Fleet Insurance Insurance

Running a fleet of heavy vehicles is a significant business operation — and insuring that fleet requires a different approach to insuring individual trucks. Fleet insurance combines all your vehicles under a single policy, simplifies administration, and — importantly — gives you access to fleet risk management tools and burning cost pricing that can deliver better long-term insurance economics.

How fleet rating works

Fleet insurance is typically rated on a burning cost basis — meaning the premium is based on your actual claims history rather than a fixed market rate per vehicle. If your fleet has a strong safety record and low claims history, burning cost rating rewards you with lower premiums. If your claims frequency is high, it reflects that reality.

This creates a direct financial incentive to invest in fleet safety: driver training, telematics, regular vehicle maintenance, and fatigue management programmes all reduce claims frequency — and over a fleet of 10, 20, or 50 vehicles, a small reduction in claims frequency translates to tens of thousands of dollars in premium savings.

Fleet Risk Management Assessments

Some insurers — particularly through brokers like Rothbury — offer Fleet Risk Management Assessments as a value-add with their fleet programmes. These assessments review your driver selection and training, vehicle maintenance programmes, route planning, load security practices, and incident investigation processes. The assessment identifies risk improvement actions — and completing those actions is typically recognised in your renewal premium.

Transporting NZ — fleet programme benefits

Transporting NZ (formerly RTANZ), the industry body representing road transport operators, has a preferred insurance programme through Gallagher NZ (AJG). Fleet operators who are Transporting NZ members can access this programme, which includes specific HGV coverage extensions, legal liability support, and member advocacy.

Single vs. multiple insurer approach

Some large fleets use multiple insurers for different vehicle types within the fleet — for example, specialist logging truck cover from one insurer, general freight artics from another, and light vehicles from a third. While this can optimise coverage per vehicle type, it creates complexity at claims time and may leave gaps between policies. A specialist broker with a comprehensive fleet programme can often structure everything under one policy with appropriate sub-limits per vehicle type.