There’s no denying that we’re in a deep economic slump. Unemployment rates have passed the 8.5% mark for the first time since the early Eighties. The financial institutions – banks and insurance companies – hog the bail-out trough. And second to them are the automakers. All of this complicates the issues that must be taken into account when making tough economic decisions for your business, including tasks like shopping for business auto insurance.
A business that uses a fleet of vehicles generally has an ongoing relationship with a car company and insurance company. And this spring and summer of 2009, those relationships will be in a greater state of flux than at any time before in history.
As fluid as the situation must become, the existence of the Internet and the ability to get instantaneous vehicle insurance quotes online will only make things even less likely to stay the same.
With the collapse of large insurers like AIG, what will that mean for insurance rates? With insurers under ever-mounting pressure to show profits, will they be offering lower rates to keep customers, or raising them to squeeze even more out of what they’ve got?
What about the small business owner, or the person who is in a job that allows them to take a deduction for their car expenses. What does this turmoil in the American auto industry and in the insurance mean for them? It means that there is opportunity and danger. Are you going to be purchasing or leasing a new vehicle? That only complicates the situation.
With the Big Three having to totally revamp their product line-ups, many businesses will be considering autos and trucks of makes and models they are unfamiliar with. One will not be able to use the same familiar process that has been used for years in buying and insuring new business vehicles. And this will also be true for the employees who uses their own car for company business. Product familiarity is, in car purchases, a huge factor. Product churn in an industry a very disruptive force, and that churn is going to be huge over the next year and possibly well beyond that.
Word from General Motors is that the company may go into Chapter 11 as of June 1st. Does this mean that you, as a small business owner, are going to have to reconsider your decades long attachment to General Motors automobiles and trucks? Will more expensive hybrid or fuel-saving features factor into the cost of insurance? Whichever decision you come to may boil down to ongoing insurance costs. The Internet is the only way to get the wide range of business auto insurance quotes that you are going to need as you do your due diligence.
