How to switch fleet insurance: the complete UK guide

Most UK fleet operators accept their renewal quote without question, paying 10, 20, or 30 percent more than the previous year because switching feels complicated and risky. It is not. Switching fleet insurance is a structured process with well-defined steps, manageable costs, and in most cases a financially significant outcome. The businesses that shop the market properly every renewal cycle consistently pay less than those that stay with the same insurer out of inertia, even after accounting for any broker fees and the time invested in the process.

Fleet policies are commercial contracts rather than personal motor policies, which means the switching process has some important differences. Your claims experience record replaces the personal no-claims bonus. Short-rate cancellation clauses can make mid-term switches expensive. The information you provide to a new insurer, and how you present it, affects both whether you get offered terms and what those terms look like. These are not barriers to switching; they are simply things to understand and plan around. Our guide on how fleet insurance works covers the fundamentals if you need a foundation before working through the switching process.

This guide covers everything you need to switch fleet insurance effectively: when to switch (renewal versus mid-term), how to calculate whether mid-term switching makes financial sense, what information to gather before going to market, how claims experience transfers to a new insurer, how to manage the handover without a gap in cover, and what to look for in the new policy beyond the headline premium. Whether you are switching after a difficult renewal conversation or simply shopping the market for the first time, the process is the same.

Renewal versus mid-term: when to switch and what it costs

The cleanest and almost always most cost-effective time to switch fleet insurance is at renewal. Your policy is ending naturally, there are no cancellation fees, your claims experience record transfers without complication, and you enter the new contract on the first day of cover with a fresh annual premium. If your renewal is coming up and you have received a quote that feels too high, the right response is to go to market immediately, not to negotiate with your existing insurer from a position of limited time.

Mid-term switching is more complex and the financial case needs to be calculated carefully before committing. Fleet policies use either pro-rata or short-rate cancellation terms, and the difference between the two matters significantly when working out whether switching makes financial sense.

Pro-rata cancellation means the insurer refunds the unused portion of your premium exactly, with no penalty beyond a fixed administration fee (typically £25 to £75 for fleet policies). If you have paid £12,000 for a 12-month policy and cancel six months in, you receive approximately £6,000 back, minus the admin fee. Mid-term switching on pro-rata terms is financially straightforward: if the saving on the new policy exceeds the admin fee, switching makes sense.

Short-rate cancellation is materially different. Instead of refunding the exact unused proportion, the insurer applies a short-rate table that charges a penalty for early termination. A policy cancelled six months in might only return 40 to 45 percent of the annual premium rather than the 50 percent you might expect. On a £12,000 policy that means receiving £4,800 to £5,400 instead of £6,000. The larger the policy and the earlier the cancellation, the more significant this penalty becomes. Always check whether your current policy uses pro-rata or short-rate terms before pursuing a mid-term switch.

There is a third scenario: policies where you have made a claim mid-term. Some fleet policies treat a paid claim as having earned the full annual premium regardless of when cancellation occurs, meaning you may receive no refund at all and may even owe an outstanding balance if you were paying monthly. This is the one situation where mid-term switching is almost never viable, and the right strategy is to plan for renewal.

What information to gather before going to market

Fleet insurance underwriting requires substantially more information than a personal motor policy. The quality and completeness of what you provide to a new insurer determines both whether you receive terms and how competitive those terms are. Preparing a proper fleet submission before approaching the market is not optional; it is the difference between receiving a quick indicative quote and receiving a properly underwritten offer that your broker can negotiate against.

Fleet schedule. A complete list of every vehicle currently on the policy, including registration number, make, model, year of manufacture, and current market value. New insurers use this to assess the physical risk and total insured value. An incomplete or outdated vehicle schedule is one of the most common reasons fleet quotes come back with exclusions or unexpectedly high premiums.

Claims history for five years. This is the most important document in any fleet switching submission. Your current insurer is legally required to provide a claims history on request, typically within ten working days. The history should show every incident by date, whether at-fault or non-fault, the settlement amount for each, and any outstanding reserves on open claims. Outstanding reserves are claims that have been notified but not yet settled and are particularly important because a new insurer will include these in their assessment of your total claims exposure. See our guide on how to make a fleet insurance claim for what gets recorded on your claims history and how.

Driver information. For named driver policies, provide a complete list of all authorised drivers with age, years of licence, penalty points, and any convictions. For any driver policies, confirm the minimum age and maximum points criteria you operate. Any driver risk management measures, licence checking frequency, driver training undertaken, telematics data, should be included as evidence that reduces the underwriter’s assessment of driver pool risk.

Business and use information. The nature of your business, what vehicles are used for, annual mileage estimates per vehicle, overnight storage arrangements, and any security measures fitted. Be accurate. Material misrepresentation on a fleet submission gives an insurer grounds to void cover at the point of a claim, which for a commercial operator would be catastrophic.

How fleet claims experience transfers (it is not the same as a no-claims bonus)

This is the most misunderstood aspect of switching fleet insurance, and getting it wrong costs businesses real money. Personal motor policies operate a no-claims bonus (NCB) structure where each claim-free year earns a discount percentage that travels with the policyholder and can be directly applied to a new policy. Fleet insurance does not work this way.

Fleet policies are rated on claims experience, which is a quantitative assessment of your actual claims history over three to five years expressed as a loss ratio (total claims paid divided by total premiums paid, as a percentage). A fleet with a loss ratio below 40 percent over five years is considered a good risk and will attract competitive terms from multiple insurers. A fleet with a loss ratio above 70 percent, or with frequent small claims suggesting poor risk management, will find the market much less accommodating regardless of how many claim-free years it might nominally have.

The practical implication is that your claims experience record is both your main asset and your main liability when switching. A clean five-year history with low claims frequency and modest settlement values positions you well in the market. A history with multiple at-fault claims, large third-party settlements, or a pattern of repeated similar incidents will follow you to any new insurer who sees it. There is no equivalent to the personal NCB protection product that shields a single claim from affecting fleet rating, though some larger fleets can negotiate aggregate stop-loss arrangements with their insurer that cap annual premium impact from claims.

The switching process: step by step

Whether you are switching at renewal or mid-term, the core process follows the same sequence. The timing of each step relative to your renewal date determines how much leverage you have and how cleanly the handover executes.

What to look for beyond the premium

Fleet operators who switch based purely on headline premium frequently discover within six months that they have compromised significantly on other policy terms. The premium is the most visible number but not necessarily the most important one. A complete comparison requires examining at least five other dimensions before committing to a new insurer.

Excess structure. Fleet excesses can be structured per vehicle per incident, per driver per incident, or as an aggregate cap. A policy with a £750 per-incident excess is very different from one with a £2,500 per-incident excess even if both quote the same annual premium. For fleets that have any frequency of minor incidents, the practical out-of-pocket cost under a higher excess policy can quickly exceed the premium saving. Request a clear written explanation of all excess types including any compulsory excess, voluntary excess, and young driver excess that may apply.

Claims handling. How a claim is handled, and by whom, affects both the cost outcome and the operational disruption. Some fleet insurers provide dedicated commercial claims handlers with named contacts and target response times. Others route all claims through a general personal lines call centre with no fleet expertise. For a business where a fleet vehicle off the road means lost revenue, the difference in response quality is significant. Ask specifically how fleet claims are handled and whether there is a named fleet claims contact.

Hire vehicle provision. Confirm exactly what replacement vehicles are provided following an accident, for how long, and whether the vehicle type matches your operational needs. A policy that provides a standard hatchback courtesy car to a business that runs luton box vans provides no operational protection whatsoever. Some fleet policies limit hire vehicle provision to vehicles of equivalent value rather than equivalent function. For specialist vehicles, confirm in writing what would be provided.

Mid-term flexibility. If you expect to add vehicles, change drivers, or adjust the fleet composition during the year, confirm the amendment process and associated costs. Some insurers offer free mid-term amendments; others charge £25 to £50 per change. For growing businesses that regularly add vehicles, this can represent a material cost difference between otherwise identical policies. See our guide on how much fleet insurance costs for a breakdown of all the cost components that make up a fleet premium.

Insurer financial strength. Fleet policies are annual commercial contracts with an insurer who may be paying claims worth multiples of your premium. A lower premium from an insurer with a poor financial strength rating or a history of exiting fleet markets at short notice represents a genuine risk. Check the insurer’s AM Best or Standard and Poor’s rating, and use an FCA-authorised broker who can advise on insurer security.

Using a broker versus going direct

The fleet insurance market is not structured like personal motor insurance. There is no direct comparison site that surfaces all available fleet insurers, and many of the most competitive underwriters, particularly at Lloyd’s of London, only accept submissions from FCA-authorised intermediaries. This means that going directly to a single insurer when switching means accessing at most a small portion of the available market and frequently paying more than the best available terms.

A specialist fleet broker adds value in three specific ways. First, market access: a broker with fleet expertise will approach eight to fifteen insurers as a matter of course, including specialist underwriters who do not deal direct. Second, submission quality: an experienced broker presents your risk in the most favourable light, contextualising claims history with explanations of the circumstances and risk management improvements made subsequently. A fleet with three claims in one year due to a single rogue driver who has since left the business looks very different to one with three repeated at-fault incidents by the same drivers still on the fleet. Third, negotiation: insurers expect to negotiate with brokers in a way they rarely do with direct clients, and an experienced broker who places significant volumes with a particular insurer carries leverage a direct client cannot match.

Broker remuneration comes from commission paid by the insurer rather than fees charged to the client in most fleet cases, though this varies. Ask your broker to confirm their remuneration structure and any circumstances in which they receive higher commission from particular insurers, as this is an FCA-regulated disclosure requirement.

Frequently asked questions