Ways to Save Money on Motor Traders Insurance

Having and running a motor trade business can be a very complex and expensive business to run. Naturally, you will want to reduce your outgoings as much as possible in order to retain the greatest level of profit.

For those in the various car trade industries such as mechanics or car garages, we have put together a guide to help you save money on your traders insurance policy.

There will be a wide variety of things that will affect the cost of any insurance policy. What affects your motor trade policy though will be quite specific to the trade industry.

These will include but not limited to:

• You type of motor trade activity
• Level of cover
• The value or type of vehicle you work on
• The drivers you wish to put on your policy
• The location of your business

Here are some specific ways you can help to reduce the cost of your motor traders insurance quote.

The basic level of cover you choose will drastically affect the price of your quote. It is through this initial base level of cover that you decide how much of your business you would like covering.

Fully Comprehensive Cover

Fully comprehensive is the most robust and full cover available. This level of cover will provide you cover the third party affected in the event of a fault claim. It will also provide a level of cover for you and your own vehicles.

Third Party, Fire & Theft

This level of cover is a little more restrictive. It will still provide cover for a third party along with cover for if your car is stolen or set on fire. You won’t though be covered if you have an accident.

Third Party Only

Third party only is the most restrictive level of cover. It will only cover the third party in the event of an accident. None of your own vehicles will be covered in anyway shape or form.

By reducing the number of drivers you have named on your motor trade policy, you will reduce the level of risk, especially if they are younger drivers.

When putting people on your policy, look to keep drivers over the age of 25 and preferably with no penalty points or criminal convictions.

You should ask to see employee driving history when you are recruiting to ensure that you don’t have any avoidable surprises.

Although ‘any driver’ cover is available, it will be more expensive.

By having a higher excess applied to your policy, you are essentially demonstrating that you are willing to take on more of the cost associated with the claim.

It is though extremely important that you can afford the excess in the event of needing to make a claim. For instance, if you are a garage based motor trader who needs to claim on their combined motor trade insurance policy because a car fell off a ramp. You will need to claim on your insurance for that due to the cost but if you can’t afford the access cover, you will still be stuck.

One of the best ways to save money is to compare motor trade insurance quotes from multiple, specialist brokers.

Not all brokers have access to the same schemes so it is essential that you shop around and speak with multiple brokers. We here at Total Insurance can help you with that process as we know what brokers can quote who competitively.

Yes you will need to speak to them over the phone but the money saved will almost certainly be worth the time.

Increasing security is particularly important for traders who can have either a vast number of expensive tools, cars in stock or even both.

By increasing security, you better guard and protect your property from theft or vandalism, it acts as a deterrent to those who may seek to act untoward you.

A repair garage for instance will have a lot of expensive equipment inside of which you won’t want to be stolen. A mobile mechanic will likely have a van that also has a lot of tools on board to insure.

By fitting additional security such as locks, bollards of security lighting, you can better prevent their theft.

Inline with consumer duty, a broker should not pile unrequired addons by default but only suggest those that should genuinely be considered by yourself.

It is important to ensure you have adequate cover at all times but if you don’t need a particular addon, don’t leave it on your policy, take it off.

For instance, a mechanic without staff is unlikely to need employee insurance.

If you are just starting out in the car trade industry and you only really require a road risk insurance policy. Then you could save money be moving your personal no claims bonus onto your motor trade policy.

Generally speaking, if purchasing a fully comprehensive policy, you can drive your own vehicles on your policy up to a set value. This allows you to transfer your no claims over.

When you avoid claiming, you build up what is called a ‘no claims bonus’ as time goes on. The greater your no claims bonus, the more money you save as you present yourself as being a safer client to insure.

If you do need to make a claim, keep the claim accurate and don’t be tempted to inflate any costs for extra money. Inflated claim costs will result in inflated policy costs over the following years.

When you pay for you traders insurance policy annually, you avoid any costs associated with a finance plan to facilitate a monthly payment schedule.