Why Should You Carry Insurance?

Mini cabs must carry insurance in order to protect the company and the driver in case of accident or incident. Whether the fault of the driver of the taxi or another driver involved, an auto accident can have dire consequences if the drivers don’t have auto insurance. Private hire taxis must carry a commercial taxi insurance policy in order to operate. Taxi drivers who are found to be driving without a hire and reward insurance policy can face devastating consequences such as sever fines, points against their driving license and even having their license revoked and being banned from driving at all.

Taxi and Driver’s Licenses

In addition to carrying mini cab insurance, private hire taxi drivers must be licensed by the Public Carriage Office to operate as a taxi service. The driver of the vehicle for hire must have a private hire license, obtained after passing a knowledge test at a local licensing center. Before assigning the license, private hire taxi drivers must also be checked with the Criminal Records Bureau to be certain the driver has no criminal convictions or cautions. Any passenger of a private hire vehicle can ask to see a driver’s license before using their service. It is a condition of the license that it be prominently and clearly displayed in the vehicle, along with proof of mini cab insurance on the taxi. Verifying that the cab is properly licensed and insured can reassure passengers that they are properly protected and secure.

Sure they can offer you the lowest price, but at what cost? Perhaps their claims handling process is shoddy.  Large, reputable companies are able to accommodate their customers most effectively by having a well staffed and well trained claims department to handle any claims that may come through. A small discount insurance company may not have a full staff and claims may sit for a period of time before any work is done on them.

Another reason to be wary of cheap insurance for taxi fleets is because one has to wonder if a company is offering services at such a discount, just where are they cutting corners and who is backing them?  In other words, are they financially stable enough to handle the claims that come through their door? As a businessperson, the owner of a taxi fleet needs to be sure that their drivers are covered, and covered properly.  If a large claim for an accident where perhaps someone in the other car was injured cannot be covered by the insurance company, it can lead to a huge legal catastrophe for the owner of the taxi fleet.

Time is money, and with this in mind, it is also important to consider the hassle when dealing with many of these discount insurance houses. They will promise you the moon until you sign on the dotted line, but getting results on a claim may be an entirely different story.

After an accident, it is completely possible that a claimant could spend hours on the phone with their cheap insurance for taxi, trying to get their claim submitted properly, only to have it come back denied. The claimant would then have to fight tooth and nail for every single bit of coverage for a policy that they have already paid for. It could be that their discount insurance really isn’t a discount at all.

As opposed to the private hire taxis that are pre-booked or reserved to carry passengers for hire, public hire cabs often spend much time driving routes to keep an eye out for fares that are hailed from the road. Public hire taxis can be any type of vehicle shape, size and model. In London, the most common type of taxi is the LTI, or London Taxi International and the Metrocab, which is also known as the London Black Cab.

All public hire cabs operating in the UK are required to carry a minimum of third party insurance coverage in order to pick up fares on public roads. This type of insurance policy is different from the standard private auto insurance policy, and due to these differences only specialist insurance agencies or brokers can offer public hire taxi insurance. Because of the risk involved and the high liability of operating a for hire vehicle, a public hire insurance policy is generally not available through normal insurers. The types of risk and general liabilities covered by a taxi for hire policy will be very different than the risks associated with private vehicles.

Insurance rates for public hire cabs will vary according to the circumstances of the cab and drivers, as well as from insurer to insurer. Cab drivers with more experience and a cleaner driving record will generally find a less expensive rate quote than those who have less experience. Shopping around and getting rate quotes from many different insurers helps taxi operators find the best rates on public hire taxi insurance.

The easiest way to compare policies is to put pen to paper and map it all out.  In order to compare each aspect of the policy against the other choices to determine which is best, you want to make sure you are comparing apples to apples (rather than apples to oranges). In other words, you need to be certain you are comparing the same types of policies to each other.

It’s possible that there are different polices for different types of taxi and private hire vehicles. It would stand to reason that a quote for a policy for a taxi cab would be higher than that of a private hire vehicle such as a limousine simply due to the higher level of usage a taxi cab would get.

You would also need to be sure that you are consistent when selecting the location of the insured vehicle.  You would definitely get unreliable comparisons for cheap taxi insurance online if you input the location improperly.  A vehicle that is insured for a rural or less populated area would definitely have a lower insurance rate that a vehicle insured in a large city area.

Coverage levels are also an incredibly important consideration and you must compare identical coverage levels or you may actually end up paying more for less. When you compare a higher coverage level to a lower coverage level, you cannot possibly come up with a valid comparison.

Once you have all of this information and you have ensured that it is correct and, you can then carefully cross-reference the information.  Once you are able to see all of the information in one spot, the task is much less daunting to perform. You may surprise yourself by how easy you find it.  Any consumer can find cheap taxi insurance online, but the key is finding cheap insurance that is also quality insurance.

Taxi Insurance Aggregators

An automobile insurance aggregator is a company that collects policy application information from various different insurance companies, as well as actual coverage and policy pricing algorithms, and combines them into an easy to use format (usually in the form of a website) for the public to use.

A consumer would simply enter in the specific information asked for on the web form and the website would then compute the information and deliver a definitive report using the information provided by the consumer.  The computer program behind the scenes does all of the heavy lifting for the consumer, working up the comparisons and delivering the report.

One thing to note when looking for taxi insurance comparison; accuracy is key here to getting a semi-accurate response from these types of computation programs.  If you input any of the information with an estimate, or even worse, an outright guess, the whole algorithm can be thrown off and the information will be absolutely useless to you.

Finding an Aggregator

There is no shortage of insurance aggregators out there, but as a business consumer, you may want to consider using one that is strictly for taxi or private hire insurance. This way you are sure that you are getting results for exactly the demographic you are looking for.

One such aggregator is Quotiva. Quotiva is well known for its aggregation services and provides accurate quotes for both public hire and private hire vehicles.  According to a recent press release they have just doubled in size.  That bodes well for their reputability. They are also a wealth of information on the ins and outs of taxi insurance.

Using an aggregator is an intelligent avenue of taxi insurance comparisons to explore when setting out to purchase taxi insurance. Not only will it save you time, but it will save you money and help you find the best deal.

Mandatory insurance in the United Kingdom dates back to the 1930’s, and the law has been amended and evolved over the years.  The most recent version of this law is the Road Traffic Act of 1988, which was last amended in 1991.  The law requires that all drivers have liability insurance, which covers damage that a driver does to other vehicles, passengers in those vehicles, and passengers within their own car.

Given the legal requirement for personal auto insurance, consider the importance for insurance on a taxi.  Personally owned vehicles are driven a fraction of the time that a taxi is driven.  Taxis are driven more in a single day than most personally owned vehicles are in a week.  This greater volume of driving dramatically increases the probability, or percentage of chance, that a taxi driver will be in an accident.  They are often driving under difficult road conditions, stressful situations and adverse weather, day and night.  Thus, the need for a taxi to have insurance is in the public’s best interest, to ensure that they and their vehicles are protected in the event of an accident.  Similarly, insurance for taxi cabs provides financial protection for the taxi driver and the taxi company.  Without adequate insurance protection, a single accident could wipe out a taxi company financially.

Taxi insurance is typically more than just the minimum liability type insurance.  Many insurance plans offer comprehensive coverage that will pay for the repair or replacement of the taxi.  Other coverage options include roadside assistance, which can help offset the risk of getting stranded from a mechanical breakdown, to loss of use coverage, which can provide for a replacement vehicle while the primary taxi is in the shop being repaired.

Insurance for taxi cabs are a higher risk category than regular cars and the law requiring insurance coverage affords necessary protection for everyone.