Van hire as an ancillary product to your van insurance base policy is a must if you are a sole trader or a small business whereby your single van is your fleet. The reason that this aspect is not included in the policy straight away is because van hire can, obviously, be privately arranged outside the relationship between you and your van insurance broker.
However, for the minimal fee that your van insurance provider will usually charge you for this bolt-on, it is not normally worth the hassle of ringing around other hire firms to get the price for a van and insurance for the short-term period you are likely to be without your commercial vehicle in the event that it is lost, stolen or damaged.
What you do have to be wary of, however, when considering this as an ancillary option with your chosen van insurance firm is what type of van they are offering as a replacement whilst your van is either being repaired or it has not shown up in the event that it’s been, well, nicked.
If you’re used to a Ford Transit and you’re being offered a Bipper as a replacement, you may not get your tools into the courtesy vehicle they’re offering. They may also pass the responsibility of providing the replacement van on to the garage who are repairing your van after an accident. You would think it obvious that you want a like-for-like vehicle, however, you may only be offered a hatchback if that is all the garage has in the way of van-hire vehicles for insurance purposes, purely because it makes their overall fleet cost cheaper.
There are other aspects of your temporary van hire and insurance to look out for, too, by going through your insurance.
The level of your van insurance cover (fully comp or third party) may reflect on the terms and longevity of the replacement van – you will need to check the aspects of the van insurance offered with the hire vehicle to ensure it suits your purposes.
And you must report the incident that has occurred to mean you qualify for van hire to our insurers immediately, so that they can arrange the van hire and insurance for the period you envisage being without your vehicle. If your van has been stolen, you must also report the theft to the police.
This is a tricky one – you may want to push on and get your van insurance through as quickly as possible but, to be fair, you will probably struggle to find van hire cheaper yourself if you were to be without your own vehicle, for whatever reason. It may be worth an extra five minutes of your time when you’re processing our enquiry form to see what is available in case you decide you do want to add this ancillary product.