Comfort Insurance’s Director of Operations Ben Cue joins Insure TV to discuss the trends reshaping the motorhome industry. From changing travel behaviours and emerging customer demographics to electrification in the leisure vehicle world, Ben shares the exclusive insights Comfort has learned in our 30 years of operation.
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Show Transcript
Eden Comins: Welcome back to Broker Bites here on Insure TV’s Broker Hub. Joining me in the studio today is Ben Cue, Director of Operations at Comfort Insurance. Welcome, Ben.
Ben Cue: Afternoon.
Eden Comins: You’ve been in the insurance industry a long time, seen the comings and goings of the industry and shifts within trends. At the moment, the rise of van lifeing, cost of living is going up and that has also led to rise in staycations. How have you adapted to this?
Ben Cue: We’ve been quite lucky because we’ve had a market focused and very strong product. We’ve not had to make any changes to our product, but in the ways that we’ve engaged with our customers, maybe. We work very hard in customer sentiment and blog, so educating them on these changes, things like the Brexit and so forth. There’s a misconception during Covid that our industry boomed. It didn’t, to a sense, because there wasn’t the vehicles to sell to meet customer demands. But we are seeing that people travelling abroad has grown and gone back to pre-pandemic times, but also that our current core customer is still there and exists, but a whole new demographic has also become involved into the industry.
Eden Comins: I know that you’ve got an exclusive partnership with Aviva, and that’s been intrinsic to Comfort’s success. What does that mean to you and your customers?
Ben Cue: We’re incredibly proud of the Aviva relationship. It’s been a working partnership for the last 30 years and it’s allowed us to deliver first-class products over that period of time, bringing first things to the market before anyone else has been able to do that. Currently, we’ve just got the Defaqto 5 rating for our campervan and motorhome product, and we’re really proud of that because there’s not many products in the market that actually have that, that gives the best outcome for our customers.
Eden Comins: So, we’ve mentioned the shift in trends. I know there’s also been a shift in age demographics for people getting the motorhome insurance.
Ben Cue: I think that’s a lifestyle thing. We’ve seen the growth of festivals and also the cohorts changing in ownership. It was all very common that once children got to a certain age, that the ownership would cease. So once children got to a GCSE age, that tended to be when people would stop motorhome and campervanning and then re-come back in once they’d finished university. But because of festivals and it being more inclusive for families, it seems to be that that’s a continuum all the way through now. When we first started motorhoming, we were a young family. It was quite unusual in the leisure industry, and that’s completely involved over the time that we’ve been involved with in the industry.
Eden Comins: So, customers have fluctuated, but also there’s been a change in regulation. How’s the recent FCA regulation shifts impacted you?
Ben Cue: Us as a family business, we always operated in customer focus, and we didn’t actually have to make any changes within that regulation, but I think we’ve benefited from that by having that ethos at the heart of the business, it allowed us to actually capitalise on some of our competitors that didn’t necessarily have that same customer-centric approach.
Eden Comins: And looking at Brexit, with travel rules tightening and not as much freedom of movement, has that impacted the business at all?
Ben Cue: It hasn’t, but I think it will start to have an impact, because at the moment, although we have the Schengen rules that people have got to adhere to, the electronic tracking hasn’t come into effect, that actually starts this month. So I think at the moment when people got to borders and they maybe extended their stay, they maybe got just a nod from the passport will control to say you’ve maybe gone over, but with the electronic tracking coming into effect this month, I can probably see that have more of an effect on people’s travels next year.
Eden Comins: Yeah, much more implications for people considering travelling around the EU, having to work that into their budgets.
Ben Cue: And you’ve also got the new ETIAS that possibly there’s no defined date when that comes in, but with the cost of travel and that being included, that’s going to impact the overall cost of holidays people travelling abroad.
Eden Comins: And have you seen an impact of that UK travel being more attractive to the customer?
Ben Cue: Definitely during Covid, it did, and I think it watered down as Covid’s become less, but yeah, there are people that aren’t looking to travel into Europe because of the cost, and will stay because of the cost of fuel and overall holidaying as it is.
Eden Comins: And looking to the future, there’s not just EU regulations to look at, but there’s also the impact of electronic vehicles. How is that coming into the motorhome industry?
Ben Cue: For us there’s no change to the policy and again this is the reason of partnering with Aviva. They’ve already got the internal infrastructure to deal with that type of vehicle, working with green parts, and having the overall product that can cater for electrification. It’s slow on the uptake for motor homes because of the weight, the DVLA have just changed the regulation for licence holders to drive heavier vehicles if it’s an electric vehicle which will help. But I think it’s the industry itself that’s not going to need to grow because the infrastructure is not there with campsites, so that doesn’t allow for people to have an electric vehicle going down a campsite and charge and then move on so I think it’s where the industry can then grow to follow the demand of electric vehicles.
Eden Comins: And moving forward, how do you see the industry supporting customers to make more sustainable travel choices?
Ben Cue: Our customers are already quite sustainable. They choose to travel out peak times, they travel at optimum speeds, the actual tenure of a motorhome is quite different to a commercial vehicle because it has a much longer lifespan. We’re working with green parts with the insurers, so I think actually as an industry our customers are already quite green and focused in what they’re trying to achieve, but I think the electrification and there’s more to do and obviously our customers recognise if they don’t support the environment, they won’t have a hobby at the end of it, so it’s quite self-serving in what they need to do.
Eden Comins: And before we finish, what is the future looking like for Comfort?
Ben Cue: Comfort, our ultimate aim is to stay independent, we’re privately owned, we have no private capital, we’re not in the acquisition chain of events, so that allows us to offer the best possible outcome for our customers and offering the best service that we can.
Eden Comins: Thank you very much for joining me in the studio today, Ben.
Ben Cue: Thank you very much.
Eden Comins: You can hear more broker bites and find out more on the Broker Hub on Insure TV. Thank you very much.
