I see two points in this post, the first is what you tell them! It is like talking to the police, answer the question you are asked, do not offer any other information, you must be honest and truthful. half of the people in prison have talked their way in there by saying something to the police they didn’t ask. 
Doctors have the same problem with patients, they ask a simple question and get a dissertation, these types are known as rambling historians in the medical profession.
The second point is the comparison sites, this week I did a quote for my stepson after his automatic renewal came back almost £300 more than last year. I used a discount code and got him with the same company I use for house insurance. We rang the old company to cancel and their retention department worked his ■■■■ off trying to bring their price down. I said if you can do it now, why send a £300 increase out in the post? He said most people do not check and just pay it. Anyway he got to within £25 of my new quote and I told him thank you but no thanks. He said he could see my new proposal and it was different, it wasn’t and they lie to keep your business.
The lad has 7 years no claims bonus and business cover.
Wheel Nut:
I see two points in this post, the first is what you tell them!
The second point is the comparison sites.
Someone else nailed it earlier on in the thread, if it’s a big fleet then it will probably have a big insurance excess to match, in that instance it’s highly unlikely to go through insurance if it’s just a small claim, you can also ask whoever deals with the claims within your company to see what the excess is. If it does go through insurance then it’s likely to appear on C.U.E which is the shared database for all claims. My employer had about 12 trucks on the fleet, insurance excess of £800, unbeknown to me I was also down as a ‘named driver’ I think if it was a fleet policy I’m under the impression the claim goes under the company name rather than the individual driver, but please don’t quote me on that.
Your second point on comparison sites was actually my downfall, I wasn’t happy with the quote I received for my bike insurance so I (regrettably) went through a comparison site, they actually used the tick box on ‘Any claims within 5 years in any vehicle’ to hang me, this was despite my pleas of innocence because I’ve never claimed on my car or bike policies and had never dreamed in a million years a bump in a HGV could effect my bike policy, it still sounds ridiculous to say that now.
Unfortunately innocence/ignorance isn’t seen as an excuse, I now have to speak with insurance underwriters directly to get even a half decent quote, because as soon as I tick the ‘has previously had insurance cancelled’ box I can only choose from about 4 no name companies. To give people an idea, before I started my driving career my fully comp insurance was £160, it’s roughly 5 years since my 2 minor HGV claims, I kept my original no claims bonus because it wasn’t a claim on my policy so I’m still capped at maximum no claims and my latest quote was £260, that’s for a horrible eco box and as a bit of a petrol head it’s been absolute torture.