Reclaiming the Costs of Non-Fault Fleet Incidents

Non-fault road incidents can present an expensive challenge for fleets. It’s not just the cost of repairing their asset, but also lost earnings resulting from vehicle off-road time, replacement hire charges, damaged equipment/cargo, and other claims outlay which can be a challenge to reclaim from at-fault parties.

sopp+sopp recognise this challenge, having serviced some of the UK’s best-known fleets and commercial insurers since 2003, with end-to-end accident and claims management solutions.

We understand that swift and complete loss recovery should sit at the heart of your fleet’s accident management partnership, ensuring all costs resulting from non-fault incidents can be identified and reclaimed in full.

Here we discuss some of the key challenges faced by fleets when they encounter non-fault incidents, and how sopp+sopp can help them to recover the costs.

What defines a ‘non-fault’ fleet incident?

A ‘non-fault’ fleet incident simply means any collision or vehicle damage which has been caused by a liable third-party, such as another driver or equipment operator, rather than your fleet’s own driver.

For a fleet claim to be classed as ‘non-fault’, there must be a liable third-party from whom outlay can be recovered. Although many other forms of incident may feel like ‘non-fault’, the definition of a ‘non-fault incident’ does not extend to “acts of god” such as storm damage, as there is no third party to reclaim costs from.

In some cases, the third-party may choose to dispute liability, requiring more comprehensive intervention like legal counsel or formal proceedings, before liability can be attributed and costs recovered.

What financial risks do non-fault incidents bring for fleets?

Non-fault incidents can present a number of financial risks for fleets, particularly when it comes to tracking, attributing, and reclaiming the costs incurred. Some of the key financial pressures associated with non-fault incidents include:

The high cost of commercial vehicle repair

Commercial vehicles can be expensive to repair if they’re involved in a collision - especially when they’re fitted with specialist equipment, machinery, or branding.

This means fleets are often left with higher repair costs than the average driver, just to restore the vehicle to its pre-accident condition.

If these costs aren’t properly accounted for, and recovered in-full from the at-fault party, fleets can quickly find themselves faced with uncontrollable repair outlay - directly impacting their bottom line.

Lost profits & earnings resulting from vehicle downtime

The cost of non-fault fleet incidents extends much further than the repair itself. The period for which vehicles are off the road post-incident, for repair or otherwise, correlates directly to lost earnings for the business, and reduced productivity for affected drivers.

Costs like these can often go unaccounted for when it comes to non-fault recovery, due to difficulty quantifying and evidencing their true impact - but this doesn’t mean they aren’t significant.

This means fleets are often left with additional, and sometimes unprojected, incident-related costs - even if liability has been identified, and direct repair expenses recovered.

The cost of temporary hire or replacement vehicles

If the incident has left their vehicle unroadworthy, many fleets are forced to use temporary hire vehicles to keep their drivers in service.

This can be an incredibly costly exercise - especially if the replacement vehicle has to be sourced at short notice or must meet specific specifications to suit the fleet’s commercial needs.

Vehicle hire costs are often, therefore, difficult to control or project, posing a significant challenge for fleets without a robust loss recovery process in place.

Expenses resulting from damaged cargo or equipment

Fleet vehicles often have expensive equipment or cargo onboard, which is prone to being damaged, or even lost completely in road incidents. This includes assets like parcels and packages, tools and machinery, or raw materials in transit.

These collateral expenses are often missed or overlooked when recovering costs from at-fault parties, and may not be covered by the fleet’s insurance, meaning they bear the financial impact directly.

How can fleets recover the costs of non-fault incidents?

Thankfully, there are steps fleets can take to recoup the above incident costs from at-fault parties. Here’s how:

1 - Ensure swift & accurate incident reporting

Swift and accurate incident reporting is critical for ensuring at-fault parties are identified at the scene and captured effectively, so that resulting losses can be recovered from their insurer.

This means ensuring your drivers are able to report incidents easily, and in-detail, as soon as they occur - without having to wait until they return to the depot.

Your fleet must be able to quickly record all incident details, including any supporting evidence, third-party contact information, and the exact damage sustained, to adequately support your recovery claim.

Fleets must therefore have adequate incident reporting channels in place, which are available whenever and wherever their drivers need them - such as 24/7 telephone FNOL, or digital reporting applications.

sopp+sopp’s robust incident reporting solution enables quick and detailed documentation of incidents, facilitating faster and more effective cost recovery.

2 - Enhance your third-party capture process

The quicker your fleet can reach out to liable parties, the more likely you are to be able to record and recover all eligible costs resulting from the incident.

This means ensuring third-party details are captured accurately as soon as an incident occurs, allowing you to engage them and their insurer quickly.

While this again highlights the importance of swift incident reporting, it also means reviewing the tools and technologies your fleet uses to monitor its vehicles, and record incident details.

If your fleet already utilises in-vehicle video monitoring, or telematics, it’s worth exploring how these could be optimised or enhanced to further support your third-party capture process.

In partnership with your accident management provider, you may even be able to configure automatic liability assessment, and third-party capture, simply by integrating these technologies effectively.

By optimising third-party capture processes, sopp+sopp can support your fleet to secure all eligible costs promptly and efficiently from liable parties.

3 - Utilise Uninsured Loss Recovery (ULR) Services

Uninsured Loss Recovery (ULR) services work on your fleet’s behalf to identify, record, and recover all eligible losses resulting from non-fault incidents.

This includes everything from identifying and engaging third parties, and calculating and invoicing them for the losses incurred by your fleet, to securing the full settlement of these losses in a timely manner.

When incorporated effectively within the wider accident management journey, your ULR partner can handle everything from enhancing your third-party capture process, to securing swift & full claim settlement, and dispute resolution.

A robust ULR process can empower your fleet to eliminate unnecessary claims outlay, and offset the costs of at-fault or first-party incidents - resulting in reduced claims expenditure across the board.

Steph Farrar, Head of Motor Recoveries at sopp+sopp, comments:

“ULR has immense cost-saving benefits for our fleet customers; reimbursing them for the losses incurred from vehicle damage, associated hire claims, recovery and storage, damaged goods, as well as lost revenue from extended vehicle down-time, and any other reasonably-incurred costs resulting from the accident.”

Can ULR recoup ‘split liability’ claims costs?

Yes - ULR can be utilised to recoup partial costs in scenarios that are ‘split liability’, such as both parties colliding after changing lanes. Such a claim is likely to settle on a 50/50 basis, meaning a recovery of 50% of your outlay can still be achieved.

Uninsured Loss Recovery at sopp+sopp - Reclaim Non-Fault Incident Costs

In-house Motor Recoveries team

sopp+sopp’s in-house Uninsured Loss Recovery provision empowers our fleet customers to minimise the costs associated with non-fault claims.

Our Motor Recoveries team works closely with our accident management specialists to ensure at-fault parties are identified swiftly and accurately, and engaged consistently to facilitate the best possible outcomes for our customers.

Minimising non-fault claims costs for our fleet customers

Our team works proactively to minimise the cost of non-fault claims for our customers. From the moment the incident occurs, they work to account for any costs incurred as a result, and engage third parties and their insurers to recover them wherever possible.

Steph comments:

“sopp+sopp’s uninsured loss recovery service ensures that our customers are not left out of pocket following a non-fault accident with another road user. Where the at-fault party can be identified, we will seek to ensure that all costs are recovered from them or their insurer, wherever possible.”

‘Pro-Forma’ Loss Recovery

Sometimes, your fleet might not wish to repair the damage to your vehicle immediately, or indeed at all. For example, if the repair could be scheduled in-line with expected service or maintenance, the damage is only cosmetic, or if the vehicle is due to be retired or de-fleeted in the near future.

However, your fleet can still reclaim costs from at-fault parties in these cases, even if the vehicle has not been repaired.

To achieve this, we can use pro forma estimates calculated and validated by our in-house engineers to invoice at-fault parties, based on the damage the vehicle has sustained, and how much it would cost to repair it in-full.

Liaising with third parties & their insurers on your behalf

sopp+sopp liaises with third parties and their insurers on your behalf to recoup any costs eligible.

We’ll ensure third parties remain engaged throughout the process, and are invoiced consistently for any costs for which they are liable.

Tailored & adapted to your fleet

Having our ULR function in-house enables us to tailor the process to your fleet’s unique requirements and policies, putting your brand and its reputation at the heart of our strategy.

We collect and utilise data throughout our partnership to identify your fleet’s specific challenges, obstacles, and opportunities - using this intelligence to promote an adaptive, responsive ULR service.

Steph explains:

“As everything is done in-house, in a custom-built process designed to plug-in seamlessly with our existing operations, customers can expect a coherent, end-to-end service, putting their vehicles back on the road and money back in their pockets.”

Seamless integration with your accident management process

Our ULR provision is integrated seamlessly with the rest of your accident management process, meaning we can work quickly to capture costs, identify liability, and settle eligible claims directly.

“By offering this service as part of our wider accident management provision, we can streamline claims from inception to settlement, commencing investigations into liability and insurer involvement as soon as a new claim is reported.

This means settlements can be obtained faster and more efficiently once invoices become available.”

Robust Litigation Strategy

As well as a dedicated in-house team of recoveries specialists, we are also supported by a panel of expert solicitors, with whom we work closely to enable us to take effective legal action against any insurer with whom we cannot agree settlement of your losses, or resolve liability in your favour.

This process ensures that all recoverable losses are settled fairly, and that insurers cannot simply ignore your claim. This helps to maximise recovery of costs, as well as keeping claim lifecycles lower by forcing insurers to action where they have been refusing to engage in negotiations.

Operated on a ‘no-win, no-fee’ basis

We perform Uninsured Loss Recovery on a ‘no-win, no-fee’ basis for our customers, meaning there’s no risk to their brand of business no matter the outcome.

This means they can harness the cost-saving benefit of ULR without the need for excess administration fees, or additional service outlay.

To learn more about sopp+sopp’s Uninsured Loss Recovery provision, or any of our other Fleet Accident Management services, get in touch today for a no-obligation chat!