Self Drive Hire Insurance - Need Advice!

[CamperMan]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on these forums (so be nice!). Given everything that is going on currently i find myself with a little spare time to work on a business plan I've been toying with for a while.

I'm looking at hiring campervans out. What i need at the moment is some information on Self Drive Hire Insurance. I've read back through the old threads on this topic, most of which are fairly old and presumably out of date in terms of advice given. I recognise this is seen as a very difficult market to get into so please don't think i'm ignoring the potential barriers to entry. But if anyone is able to help me by answering a couple of insurance questions that would be fantastic.

1) Is there a minimum number of vehicles required to get this type of insurance? I have seen elsewhere the suggestion that a minimum fleet number of 5 vehicles is required to even be considered, is this true?

2) Obviously without more information you're not going to be able to tell me how much it'll cost, but if you were to put a rough range on the cost per vehicle for this type of insurance, what would it be?

3) What sort of difference does the age of the vehicles make in terms of insurance cost? Obviously older vehicles have higher maintenance costs, but what is the effect on the insurance cost?

At some point i'll start calling around to get some clear answers on this stuff but at such an early stage of planning i'm just looking for a quick bit of advice from someone who deals with this kind of insurance.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this and for any input you're able to provide me.

 

[MBE2017]

It would be better to call a few companies for true answers, otherwise any business plan could have huge flaws in it from the beginning.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

The old threads on this site are very accurate if anything insurers will be more strict. This would be the only difference.
The other threads on this site cover starting risky car hire companies.It will be expensive but doable

 

[CamperMan]

It would be better to call a few companies for true answers, otherwise any business plan could have huge flaws in it from the beginning.

As i said in my post i will be calling around to get accurate figures on this. My question was whether someone could help with some rough figures at this early stage while i'm looking into various bits.

 

[CamperMan]

The old threads on this site are very accurate if anything insurers will be more strict. This would be the only difference.
The other threads on this site cover starting risky car hire companies.It will be expensive but doable

So the old threads suggest £4-5k per vehicle, with a couple of references to needing at least 5 vehicles (or being lucky to get a policy on less vehicles). Which is a £20-25k insurance cost for a business that is unlikely as a start up to actually need that many vehicles in its first year (obviously dependant on marketing and other factors) and have a large amount of downtime on those vehicles.

It seems a little excessive to me. Workable if you could get the cover on a single vehicle, or on two vehicles and then add vehicles to the policy as the business expands, but rather prohibitive if you need it on 5 vehicles to start with.

That's another reason i was asking about older vs newer vehicles. My initial thoughts are to go for older campervans with a value of less than £5k per vehicle, but would having new vehicles make the insurance cost drop or go up? It would appear that ceteris paribus an older vehicle is cheaper to insure and so my question is whether the suggested figures on the older threads assume the vehicle is new and therefor it would be possible to get the insurance per vehicle cost closer to £2-3k per vehicle or if insurance of this type just simply doesn't go that low?

 

[alan1302]

My initial thoughts are to go for older campervans with a value of less than £5k per vehicle,

Would people want to hire an old camper van like that though?

 

[CamperMan]

Would people want to hire an old camper van like that though?

I'm not concerned about the age of the vehicles in relation to getting them hired out. I'm interested in the insurance implications though!

 

[alan1302]

I'm not concerned about the age of the vehicles in relation to getting them hired out. I'm interested in the insurance implications though!

Might want to start thinking about it - if no one wants to hire a van from you it won't matter what your insurance costs are.

 

[CamperMan]

Might want to start thinking about it - if no one wants to hire a van from you it won't matter what your insurance costs are.

I didn't say i hadn't thought about it, i said i wasn't concerned about it. Two entirely different things. The age of the vehicles isn't an issue for me in regards to demand. It's an issue of maintenance cost and insurance cost. Which is why i'm looking for more information about insurance.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

There might be a market for renting old old campers
I came across these when I was looking for an engine once bumblecampers.com

 

[CamperMan]

There might be a market for renting old old campers
I came across these when I was looking for an engine once bumblecampers.com

Thanks for the link, it's always good to see what others are doing and this isn't one i'd previously come across!

I have done quite a lot of research on my target market and where i think there is a gap to be filled. I'm now looking at feasibility and at whether some of my initial assumptions are actually correct. The insurance is quite a big one because if a minimum of 5 vehicles are required it means a totally different startup and first year strategy than i had anticipated.

In one of the older threads there is someone who claimed to have got the insurance for 3 vehicles at £5k total. This would be fantastic and i'm hoping someone can help me figure out if this is actually possible or if the 4-5k per vehicle number is more realistic!

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

You may not be paying such high rates to hire out campers as you would hiring out cars and vans

 

[CamperMan]

You may not be paying such high rates to hire out campers as you would hiring out cars and vans

Hopefully!

If i don't get any responses from anyone who has experience with this type of insurance i'll start phoning around and seeing what kind of answers i can get.

From previous threads i know there are a couple of people on here who may be able to help me but i'll have to wait and see if they notice the thread.