Specialist Motor Insurance: Groupama providing added value to their current Motor Fleet Insurance Policies.

Following on from the relatively successful Optima Small Fleet Insurance product, French insurer, Groupama has further enhanced its current Fleet Insurance Policy meaning that the owners of larger fleets can now also benefit from some of the cover that was previously only available to those who operated either small or micro businesses.
This is great news for brokers who have a commercial agreement in place with Groupama as these additional enhancements are likely to provide an additional sales edge for those targeting the highly competitive SME market.
Groupama fleet insurance is designed to provide car insurance cover for fleets in excess of 15 vehicles. It is well favoured within the industry and operates across numerous trades within the motor insurance sector. As a result of the recent changes, Groupama fleet Insurance now includes enhanced overnight emergency accommodation or travel expenses as well as having a new personal accident benefits package incorporated into the policy also.
The company, who have a reputation for responding to feedback from their brokers and intermediaries, appear to have also taken heed of some recent advice as they seem to have presented the policy in much plainer English, something that they (and most of their peers) seem to have struggled with in the past. The advantage of this is of course is more clarity for the consumer, meaning in essence an easier sale for the broker.
Groupama's Head of Customer Proposition, Lynn Harris says "Our strategy of obtaining broker feedback on our products and service on an ongoing basis means we can see immediate opportunities to refine and enhance our propositions to keep brokers one step ahead. This, along with the success of Optima Small Fleet has really driven these changes and demonstrates Groupama’s commitment to giving brokers the tools to compete effectively."
For larger fleets, Groupama are now also offering access to an impressive range of risk management facilities via specialist driving consultancy Peak Performance Management. One inclusion within the policy which is often regarded as Peak Performance’s flagship tool is Risk watch, which enables the policyholder to train key personnel in how to conduct and implement an in-house driver risk assessment programme. The advantages of ingraining risk management concepts within the core of any organisation of course being good for insurer, broker and policy holder alike.
Also provided by Peak Performance Management for the policy holders are a series of ‘all of a sudden’ work shops, which set out to examine the circumstances surrounding the most common types of road incidents. In these small, focussed workshops, the participants are made to ‘discover’ the driving behaviours and techniques that will help them being involved in similar accidents.
To follow this work shop is a structured training process named ‘behind the wheel’ which is designed to improve driving skills and raise awareness further of risk management when driving. Peak Performance Management also provide Driver handbooks to help policy holders meet their duty of care as well as providing advice on how to reduce motoring costs through greater understanding of fuel economy and tyre wear etc.
With the Motor Insurance sector looking towards a tricky year in 2010 as underwriters face the challenge of working towards profitable margins, and brokers look forward to some uncomfortable conversations with long standing clients about the inevitable rise in insurance costs, additional benefits like these could make a lot of difference when it comes to renewal time.

It looks like Groupama may well have just gotten the first shot off in what could well be a long and protracted battle within the motor insurance industry in 2010.

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Compare 4X4 Insurance Quotes and Schemes at new 4X4 comparison site

New Specialist 4x4 Insurance and Off Road Vehicle Insurance Comparison Website Launched

A new specialist 4X4 insurance comparision service has been launched by the UK's leading specialist car insurance comparison website Car-Insurance.tv. The site allows 4X4 owners to find quotes, policies and cover, for their four wheel drive vehicles.

Compare 4x4 Insurance Quotes & Schemes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PR Log (Press Release) – Jan 15, 2010 – Car-Insurance.tv have today announced the launch of a new specialist 4x4 insurance comparison online application available at http://www.car-insurance.tv/4x4insurance.html

A spokesman for the company, Dave Healey, said that the system has been designed to cover all 4X4, 4WD, AWD, Off Road cars and high performance 4X4 vehicles with central differentials and multi-clutch systems. The policies offered include typical usage extras sought after by 4x4 owners such as towing, extra laden weight and off road cover.

The 4x4 insurance schemes are available to everyone and our system will find you cover even if you are a higher risk customer such as a Young Driver, have had Accidents / Claims, 2 or more driving convictions, Any Criminal conviction, Any driver with disability or medical condition or even Any person who has had insurance refused / cancelled.
Cover is also available for both the Channel Islands & Isle of Man covered

Customers who own 4X4's but have Non standard occupations i.e. Footballer, Actor etc can also be covered.
The system allows you to compare 4x4 insurance quotes and covers for all makes and models of 4X4 and four wheel drive cars, including all models from the following manufacturers: BMW, Ford, Jeep, Hummer, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota to name but a few of the makes available at the 4X4 insurance comparison website.

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Car Insurance Premium Hikes Set for 2010

It looks like the UK motorist will be paying a lot more than what they have been used to for Car Insurance in 2010!

With both car insurance comparison website car-insurance.tv last week predicting a hardening market for and now the AA predicting massive premium hikes this is unwelcome news for both the private car owner and the UK economy as a whole, which hardly needs any more inflationary pressures.

Owners of specialist or expensive cars are more likely than the competitive middle market, to feel the brunt of the car insurance premium hikes.

Here's what Insurance Blog has to say on the matter..........

UK Car Insurance Rates Must Harden As Loss Making Companies Claims Reserves Run Dry!

Incredibly Car Insurance companies in the UK are struggling to make a profit and 2010 is likely to see a large reduction in the supply of car insurance, with many famous brands and suppliers predicted to disappear from the high street and our television screens as the market adjusts to cater for the massive losses, according to analysts from car insurance comparison website Car-Insurance.tv.

Recently released figures show that the UK Motor Insurance market has been consistently losing money since 2004 when the total UK profit from underwriting car insurance policies was £77 million.
In 2007 the UK car insurance market made a £1.1 billion underwriting loss, last year the loss was £1.3 billion and the figures for 2009 are expected to be worse........

Very few car insurance providers have escaped the losses and are profitable, whilst many have released claims reserves held from previous profitable years to disguise the 'actual ' loss.

So what is causing such massive losses in a large compulsory market that not so long ago was the most aggressive in the world?

On the face of it the answer appears to be simple ...... The Cost of Claims!

Claims are the problem not because the Car Insurance Companies have failed to include the rising costs of claims into their pricing structures; but because they have failed to cover the true costs in the retail price!

Car Insurance underwriters seem to have forgotten the basic rules of betting when setting their prices - and that is, that the Bookie never loses.......

To understand where the car insurance underwriting companies have gone wrong you first need to examine how they arrive at the price of a car insurance policy premium.

The cost of your car insurance premium is basically made up of three components:

1. The costs of production - Staff, Systems, Distribution etc
2. The costs of losses - known claims ratios ( the proportion of a policy premium pool that gets eaten up in claims)
3. Profit

The cost of all these components can be calculated by clever people called actuaries who work for the insurance companies and the rates set accordingly.

So what's gone wrong?

Well naturally it is obvious to first look at claims as the cause of the losses - but the truth is far from this end of the life of a car insurance policy......

The frequency of claims has either fallen or remained fairly constant over the period of losses and the actual cost of claims has only risen by 1 percent.

Despite all the noise made about gangs of car insurance claims fraudsters roaming the streets of the UK, the fact of the matter is that most of this is propoganda aimed at deterring fraud which naturally rises during a recession/depression. The number of fraud cases are really insignificant in the true scale of the market to affect pricing.
Admittedly there has been a significant increase in the number of personal injury related claims, egged on by claims farming companies, which would affect long term pricing, however the losses experienced by Car Insurance companies are nothing to do with claims and claims pricing.

These type of claims fluctuations have always been dealt with successfully in the past by car insurance companies by adjusting reserve ratios or negotiating better re-insurance ( laying the risk off), or more importantly by adjusting price ........

But this time something is different....

Car Insurance Companies can no longer set the price! Not if they want to win the business anyway!
And they certainly cannot sell policies at the premium levels that the Actuaries suggest!

Why? Seemple .......The Internet!

And more importantly Car Insurance Price Comparison websites or aggregators as they are known in the industry, which account for around 90 percent of the Car Insurance sold online. Since around 2004 it has been possible to easily compare car insurance quotes online from numerous suppliers, and invariably the cheapest premium wins the business.

Car Insurance companies not longer set their own prices! And this is the problem!
In a race to achieve enough volume to make a book of car insurance business profitable the car insurance companies have been selling their car insurance polices too cheap and covering their losses with their claims reserves........time is running out!

For the consumer then as we enter 2010 it looks as if the best policy is still to visit comparison websites where you will be offered a choice of suitable policies at the most competitive prices.
If you stay with your current insurer - expect large premium hikes at renewal!
Shop around for specialist car insurance as prices are going to vary widely.
Visit a specialist car insurance comparison website as there will be many offers to be had as companies try to secure volume of car insurance policies.

specialist car insurance