Keeping your vehicle fleet safe during COVID-19

There’s no doubt that every business is facing huge challenges as a result of the Coronavirus, with many businesses having to consider laying-up their vehicles. In fact, government figures show that in March 2020 there was a 110% increase in SORN applications from the previous month.¹

If you’ve been forced to lay-up your vehicle(s), taking the right steps now to keep them safe could help you in the long-term for when you return to normality.

Here are our top four tips for laying-up vehicles:

1. Make a SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification)

Visit gov.uk/make-a-sorn to register your vehicle as off the road.

2. Review your insurance cover

Consider reducing your level of cover to accidental damage, fire and theft – unless you are completely certain the vehicle(s) will not be manoeuvred or driven, you should maintain full cover.

3. Adhere to insurer requirements

Look carefully at your policy wording for any specific stipulations and follow any recommendations provided by your insurer, for example keeping your vehicle(s) in a securely locked compound.

4. Consider further risk management measures

Regardless of any specific insurer requirements, think about what further steps you could take to reduce the risk of fire spreading between your vehicles:

• Consider how you could separate your parked vehicles by several metres.
• Spread your fleet of vehicles over multiple locations, if possible.
• Review your current processes for checking and servicing your vehicles.
• Consider disconnecting or removing vehicle batteries on laid up vehicles to reduce fire risk.
• Evaluate your security measures, such as CCTV, to ensure they are working effectively. What extra precautions could you take to minimise your fire risks?
• Consider constructing fire-break walls between groups of vehicles.

You may also find our COVID-19 resource centre useful. This has been created to house all important news and information to update you on the potential implications for your business. The resources are updated daily as the situation develop, so please check back often.

The information contained herein is based on sources we believe reliable and should be understood to be general risk management and insurance information only. The information is not intended to be taken as advice with respect to any individual situation and cannot be relied upon as such.

^{Source:
1 gov.uk/performance/sorn}