Need to Make a Claim
We all love our cars, our vans, our motorcycles, but it's a sobering thought that sooner or later you could be involved in a traffic accident. Whilst British roads are comparatively safe compared to many other countries, it's still surprising that figures published by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) in 2017 showed that over £23 million was paid out every day by motor insurers, the highest on record.
In the event that you need to make a claim on your motor trade insurance policy, you can follow Tradex’s step-by-step process:
Prepare Ahead
You may want to keep all of your vehicle insurance documentation in the car, but also consider making photocopies and keeping the originals in a safe place or photograph the documents on your phone. It’s essential to keep a backup as you never know when you’ll need them.
If you’re in an accident you should:
- Stop the car as soon as possible – it's an offence not to do so.
- Check for any injuries to yourself or your passengers.
- Make a note of the time, date and location.
- Give your insurance certificate or cover note to the police or take them to a police station within seven days.
- If safe to do so, use your phone to take pictures of the scene, the positions of the cars involved, and damage to the cars.
- Exchange the following information with everyone involved; driver's name, address, postcode and telephone number.
- Make a note of the make and model of the other vehicle(s) together with registration number and colour.
- If a foreign lorry is involved, get the numbers on both the lorry and its trailer, sometimes they are different. It’s also a good idea to get the name of the company if it’s painted on the lorry.
- Get details of the other party’s insurance company and broker.
- Don't apologise or admit responsibility for the accident until you're completely aware of what happened – this can protect you from liability if it wasn't your fault.
- If there are witnesses, get their name, address and telephone number. If a police officer attends, make a note of his name and number.
- Phone your insurance company as soon as possible – ideally at the time of the accident. , even if you aren’t wanting to make a claim.
The Information We Need
If you need to make a claim on your motor (trade) insurance policy, this is the information Tradex needs to make sure your claim goes through smoothly and you don’t lose valuable business hours.
- Your name, company name, address and policy number
- Your contact number
- Vehicle make, model and registration number
- Type of claim - Accident/Fire/Theft
- Details of the claim
- Details of any injuries
- Third party details (where applicable)
- Names and addresses of witnesses
- Police officer details (where applicable)
Our dedicated claims form is divided into sections such as:
- Road Accident
- Parked Vehicle Damage
- Fire
- Theft (if a vehicle is stolen and not recovered)
- Malicious Damage
- Impact Damage
You can follow the step-by-step process or call us if you need more help and we’ll talk you through the various options to help speed up your claims process.
Making a claim can be stressful for a lot of people. At Tradex, we have decades of experience of handling claims and view the process as a relatively smooth one. We are with our customers every step of the way and want to provide them with the best help and support towards an effective solution to get them back on the road again.
If you’re thinking of making a claim or have any questions about the claims process, contact our customer services team at Tradex on 0333 313 3131.