those vehicles can become unsustainable. The raw cost of vehicles has escalated substantially over the years as the technology included in those vehicles has taken off. Fuel costs seem to go up and down like a yo-yo. And then there is the cost of Commercial Auto Insurance premiums which seems to climb an endless stair case. Insurance For Texans has some concrete steps that business owners can take right now to help reduce the cost of their auto insurance premiums even if we can't reduce the cost of vehicles and fuel. Below are five tips on how business owners can help lower their commercial auto premiums.
Steps To Controlling Commercial Auto Insurance Premiums
1. Hire the Right People
If you are hiring someone, you want the best. It only makes sense. How about also making sure that their driving history is the best as well? Commercial auto insurance companies run reports to determine who they are insuring. That includes your employees who are driving your expensive vehicles. That potential employee who has two speeding tickets and a wreck or two is going to cost you more. It's simple risk management. Make sure that you understand who you are hiring to put behind the wheel.
2. Have a Safety Plan
Hopefully you have safety plans for many things in your business. You need to understand what happens if your data is breached. You need to understand what happens if someone slips and falls. You also need to have a safety plan in place for employees who drive company vehicles. You need to develop guidelines for the proper use of your company vehicles. Yo will also want defined procedures in place in the event of an accident. Doing this before a situation arises and communicating it clearly with your employees will make your business safer and easier to insure. Keep this plan up to date with periodic reviews as well.
3. Have a Maintenance Plan
Most Texans understand the need for things like oil changes. How about tire rotations and inspections? Keeping your vehicle safe to operate is just as important as keeping safe drivers operating them. Keep up with your regular maintenance schedule and conduct regular safety checks on the vehicles. A damaged tire is often easy to spot, but can lead to a claim nightmare that can have profound affects upon both your balance sheet and cash flow. Being able to show these plans and and their execution to an underwriter can make a world of difference when you go shopping for your commercial auto insurance.
4. Review Your Deductibles
One thing that is often overlooked by business owners is how much their deductibles are for their policies. Having a higher deductible can benefit you and your business in two distinct ways. First is that higher deductibles are shown to improve your mindset to safety. Knowing that your out of pocket cost is increased puts a greater focus on safety which in turn reduces the number of claims. Second is that eliminating the ability to create frequent small claims will also keep these events off of your claim history. Those two mechanisms work to reduce claim activity which in turn leads to lower premiums!
5. Choosing the Right Payment Plan
Did you realize that different payment plans can drastically change your cost? Many of the insurance companies that Insurance For Texans works with offer hefty incentives based of a fewer number of payments during your policy period. While you may not be able to swing the entire year, making two or four payments can make your costs go down compared to a monthly situation. Along with that is evaluating the mechanism by which you pay. Setting up an auto-draft via a checking account is going to create fewer fees as well, so it's worth looking at all of your options on the policy.
Choosing The Right Agent To Help Implement These Tips!
We realize that it feels like insurance agents are on every corner. But not all of these are created equal. As a business owner, you understand that shopping a marketplace for something you need is an important process to keep your costs down. But who has time to shop with many different insurance companies? Working with an independent insurance agent allows you to take advantage of shopping the market place without you expending the time required since they do it for you.
Along with that, make sure that you are working with an agent that specializes in commercial insurance. You work hard to be a master of your craft, and use that to help your customers. A commercial insurance specialist will do the same for you. It's important for your agent to understand the market place, your business, and how to navigate those dynamics.
If you would like to work with an independent insurance specialist, simply click that image.