It may be useful to retain copies of the what to do in the event of an accident document in the vehicle and modify the breakdown SoP pro forma according to your needs, and retain this in the vehicle too.

Incident in a company vehicle?

If an employee has a collision in a College vehicle they need to report it to the College and to their personal motor insurance provider. When obtaining a personal motor insurance quote you will be asked whether “In the last 5 years, you have been involved in an accident, regardless of blame, including fire, theft and windscreen claims”. This applies to all vehicles you have driven, regardless of their owner. Even claims that are not the fault of the driver and not on their policy, must be declared.

Note that insurers share information. All motor claims are recorded and shared with insurers on a central record – which is held by the ABI (Association of British Insurers.) While it may not be common knowledge these records exist, insurers declare the intention to undertake this activity in the terms and conditions in their policies usually in the form of a statement that they share information with the ABI.

Failure to declare an incident can also have further consequences. For example, if an insurer discovers that a driver has failed to report an incident they may declare the policy null and void. It could also result in a driving ban, a conviction for driving without insurance and result in difficulties in obtaining insurance cover in the future. Less serious but also possible is an increase in premium or the application of onerous terms. It is also possible a claim might only be partially paid or declined entirely.

For more information, please click here