Fleets can resist higher insurance costs, says Alphabet

Fleet operators can fight excessive insurance cost increases driven by opportunistic personal injury claims, Alphabet said today.

Commenting on last week’s Transport Select Committee hearing on whiplash injury claims, Matt Sutherland of Alphabet said the enormous increase in motor insurance costs caused by the multi-million pound trade in bogus injury claims was a gross market failure.

But blameless fleet operators need not be the passive victims of opportunistic third party claims and insurance premium hikes, he said.

“While the issue has only recently come into the public spotlight, Accident Management suppliers have been honing their responses to the situation for a long time,” explained Sutherland.

“For example Alphabet Accident Management deploys a variety of sophisticated techniques to block spurious claims, which typically result in a 40%-50% reduction in third party claims costs for our customers.”

Data provided by Accident Management strengthens the fleets’ position when they negotiate insurance premiums, added Sutherland.

“In all, 68% of the fleets that were independently surveyed for the current Alphabet Fleet Report said their insurance costs did not rise last year,” he said. “That is a striking testament to the benefit of managing accident costs effectively.”

General motor premiums increased by 30% in 2010 alone; a figure the insurance industry blamed largely on personal injury claims.

The majority of Alphabet’s major clients now include Accident Management with their leasing contracts. Alphabet also offers an Insurance Inclusive Contract Hire product that includes competitively-priced insurance in fixed monthly rentals, subject to a yearly review of the customer’s claims profile.