Capital Equipment News July 2017

INSURANCE

REDEFINING FLEET INSURANCE

Businesses operating in the transport industry have unique needs and are often confronted by some rather unique threats and risks. To meet the specialised requirements for commercial vehicle operators, Scania is redefining the insurance landscape with a set of products designed to plug the gaps in existing conventional insurance packages, writes Munesu Shoko.

W hen the business requires a com- mercial vehicle insurance solution, it is of utmost significance to con- sult with the right insurer to ensure that the business gets the optimum level of vehicle cover. For a transport business, a day, or even an hour of standing time due to delays in pro- cessing insurance claims, is out of question. Such downtime has a snowball effect, ac- cording to Belinda Felix, Insurance Manager at Scania South Africa, who says that when a truck is involved in an accident, “you are not only crashing metal, it’s the business and people behind it who suffer the most”. Felix says every hour the truck is not operating, customers are losing money, and when that happens, there is a high chance that they might not be able to pay back their financing premiums. “More importantly, downtime means that they may not be able to fulfil their contractual obligations, which may lead to termination of contracts,” says Felix. With that in mind, Scania South Africa

has placed major focus on its insurance offering to be able to provide comprehensive, effective and tailor-made insurance products that are set to close the gaps in the existing conventional insurance packages already in the market. Changing strategy Scania has always had an insurance solution as part of its global finance and insurance strategy. But, previously the truck maker used to partner up with insurance brokers and let them run with the business. For the past two and half years, following the arrival of Felix, the company has worked a lot closer with the brokers and insurers. Felix is an insurance guru who has done it all in this industry for the past 17 years of her career. She has been involved in transport, and especially truck insurance, since 2007. She joined Scania some two and half years ago, initially as an insurance

coordinator. With time, the company saw value in bringing the insurance business in- house, moving away from just passing on the leads to brokers, and Felix was subsequently appointed manager of the insurance division. The process to bring insurance in-house was set in motion in September 2015 when Scania South Africa signed new agreements with new insurance brokers. The OEM has since tied in all the necessary networks includ- ing insurers, aftersales, brokers and repairers. To further improve customer experience, Scania South Africa has since applied for its own broker licence, and Felix expects that by the start of 2018, the company will have its own brokerage licence that will allow it, to- gether with insurers, to build unique Scania products that are not currently available on the market. “We will, as an OEM, be able to subsidise, take risk-sharing and make the product unique to the transport industry,” says Felix. In the meantime, Scania South Africa has

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