When it comes to insuring a van, many of the same questions will be asked as with car insurance, but with a few extra questions about what your van will be used for. There may also be more drivers that you want to add to the policy than with car insurance. There is an easy way to do this, which we will explain later.
In terms of finding a provider for your van insurance, a good place to start is to look at the website for one sure insurance. This is informative and will allow you to look towards obtaining a free quotation. Finding affordable insurance is about comparing prices to see how competitive one provider is compared to another. If you have just received your renewal notice and there has been a notable increase, then it would be wise to shop around. Online is a great place to do this to obtain direct comparisons quickly and easily.
The Questions You Will Be Asked
The questions that you will need to answer to obtain a van insurance quotation will initially, as with all insurance quotations that are going to be meaningful, relate to personal details such as name, age, occupation, address in full, details of previous claims, or convictions, and if there are any medical conditions an insurer should know about that might have an impact on risk.
Details about a van’s use will be an important insurance question asked and one that should be thought about carefully. Just because you own a van, it does not necessarily mean that it is for business use, despite how likely it might seem. As with an estate car, a van is useful for having plenty of storage capacity behind the driver for transporting goods that may be for personal use. Where it becomes business use is if your activity is related to a business service provided rather than helping a friend out with perhaps a DIY job, where no payment is involved. Whereas, using the van for transporting equipment or goods between work depots or delivering to customers is very definitely defined as business use. The insurer will then be interested in what your business is involved with and the types of goods you are likely to be carrying.
The vehicle details that you will need to provide will include the make, model, age, registration, and whether there have been any modifications. Avoid buying vans where there have been any alterations to the body or engine because invariably it will narrow down your chance of obtaining a competitive quotation, given the number of insurance companies that will question just how the van has been modified.
Providing your estimated annual mileage to your insurer may help you if your mileage is low. Perhaps where a van does not carry out that many deliveries. This is because low mileage discounts can be applied to lower premiums. However, with business use, this is less likely, but not to be ruled out if the van does not form a major part of your business activities.
Knowing where a company van is kept overnight will provide the insurance company with clues as to its theft risk and may also affect how much premium a company pays.
No claims bonus will be something else that keeps your premium down. It is worth protecting this so that one claim does not see it wiped out and premiums dramatically rising the next year.
Then, something that you will want to consider with van insurance is whether you need to be naming all the drivers, because there might end up being a lot of them. It might be more cost-effective and convenient to opt for “any driver”. This will mean that you do not have to specify every employee that drives the van. You will still, of course, need to mention anything about your drivers that makes them more of an insurance risk, though, as in previous motoring convictions. You would be wise to avoid employing these kinds of drivers to keep your insurance costs down.
Occupations
Individual occupations will affect insurance premiums, so certain types of businesses will also be affected by this when it comes to paying higher insurance premiums. Occupations that will increase insurance premiums include builder’s labourer and construction worker, so this will make a difference to premiums whether the van is used within that type of business or not. Just commuting to and from work will result in more premium solely on the job of the insured driver.
Van Courier Insurance can be purchased so that valuable goods that are being transported will be covered. It is a type of commercial van insurance that is often referred to in a policy as “carriage of goods for hire or reward”. It will cover a van where multiple deliveries are being made within a local area, relating to parcels or foodstuffs. It is important to have this kind of cover when this is your business.
Limits for Van Insurance
Generally, for your vehicle to be classed as a van by insurers, it should not weigh more than 3,500 tonnes. This is an expectation of insurers. So, you need to check before buying your vehicle on this and that insurers will consider your vehicle in the van category when they insure it. Otherwise, as a more heavy-duty vehicle, it will cost much more to insure.
In conclusion, to understand van insurance is to prepare for the fact that its use will be all-important in terms of the type of van insurance that you will need. Also, there are limits on which vehicles can be classed as vans.