Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.
LJN's professional business forum is unrivalled and open to anyone within within the UK landscape industry
LJN's Business Objectives Group (BOG) is for any Pro serious about building their business.
For the researching visitor there's a wealth of landscaping ideas, garden design ideas, lawn advice tips and advice about garden maintenance.
Replies
I have this dilemma every year when we renew our vehicle insurances.
We have been offered fleet policies in the past, but we have decided to stick for the moment with individual policies for several reasons even though there is certainly more paperwork. Because we have a number of different types of vehicles driven by different ages, our brokers have continuously beaten fleet policies prices.
Also, due to renewal dates, individual policies have given us better cash flow. I know there are monthly etc payment plans but have you seen the costs !!!. The brokers view is that a Fleet policy typically prices on the lowest (worst) denominator (ie it takes the worst rated vehicle and youngest driver and can apply these rates across all vehicles when the quote is being produced). I guess they have to assess the worst risk.
However, the time is coming where the ease of a fleet policy (especially if offers cover for hire vehicles, with a decent min age requirement etc) may well outweigh cost issues.
I am always worried that we will miss an insurance, breakdown insurance or road-tax renewal, but our brokers are brilliant and do take the hassle away. In our early days we used a call-centre (now I guess an online) type company. When we had a problem the service SUCKED. We spent hours & hours on the phone submitting claims, answering questions, pushing for replacement vehicles, trying to recover excesses when it was not our fault. Never, never again!
This is another subject a bit like equipment and vehicles. Everyone has unique requirements and you will get a lot of views. Ultimately I would recommend you explore all avenues and choose what is right for your situation.
http://www.likewiseinsurance.com/van-insurance/
try this was far the cheapest on my search (highway was who they put mine on)
cant remember if i used Swift ' to do it - they emailed to say i have free' legal cover'£25 usually as i dint take up the option.
rac was £30 but you can get it for £28 on your own/ or free homestart for new people i saw ad in star today (not my paper lol) i have free key (if lost returned service also usually £10)
i was very happy with the price :-) and im tight
they show you 22 companies prices - let them do the work ! monthly options @10%
After speaking with a few brokers it seems they are unable to compete on price.
The benefit to having the single multi vehicle/fleet policy would be having any driver drive any van. I don't think this is something I need at this stage of my business, so I shall carry on untill there comes a time when I have more vans and drivers.
I took a policy out with Commercial Vehicle Direct ( CVD ) early December for £530. I rang end December to get a price for adding trailer to the policy. Response - Sorry we don't insure trailers!
So I rang up again last week to ask how much they would return to me upon cancellation of the policy, answer £275!
Someone then said that oh yes, they can insure trailers. 1.5days later - oh sorry, there's only one insurer we work with that covers trailers (AXA) and the max amount is £3k!
After me complaining a lot they reduce the cancellation charge to leave me with £338.
That means that the 5 weeks cover cost me £165 when, proportionally the cover is £51pw. I make that £114 charges, all because this broker, CVD cannot adequately insure trailers!
NB I know that seperate trailer policies can be purchased, but I am now with the NFU which works out cheaper than this option, even taking into account the loss I have made!
This is not a mistake I will ever make again, I will always read the small print, even if it's a booklet!