Let’s get the frustrating bit out of the way first. There is no standard price for fleet insurance. Insurers don’t publish rate cards, and any website giving you a definitive figure without knowing your vehicles, drivers, and claims history is guessing. What we can do is give you a realistic picture of what businesses like yours are actually paying right now, and more importantly, explain what pushes your premium up and what brings it down.
The backdrop matters here. UK motor insurers paid out a record £11.7 billion in claims in 2024, up 17% on the previous year, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The average claim hit £4,900. Commercial fleets, which clock up far more miles than private motorists, felt that pressure keenly. The good news is that the market began softening in 2025, with the ABI reporting consecutive quarterly premium falls.
What Does Fleet Insurance Cost by Fleet Size?
Fleet size is the most useful starting point when thinking about cost, because it changes how insurers approach your risk entirely. A two-van operation gets assessed very differently from a 40-vehicle logistics company. Here’s a realistic breakdown based on current market conditions, assuming a reasonably clean claims record and standard vehicles:
| Fleet Size | Typical Annual Range | Per Vehicle | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2–5 vehicles Small/mini fleet |
£800 – £2,500 | £300 – £600 | Cars or light vans, experienced drivers, clean history |
| 6–10 vehicles | £2,500 – £6,000 | £280 – £500 | Mixed types begin to attract specialist broker assessment |
| 11–20 vehicles | £5,000 – £12,000 | £250 – £450 | Any-driver policies are more common; telematics are available |
| 20–50 vehicles | £12,000 – £35,000 | £220 – £400 | Dedicated account management is typically available |
| 50+ vehicles | £35,000 – £100,000+ | £180 – £350 | Bespoke underwriting; economies of scale apply |
| HGV fleets Any size |
Significant uplift | £1,500 – £5,000+ | Vehicle weight, goods type, and route are all assessed separately |
All figures are indicative ranges for 2025 based on market data. Your actual premium depends on your fleet profile, driver history, and claims record. Always obtain multiple quotes.
💡 Broker Insight
“Two identical businesses in the same postcode can pay vastly different premiums. We’ve seen one company on £500 per vehicle with a clean record and a written driver risk policy, and a near-identical competitor on £2,000 per vehicle because of poor claims management and no risk procedures on paper. The fleet is the same. The price isn’t.”
What Factors Affect Your Fleet Insurance Premium?
Underwriters aren’t using a simple formula. They build a picture of your business, how you operate, who drives for you, what your claims history looks like, where vehicles are kept, and then decide whether they want to insure you and at what price. These are the factors that move the number the most:
1. Claims history – the biggest single factor
Your fleet’s claims record over the past three to five years carries more weight than almost anything else. Insurers look at both how often claims occur and how much they cost. Two serious at-fault accidents in three years will cost you significantly more at renewal than any other factor. It’s also why some fleet operators choose to self-fund minor incidents rather than claiming; a small repair bill now can save considerably more in premium increases over the following three years.
2. Who is driving your vehicles?
Young drivers under 25 are expensive to insure. Full stop. An any-driver policy open to drivers aged 21 and over will cost noticeably more than one with a minimum age of 30. Beyond age, insurers look at penalty points, convictions, and recent at-fault accidents across your driver pool.
- Drivers aged 21–24: highest premium loading, typically 25–40% above standard
- Drivers aged 25–30: moderate loading, reduces with a clean history
- Drivers 30 and over: standard assessment, based primarily on claims and conviction history
- Drivers with 6+ penalty points: individually assessed, some insurers will decline
3. Vehicle type, age, and value
Private cars sit in insurance groups 1 to 50. Commercial vehicles are assessed differently, but the principle holds: newer, higher-value vehicles cost more to insure. Electric vehicles currently attract a premium loading because battery replacement costs (£8,000–£20,000 in some cases) inflate total loss frequencies. That gap is narrowing as repair infrastructure improves, but it’s still there in 2025.
4. What your vehicles are actually used for
A van doing 30,000 miles a year for courier deliveries is a fundamentally different risk from the same van doing 8,000 miles visiting clients. Hiring and reward use, carrying goods or passengers for payment, always attracts a higher premium than carriage of your own goods.
⚠ Important
If your mileage declaration is too low and a claim arises, your insurer can and will challenge it. Don’t understate mileage to save a few pounds; it can invalidate your cover entirely at the worst possible moment.
5. Where are vehicles kept overnight?
Street parking in a high-theft postcode costs more than a locked compound with CCTV. It’s genuinely priced into your premium. Security measures that bring your quote down include:
- Thatcham-approved immobilisers fitted across the fleet
- Slam locks on van rear and side doors
- GPS trackers with live monitoring capability
- CCTV-covered compound or secure yard for overnight parking
- Dashcams with cloud upload are increasingly requested by insurers at renewal
Is Fleet Insurance Cheaper Than Insuring Vehicles Separately?
Usually, yes, and often by a meaningful margin. Rather than assessing each vehicle individually, insurers look at the whole fleet as a pooled risk. A few higher-risk vehicles get pulled along by the cleaner ones. Volume matters too; the more vehicles on one policy, the better the per-vehicle rate tends to be.
Five vans on separate policies at £900 each = £4,500/year. The same five vans on a fleet policy typically cost £3,000–£3,500. That’s up to £1,500 back in the business, plus one renewal date and one claims contact instead of five.
If you’re still running individual van insurance policies across multiple vehicles, it’s worth getting a fleet quote at your next renewal purely to compare. You may well be paying more than you need to.
See what your fleet would cost
Get tailored quotes from FCA-regulated UK brokers in minutes. No cold calls, no spam.
How Can You Reduce Your Fleet Insurance Premium?
There’s no magic trick, but there are levers that genuinely work. Here’s what makes a real difference, roughly in order of impact:
- ✅
Install telematics – insurers typically discount 10–20% for fleets sharing real driving data. It’s the single most consistent premium reducer available to fleet operators right now.
- ✅
Write a formal driver risk policy – even a two-page document signals to underwriters that you manage your fleet proactively. It genuinely moves renewal conversations.
- ✅
Set a minimum driver age – raising the minimum from 21 to 25 can cut your premium by 15–25%, depending on your fleet profile.
- ✅
Raise your voluntary excess – only worth doing if your claims record is clean. A higher excess in exchange for a lower premium makes sense if you rarely claim.
- ✅
Compare at renewal every single year – the spread between brokers quoting on the same fleet can be 20–30%. Loyalty is rarely rewarded in this market. Don’t auto-renew. Ever.
- ❌
Don’t understate mileage or driver ages – misrepresentation is treated as material non-disclosure and can result in claims being rejected entirely.
📋 A Note on These Figures
All cost figures are indicative ranges based on market data as of early 2025. Your actual premium depends entirely on your specific fleet, drivers, and claims history. Always get multiple quotes – the variation between brokers on the same risk is larger than most businesses expect.
