Linxup Blog
Save Money on Your Vehicle Insurance with GPS Fleet Tracking
By Jessica Stoddard Back to Home on Feb 1, 2016
As of 2012, there were more than 5.4 million fleet cars in service in the United States, and the number of fleet trucks, vans, and SUVs was estimated to exceed 11.7 million. That's a lot of fleet vehicles – and a lot of insurance to protect them.
Vehicle insurance is a major source of spending for fleet-based businesses, but it doesn't need to be. Insuring their fleet under a single policy can help fleet managers lower their premiums, and installing a GPS tracking device can reduce them even further.
Consider Fleet Insurance for a Discount
Fleet insurance provides liability coverage for each vehicle in your fleet, regardless of its purpose. For example, if your fleet consists of construction vehicles, commercial vehicles or cars, or even company vehicles driven by your family members, all your vehicles would be covered under one fleetwide policy. Depending on your insurance provider, grouping your fleet's vehicles under one policy can reduce your premiums up to 30%.
What constitutes a “fleet” depends on individual insurance providers, but in some cases, a fleet as small as two vehicles can quality for fleet insurance.
Factors That Influence Insurance Costs
No fleet insurance policy is created equal. Your policy will be customized to your specific fleet, and will be influenced by three main factors:
1. The types of vehicles you are insuring
Cars are cheaper to insure than vans, SUVs, and trucks. If you're insuring trucks, your premium will depend on whether the trucks are light, medium, or heavy-duty.
2. The intended use for your vehicle
Service fleets, such as plumbers or HVAC technicians, are often the least expensive to insure, while passenger fleets or business-to-business delivery vehicles are the most expensive. Retail fleets, like restaurant delivery vehicles, sit somewhere in the middle.
3. Your insurance policy
The more comprehensive your coverage, the more you will pay. At a minimum, fleet insurance covers collision and liability, but you may be able to add other options like roadside assistance and comprehensive coverage to protect your fleet in the event of theft, vandalism, or other damage.
Reducing Your Insurance Costs with GPS Fleet Tracking
GPS fleet tracking can make your fleet safer and more secure, which can in turn reduce your insurance premiums. Here's how:
1. Enhancing Vehicle Security and Safety
Security and anti-theft equipment like a GPS tracking device can help you stay claims-free, which can in turn reduce your insurance premiums. With a GPS tracker, you can receive alerts for authorized use or if your vehicle exits a specific geographical area. And in the event of a theft, real-time location tracking makes it easy to quickly locate your vehicles or assets.
In addition to making your vehicles more secure, GPS tracking can make your vehicles safer to operate. Automating maintenance schedules ensures that your fleet's maintenance stays up to date, which will in turn prevent you from making unnecessary, costly emergency claims.
2. Improving Driver Behavior
Every day, fleet managers are faced with the challenge of understanding how their drivers behave in the field. With GPS fleet tracking, managers can oversee their drivers' behavior and gain the insights they need to improve their driving habits, and in turn reduce their insurance premiums.
With GPS fleet tracking, you can:
- Monitor driver behavior remotely from wherever you are using interactive route replay and detailed reports, including visual indicators that show where your drivers stop, alerts for unsafe behavior, and other driving events. You can even keep an eye on your drivers while you're in the field using a mobile tracking app like Linxup's.
- Ensure drivers are using your vehicles properly by making sure vehicles are only used during designated work or in pre-determined locations using geofences and alerts for authorized use.
Learn more about how Linxup GPS tracking can improve driver performance.
3. Increasing Driver Safety
GPS fleet tracking software like Linxup's offers a number of tools designed to help fleet managers improve their driver safety, like safety report cards and real-time alerts for unsafe behavior:
- Safety Report Cards: Determine your potential insurance discount by following fleetwide safety trends over time, monitoring overall usage, and viewing safety rankings for each driver based on their daily performance and their behavior over time. Stack these safety rankings to determine your best and worst performing drivers, and use these insights to reward good behavior or encourage drivers to change their behavior behind the wheel.
- Alerts: Drivers and fleet managers can receive real-time alerts when unsafe driving behaviors occur, such as speeding, rapid acceleration, and harsh braking. When your drivers are aware they are driving dangerously and when you know which drivers frequently commit unsafe behaviors, you can work with them to improve your fleet's overall safety.
The knowledge that their driving habits are being tracked is often enough to result in safer driving behaviors. Discover more ways Linxup GPS tracking can help increase fleet safety.
Reduce Your Insurance Premiums with Linxup
Linxup GPS fleet tracking devices can help keep your vehicles safe and secure while improving your drivers' behavior and safety in the field, which can in turn lead to reduced insurance premiums.
Read more about how Linxup can help improve fleet performance.
