What to tell your fleet insurer

When you buy or change fleet insurance, you must give the insurer a fair presentation of the risk. Under the Insurance Act 2015, that means disclosing every material circumstance your business knows or ought to know, or at least giving enough information to put the insurer on notice to ask more questions.

For a fleet, that covers your vehicles, drivers, use, claims, security and anything out of the ordinary.

This guide explains the duty in plain English, lists the facts fleet insurers are likely to treat as material, and covers the changes to report during the year.

It is general information, not legal advice.

What Is The Duty Of Fair Presentation?

It is the legal duty, set out in Part 2 of the Insurance Act 2015, for a business to disclose the risk fully, clearly and accurately before a business insurance contract starts. The same duty applies again whenever the policy is varied.

Where the duty comes from

Part 2 of the Insurance Act 2015 applies to business insurance, which the Act calls non-consumer insurance. Before a business insurance contract starts, the policyholder must make a fair presentation of the risk.

The three parts of a fair presentation

1. Disclosure. You disclose every material circumstance you know or ought to know. Alternatively, you give enough information to put a prudent insurer on notice that it needs to ask further questions.
2. Clarity. The information is reasonably clear and accessible. Burying a key fact deep in a large attachment may not meet that standard.
3. Accuracy. Material facts are substantially correct, and statements of expectation or belief are made in good faith.

When the duty applies again

The same duty applies when the policy is varied, such as when you change cover mid-term. Sole traders insuring vehicles wholly for their business count as non-consumers, so the duty applies to them too.

What Does “Material” Mean For A Fleet?

A circumstance is material if it would influence the judgement of a prudent insurer in deciding whether to take the risk and, if so, on what terms. The practical test is simple: if you would expect an underwriter to want to know, tell them.

The legal test

Under the Act, a material circumstance is one that would influence a prudent insurer’s judgement on whether to take the risk and on what terms. The duty goes beyond the questions on a proposal form, so a material fact matters even if nobody asked about it.

Material facts checklist

Use this list to prepare. Not every item applies to every fleet, and a broker may ask about others.

Vehicles

• Number, type, make, model and value of each vehicle
• Gross vehicle weight, especially for vehicles over 3.5 tonnes
• Modifications, such as racking, tail lifts, cranes, tipper bodies or signwriting
• Leased, hired or financed vehicles, and any temporary vehicles
• Where vehicles are kept overnight and the security in place

Drivers

• Who drives, their ages and how long they have held their licences
• Motoring convictions, pending prosecutions and licence endorsements
• Medical conditions that must be reported to DVLA
• Drivers who are not employees, such as subcontractors or agency staff
• How and how often you check licences

Use

• Class of use: carrying your own goods, hire and reward, passengers or other uses
• What you carry, including hazardous or high-value goods
• Areas of operation, including airside, site or overseas use
• Annual mileage and hours of use, including night work
• Operator licence details where relevant

History

• Claims experience for the period the insurer asks for, including open claims
• Previous insurance refused, cancelled or subject to special terms
• Incidents that have not yet become claims

Operator licensing

For vehicles over 3.5 tonnes used to carry goods for business, including your own goods, you generally need a goods vehicle operator’s licence, and insurers will usually ask about it.

Our guide to claims experience letters explains how to prepare the claims part of your disclosure.

What Does Your Business “Ought To Know”?

The Act counts what senior management and the people arranging the insurance know, plus whatever a reasonable search of the information available to the business would reveal. So ask the people who run the vehicles day to day before you disclose anything.

Whose knowledge counts

The duty is not limited to what the person completing the form happens to know. For a business, the Act counts what is known to senior management and to the people responsible for arranging the insurance.

The business also ought to know what a reasonable search of information available to it would reveal.

Where the information actually sits

In a fleet business, the most important information is often held by people who never see the insurance paperwork. The workshop knows which vans have been modified.

The operations manager knows a driver was caught speeding last month. The site supervisor knows vehicles now park in an unsecured yard.

Asking internally before you disclose

Before you disclose, ask those people directly. A short internal questionnaire at renewal is a sensible habit.

What Happens If Something Is Missed?

The remedies are proportionate rather than automatic cancellation, and they depend on what the insurer would have done with the full picture. A deliberate or reckless breach is treated far more harshly than an honest omission.

Proportionate remedies

The Act does not make every mistake fatal to your cover.

The remedies for a breach of the duty are proportionate, and they depend on what the insurer would have done with the full picture.

In outline, and subject to the detail of the Act:

Situation	Likely effect
Breach was deliberate or reckless	The insurer may avoid the policy, refuse all claims and keep the premium
Insurer would not have offered cover at all	The insurer may avoid the policy and refuse claims, but returns the premium
Insurer would have offered cover on different terms	The policy may be treated as if those terms applied
Insurer would have charged a higher premium	Claims may be reduced in proportion to the premium that should have been charged

Why a proportionate remedy still hurts

Even a proportionate remedy can hurt. Damage to your own vehicles can simply be paid in part or not at all.

For compulsory third-party cover, an insurer will generally still have to settle a valid claim with the injured person, but the Road Traffic Act 1988 lets it recover some or all of that money from the policyholder in certain circumstances.

How this could apply to your policy is a question for the broker or a legal adviser.

If you spot a gap

Watch out: If you realise you have missed something, tell the broker straight away. Correcting a gap before a claim is far easier than explaining it afterwards.

Which Changes Should You Report During The Year?

Report vehicles added or removed, a new type of vehicle, new or newly convicted drivers, a change in use, a change of business activity, premises or parking, modifications, and any change in ownership. Report them as they happen, not saved up for renewal.

Where the obligation comes from

The duty applies when a policy is varied, and most fleet policies also contain conditions requiring you to tell the insurer about certain changes.

Check your policy wording for the exact list.

Changes that commonly need reporting

• Vehicles added or removed, which also need updating on the Motor Insurance Database
• A new type of vehicle, such as your first HGV or minibus
• New drivers on a named-driver policy, or drivers with new convictions
• A change in use, such as starting courier work or carrying passengers
• A change of business activity, premises or overnight parking
• Vehicle modifications or new equipment fitted
• A change in ownership or legal structure of the business

Our guide to the Motor Insurance Database for fleets covers the process for adding and removing vehicles.

How Should You Present The Information?

Hand over a one-page summary, then the fleet schedule, the driver list, the claims experience and your risk-management evidence. Clarity is part of the duty, so flag anything unusual in the summary rather than leaving it in an appendix.

Why clarity is part of the duty

The way you hand information over matters as much as what you include. An underwriter working through a fleet submission should be able to find the important points without hunting for them.

A structure that works

1. A one-page summary. What the business does, how many vehicles and drivers, how the vehicles are used and anything that has changed since last year.
2. The fleet schedule. One row per vehicle, with registration, type, weight, value and any modifications.
3. The driver list. Ages, licence details, convictions and how licences are checked.
4. Claims experience. The insurers’ letters, plus a short note on any large or open claim.
5. Risk management. Security, telematics, maintenance and driver training, with evidence where you have it.

Labelling and record-keeping

Flag anything unusual in the summary, not only in an appendix. If you are sending spreadsheets, label the columns clearly and avoid abbreviations only your team understands.

Keep a copy of exactly what was sent and when, so you can show what was disclosed if a question arises later.

What Should You Put In Place Before Next Renewal?

Keep a fleet file holding the schedule, driver list, licence check records, claims log and security details, and ask the workshop, operations and site managers what changed during the year. Report changes as they happen, and over-inform rather than under-inform.

Housekeeping, not legal theory

Fair presentation is less about legal theory and more about good housekeeping. A business that knows its vehicles, drivers and claims, and writes them down, will find disclosure easy to get right.

Practical steps

• Keep a fleet file. Vehicle schedule, driver list, licence check records, claims log and security details in one place.
• Ask internally before renewal. Talk to the workshop, operations and site managers about changes during the year.
• Over-inform rather than under-inform, but present the information clearly, with a short summary of anything unusual.
• Report changes as they happen, not saved up for renewal.
• Ask the broker questions. If you are unsure whether something is material, ask.

Where to read next

When you request a quote, the broker will take you through what insurers need. Our fleet insurance renewal checklist includes a full list of documents to gather, and the fleet insurance page explains what insurers look at when pricing a fleet.

Businesses with plant, tippers or site vehicles should also read our page on construction fleet insurance, where unusual vehicles make full disclosure especially important.

Sources

• Road Traffic Act 1988, section 151
• Insurance Act 2015, section 2 (application of Part 2)
• Insurance Act 2015, section 3 (duty of fair presentation)
• Insurance Act 2015, section 8 (remedies for breach)
• Insurance Act 2015, Schedule 1 (insurer remedies)
• GOV.UK: Goods vehicle operator licensing
• Insurance Act 2015, section 4 (knowledge of insured)
• Insurance Act 2015, section 7 (material circumstances)
• GOV.UK: Health conditions and driving

Updates

• 17 September 2026 : last reviewed
• 17 September 2026 : Legal and regulatory points checked against official sources

General information about UK fleet insurance, not advice. How we write and check our content