For many years drivers have become accustomed to protecting their insurance costs by looking after their “No Claim Bonus”. Leading specialist hire vehicle insurer TFP Schemes has recently introduced their innovative “Yes Claim Bonus”. Report your accident within 24 hours and a bonus of £200 by way of a reduction in the client’s excess payment is applied. This has an additional benefit of keeping down the cost of the accident to the driver, cutting the cost of the total claim and keeping premiums stable in the future.

“Yes Claim Bonus” is a new claims concept launched by TFP Schemes aimed at encouraging their customers to report all claims as early as possible. The new approach encourages drivers to be proactive by rewarding early notification of accidents to the insurer.

Damian Walsh, Partner at TFP Schemes explains “early notification of an accident is paramount as this can enable the insurer to retain control of the claim which can ultimately have a significant impact on the overall cost of the claim. The savings achieved by having better control over these costs can be passed on to the customer in real savings in their future insurance premiums.”

In recent years, insurers have seen claims costs dramatically increase. The credit hire industry alone costs insurers over £1 billion a year, claims regularly exceed the cost of the vehicle and in some instances bills in excess of £100,000 are common place, this in turn adds an average of around £50 per policy to the cost of motor insurance for the consumer. Take into account personal injury claims and credit repair the outlook appears pretty grim.

From April 2009 all new and existing clients with a TFP Taxi policy involved in an accident, and who provided details of the third party to the TFP Schemes / Aviva Incident Care claims line within 24 hours, benefited from a £200 reduction in their excess; as well as also being supplied with a plated replacement taxi so they could continue working.

Damian Walsh is enthusiastic about the innovative idea, backed by Aviva, which has already shown in the first few months a significant impact in containing the cost of third party claims, which will certainly assist TFP Schemes in offering a beneficial pricing differential to its customers as well as helping to stabilise premiums moving forward.

In the first two months, the “Yes Claim Bonus” initiative has seen impressive results with the number of claims reported within the first 24hours following an accident increase by almost 80%. These results have seen huge savings in controlling the cost of third party claims and is also assisting in the early detection of fraud claims. The initiative is presently available on the TFP Single Taxi Scheme, with a view to extending to other policies in the TFP Schemes range of products in the near future.