Taxi Insurance

There is little doubt that finding a company that will insure your taxi or transport fleet would be difficult to source, but, as with all insurance, shop around a little and find one that is prepared to cover you, the people you carry and other users on the road. Taxi insurance in South Africa is not common, but there are insurance companies that are prepared to cover taxis, despite all the risks involved.

Do the responsible thing and ensure that you insure your business right from the start – any business should have the correct cover, taxis being no exception. If it is your bread and butter that you need to take care of, then insuring your taxi is vital.

Taxi drivers are notorious for being atrocious motorists, but instead of throwing the baby out of the water, why not take the plunge and rehabilitate these drivers, transforming them into more considerate and responsible road users?

Here are five tips on how taxi drivers could improve their driving and lower insurance premiums:

• Going back to basics might be a good point of entry.
• If someone has been driving, are adamant that their driving is fine and needs little fine-tuning, then both the attitude and the methodology needs to be tweaked – training staff at all levels has its distinct advantages, with basic training being a positive and not a negative.
• An advanced driving course has never done anyone any harm, ever. Drivers of upmarket vehicles partake in advanced driving courses all the time, where they learn skills that ordinary drivers don’t know exist.
• A driving course need not be intense and unpleasant – to the contrary. Many drivers opt to do these driving courses because they are a lot of fun.
• Maintaining vehicles and keeping them roadworthy at all times is imperative as this will prevent many unnecessary accidents from happening – the most trained and experienced driver on the road will have no control when brakes fail and tyres burst.

Taxi insurance in South Africa is obtainable, but the insurers need to step up their game a notch or two by insisting that all drivers are properly trained and that all the taxis are 100% roadworthy prior to offering insurance cover.