Benefits of Reporting Motor Claims Quickly

Why reporting motor claims quickly can help to contain your claims costs

Data provided by The Association of British Insurers (ABI) indicates that between 2023 and 2024, the average cost of a motor claim rose by 13%, demonstrating that claims costs continue to increase at levels exceeding inflation. This is driven by a concoction of external pressures on the industry:

Labour costs
Parts shortages and supply chain issues
The increasing complexity of repairs as vehicle, particularly for electric vehicles
Uplifts in damages awards for injury claims

The net result of this is that as your claims costs rise, premiums generally follow suit. This is why effectively managing claims costs is critical when it comes to securing the most competitive rates in the market.

Investment in risk management, safety and vehicle technology will undoubtedly improve your claims experience. There is, however, a simple way which alongside your risk management initiatives, that could help your insurer to effectively manage claims costs.

Fast reporting lowers third-party claims costs

A large driver of cost in your motor claims experience is third-party claims costs, where you are at fault for an incident. Third-party claims costs, on average, represent 72% of all claim’s costs – far exceeding the cost of damage to your own vehicle. These costs include the amount spent on repairing the third-party vehicle, provision of their replacement vehicle while it is undergoing repair and damages paid for any injury claims suffered by the third party and any passengers in their vehicle. The sooner your insurer is notified, the sooner they can help. Swift reporting allows insurers to take control of the claim early, reducing the chance of third-party insurers/credit-hire organisations becoming involved and higher credit hire costs as a result. The average third-party insurer reserve for a motor claim reported on the day of an incident is 25% lower than the reserve of a claim reported after one week.

Why is this? If you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident that wasn’t your fault, you may have received a call from a third-party organisation offering you a replacement vehicle and repair your vehicle at no cost to you. The person on the other end of the phone works for a credit hire organisation (CHO). CHOs will ask you to sign a credit hire agreement and in return, you will be provided with a replacement vehicle while yours is repaired. They will then seek to recover the cost of supplying that vehicle to you from the insurer of the driver who was at fault for the incident.

The daily rate for a credit hire vehicle can be between 50% and 120% more expensive than hiring a car on the open market – these inflated costs can drive up claims costs. Especially when compared to the preferential rates of hire that insurers have agreed with providers of replacement vehicles.

Reporting claims to your insurer quickly, capturing the other driver’s full name, telephone number and vehicle registration at the scene, will allow them to control the cost of the claim and help manage the impact of credit hire/repair. If you’re at fault for the incident, your insurers will proactively reach out to the third party and offer them at a replacement vehicle and repair, before the credit hire company gets them to sign up to a costly credit hire agreement. Insurers, due to their size, have negotiated preferential rates with hire firms and repairers, so the cost of providing these services is significantly less. Insurers call this Third-Party Capture.

Insurers measure their third-party capture rate, which is the number of third parties they successfully get into their own supply chain, as a percentage of the total number of fault claims. The higher the capture rate, the more opportunity for your insurer to effectively manage the cost of the third-party claim.

Aviva’s Ines Wade, UK Broker Claims Relationship Leader, further comments that faster claims notification has a significant impact on how well they manage their claims costs and customer journey. She adds that “with fast notification we’re typically able to resolve liability sooner and reduce a claims lifecycle. It also allows evidence such as CCTV or in-vehicle camera footage to be captured reducing the opportunity for fraud.”

How to increase the third-party capture rate and reduce cost in your claims experience

There are a number of ways to increase the third-party capture rate, which gives your insurers the best chance to control claims costs and keep them to a minimum.

1. Reporting your claims as quickly as possible

Even if the damage appears minor, if a claim is reported immediately after the incident, your insurer has the chance to get in touch and capture the third party, helping to avoid potential delays and additional costs that might affect your motor insurance in the future.

2. Report your claims directly to your insurance company

Reporting your claim to your broker (or via your fleet manager, who then reports to the insurer) can build unnecessary delays into the process and delay your claim’s arrival at your insurer. This will give credit hire organisations (CHOs) more opportunity to sign the third party up to a credit hire agreement.

3. Call it in

Getting your drivers to use the phone to report claims is (for most insurers) the most expedient way of getting a claim set up. Some insurers are now favouring online portals for claim notification – be sure to ask your insurer how they want to receive your claim and what will give them the best chance of achieving third-party capture.

4. Capture and share the other driver’s full name, telephone number and vehicle registration at the scene

Insurers will need their contact details, ideally their telephone number, to contact the third party if you are at fault. Get their full name, vehicle registration number and phone number as a minimum.

5. Equip your drivers with the information they need to make a claim

Commonly, fleet managers issue “bump cards” – a small credit card sized document which has details of how claims should be reported and what information to capture.

What the data says

Aviva data shows:

Where third-party capture is successful, the average saving is £3067 per claim.
A client who reports 47% of claims on the day of the incident can potentially convert 67% of claims. This is 40% higher than a client who reports 22% of claims on the day of the incident.
The average third-party capture rate is 11% lower when a claim is reported via a broker, as opposed to directly to the insurer by the driver.

Key Takeaways

With rising claims costs, it’s important to be on the front foot with claims and drive a healthy reporting culture among your driving community. Most claims cost reduction initiatives will require investment on the part of your company. However, the benefits of reporting motor claims quickly can be realised without dipping into your pockets.

Using Marsh’s claims analytics tool, Blue[i], can give you a line of sight of your reporting times and how big a problem this poses for you and your fleet. If you don’t have access to Blue[i], speak to your Client Executive, who can get you set up.

Your Client Executive can also put you in touch with one of our Claims Executives, who can help you to achieve best practice with claims reporting.

For any questions or further information regarding the data or the content of this article, please contact Paul Hutchison, Claims Leader, Marsh Commercial and Marsh UK.

This article utilises data sourced from the Marsh Insurer Performance Dashboard, which contains proprietary information based on insurer commercial retail client claims data from 2022 to 2025. This data is confidential and not publicly available.

This article utilises Aviva’s own data for commercial motor claims for 2025. This data is confidential and not publicly available.

Article

The need for speed: Benefits of reporting motor claims quickly

Why reporting motor claims quickly can help to contain your claims costs

Fast reporting lowers third-party claims costs

How to increase the third-party capture rate and reduce cost in your claims experience

1. Reporting your claims as quickly as possible

2. Report your claims directly to your insurance company

3. Call it in

4. Capture and share the other driver’s full name, telephone number and vehicle registration at the scene

5. Equip your drivers with the information they need to make a claim

What the data says

Key Takeaways

Related insights

Why can’t I defend claims? Claims and risk management guide

Increased in named storm events in the UK: Storm damage and insurance claims

Risk in Context Podcast: Effective risk management strategies amid rising casualty rates

Personal Injury Discount Rate (PIDR) Update

Marsh.com Sign in

The need for speed: Benefits of reporting motor claims quickly

Why reporting motor claims quickly can help to contain your claims costs

Fast reporting lowers third-party claims costs

How to increase the third-party capture rate and reduce cost in your claims experience

1. Reporting your claims as quickly as possible

2. Report your claims directly to your insurance company

3. Call it in

4. Capture and share the other driver’s full name, telephone number and vehicle registration at the scene

5. Equip your drivers with the information they need to make a claim

What the data says

Key Takeaways

Related insights

Why can’t I defend claims? Claims and risk management guide

Increased in named storm events in the UK: Storm damage and insurance claims

Risk in Context Podcast: Effective risk management strategies amid rising casualty rates

Personal Injury Discount Rate (PIDR) Update