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All a Fleet Manager Needs to Know about Courier Insurance

If you’re a fleet manager in charge of a courier company, irrespective of the size you probably already know that the job comes with a great deal of responsibility. You’re effectively in charge of what can often be a large number of employees and vehicles, and one of the most important aspects you’ll need to consider is choosing the appropriate insurance for a fleet that carries out delivery work.
This article will go into detail about insurance on the whole – the benefits, whether or not you need it (spoiler alert: you do), and other concerns. So if you’re responsible for multiple delivery work vans of different sizes and capacities, read on for all the fast facts.

Do I Need It?

The short answer is yes. As a manager, it may be tempting to try to save the company a few pounds by not investing in any, but this is a bad idea and extremely ill-advised. After all, if unforeseen circumstances arise and something happens to any of the vans in your fleet during the course of their delivery work, you’ll want to be sure that you are protected so that you’re not paying an arm and a leg for something you weren’t expecting.

What Should It Cover?

The exact package you choose will depend on the specifics of your operation, however it’s recommended that you pick one that will allow you to manage your entire fleet under a singular policy. You should make sure you’re insured against damage to your own vans and operatives as well as damage to other people, property or vehicles – especially if you’re running a fleet of five or more.

What Are the Benefits?

For starters, investing in insurance will give you total peace of mind. You won’t have to constantly worry about having to pay extra expenses or face legal action if an accident happens, which means you can properly focus on running the business. Other benefits include:

• One renewal date • One policy that covers all your drivers and vehicles (potentially all the different types your company has) • One point of contact to get in touch with when you have questions or concerns.

What Else Should I Keep in Mind?

As a manager, other relevant factors you should keep at the forefront of your mind when deciding which insurance policy is right for you are as follows:

• The delivery work destinations • Your drivers’ details • Each of your vehicles’ individual details (value, size, model, make, annual mileage, etc.) • How many vans you’d like to insure • What kind of goods you’re transporting

If you’re working in the delivery industry as a fleet manager, no doubt you feel passionately about the safety and efficiency of your drivers and vehicles, which is why it makes all the sense in the world to make sure they are protected by insuring them correctly. Knowledge is power and now that you know all about the benefits, coverage requirements and more, you’re in a position to make an informed purchase. Here’s to years of happy, safe and insured driving and deliveries.

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Norman Dulwich is a Correspondent for Courier Exchange, the leading online trade network for the road transport industry. Connecting logistics professionals across the UK and Europe through their website, Courier Exchange provides services for matching delivery work with available drivers, and is now the fastest growing Freight Exchange in the UK.

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Truckfile Digital Recording Systems Making Life Easier for Hauliers

Haulage companies, like most businesses, thrive on being able to receive and respond quickly to accurate data. Logistics managers are always on the lookout for anything that can help them source and react to information about their business. The new Truckfile digital recording system has the potential to change the way fleets are managed. Read on to find out more about this new technology.
What is Truckfile?

Truckfile offers haulage companies an integrated means of managing their fleets. Its simple display means managers can view all relevant information with just a glance.

And there’s a lot of information to view. Any defects and alerts are logged, along with on-the-road information. The linked app allows technicians to enter data as easily as they would with a pen and paper, but with the added benefit that everything is automatically uploaded to a central storage hub.

What’s more, all this updates in real-time, meaning firms can view and address problems as soon as they arise.

What can it Record?

The system’s developers pride themselves on its ability to record and store a vast range of information.

Haulage companies using the system can record:

• All vehicle safety checks and workshop inspections. • Details of any job, from start to finish. • Allocation of jobs to technicians or drivers. • Drivers’ walkaround checks.

How can it Help?

The biggest selling point is that the system captures all this information easily and stores it in one place. These electronic files are easily searchable and avoid many of the pitfalls of keeping physical copies. Issues like storage space, perishability and difficulty finding information could become problems of the past for haulage companies.

Herefordshire-based firm ABE Transport recently switched to the system, and their response has been very positive. Compliance manager Jeff Pryce was especially enthusiastic. ‘I love it’, he said. ‘I have full visibility of everything that happens.I can see when jobs are being started and follow them right through to completion, while all the relevant records are updated automatically.’

Pryce also praised the ease of searching, noting that nothing is further away than the click of a button.

What do Workers Think?

Of course, haulage companies rely on workers in a variety of different areas to keep their business running. Many managers are rightly sceptical of new technologies that promise to make life easier and wind up confusing and frustrating frontline staff.

Thankfully, this doesn’t seem to be an issue in this case. Concerns about practicality led ABE to request a second demonstration, this time including workers from all areas of the company. This project met with overwhelming success, with all involved impressed with the new system’s functionality.

It seems that Truckfile has a lot to offer haulage companies. Its intuitive interface puts everything managers need at their fingertips and its ease of use enables drivers and technicians to input data quickly and easily. Pryce says ABE is looking to extend its use of the technology, noting the potential to use it for billing third-party work and even get detailed breakdowns of cost per vehicle.

In an industry that moves fast, managers would be well advised not to fall behind with this new technology.

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Norman Dulwich is a Correspondent for Haulage Exchange, the leading online trade network for the road transport industry. Connecting professionals across the UK and Europe through their website, Haulage Exchange provides services for matching haulage companies or self-employed drivers with jobs in road transport and haulage work. Over 5,400 member companies are networked together through the Exchange to fill empty capacity, get new clients and form long-lasting business relationships.

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Customer Survey Reveals Interesting Figures about Technology Solutions

There have been two significant findings from Paragon Software Systems’ annual UK customer survey. The first: integrated technology systems are being used ever more frequently in the courier industry to overcome various business pressures. The second: the transport sector is still struggling to recruit new drivers, and the skill shortage is now the biggest challenge that the industry is facing.
A Growing Concern

Delivery businesses have been struggling to recruit for the last three years. Statistics from the survey show that since 2017, there has been a significant 62% increase in respondents stating that the lack of drivers is impacting their business. This year, over half of the respondents (55%) agreed to the statement, whereas in 2018 the figure was slightly lower at 46%.

Some other issues were highlighted in the survey, and drivers were asked whether these factors were of concern. Some 13% agreed that transport costs were an issue and 12% saw the Brexit debate as a contributing factor. Urban transport restrictions were less of a concern, at 7%.

Technologies to the Rescue

Although there are still industry concerns, it has been found that many courier drivers are looking to telematics and other technological planning systems to overcome these problems. Nearly all respondents (97%) claimed to use some kind of telematics solution, whether it was to plan and schedule timings or simply map out delivery routes.

The most common technology systems in use at the moment are vehicle tracking (95% of fleets use this) and proof of delivery (over half use this). Other solutions include various workforce management applications, vehicle cameras using 4G and live temperature monitoring. Courier companies and owner drivers using these kinds of resources are able to benefit from real-time performance data, allowing them to figure out the best ways to run their businesses and make their operations more efficient.

Why Change?

Many businesses have chosen to invest in new telematics systems as a result of industry pressures. The survey showed that some of the biggest transport planning pressures came from customers – these included the demand for more accurate delivery time windows as well as more frequent communications and proof of delivery. Other pressures such as the need to maximise the utilisation of available drivers has also had an effect.

The courier industry continues to evolve as customer demands become more challenging and technologies become more reliable. The Managing Director of Paragon Software Systems, William Salter, stated that the survey’s results “suggest the road transport sector faces another tough year, with a number of continuing challenges that are compounded by the current economic and political uncertainty.”

There is hope that integrated technology solutions will eventually result in better customer communications, resource utilisation and real-time fleet visibility, but with various uncertainties still looming, only time will tell.

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Norman Dulwich is a correspondent for Courier Exchange, the world’s largest neutral trading hub for same day courier work in the express freight exchange industry. Numerous transport exchange businesses are networked together on their website, trading jobs and capacity through what is now the fastest growing Freight Exchange company in the UK.

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