With 3M registered vans on UK roads, it would be impossible to write one single commercial vehicle policy that would cover every van driver’s insurance needs without overcharging a lot of others for services that they won’t necessarily ever use.

However, most van drivers want insurance against a common set of elements; therefore, the way that insurance firms and brokers deal with this, in the main, is by creating one base policy document and exclude certain aspects that are particular to only a handful of trades.

It is these extras to the base policy that are the exclusions.

For example, Derek the window cleaner wouldn’t necessarily need travel to Europe on his van insurance policy and neither would a whole host of other tradesmen. Having ‘Green Card’ cover – your insurance for travelling on many of the European roads – is quite an expensive element in its own rite. In order that the majority of van drivers aren’t paying for a product they don’t need, it is excluded from the base policy document but can be added as an ‘ancillary‘ product for those whose business (such as couriers) may see them taking the trip across The Channel on a regular basis.

Going back to Derek, he may have a small van for better fuel efficiency, greener carbon footprint and cheaper van insurance due to the engine capacity, but the telescopic ladders he carries in the back of the van are not only expensive but are essential to his livelihood.

Paul the Flower Courier, however, carries no such tools in the back of his small van, only flowers. In this instance, Derek would add Tool Cover as an ancillary product to the base van insurance policy (as it is excluded, as standard), whereas Paul would have no need for this service which, depending on the value of tools need to be insured, will affect the price of the ancillary cover Derek takes out to cover his ladders.

These are ‘obvious’ exclusions, but there are high-risk exclusions that you also need to be aware of that you may not be able to add. For example, if you have your tools stolen but it is proven that you left the keys to your van in the lock on the back door, your claim may become invalid due to the negligent part you played in your own downfall – you cannot insure against this type of oversight.

Likewise, if you were to have your door ripped off by an oncoming lorry as you were waiting for roadside assistance as a result of a breakdown, providing you have taken out breakdown coer as an extra to your van policy, you could cover the call-out and repair costs but, as you were breaking the law by leaving your door overhanging into a motorway lane, it is unlikely that the van insurance policy will cover for the replacement door.

There are other ancillary products that you can prepare for through your van insurance – we will discuss those further in the next article, later today.

Perhaps the last thing to cross your mind when you step out of your van following an accident is keeping a cool enough head to run through a mental checklist that will help you deal with the thereafter when the here and now is a lot more pressing.

Rather, after your concerns for yourself and others involved in the incident have been allayed, your mind starts to think how much the dink’s going to cost to put right, how you’re going to get to your job/home and how much is this going to cost channeling it through your van insurance? Even more pressing and though you know you probably have, given recent survey results, you ask yourself: “have you actually taken out fully comprehensive van insurance?” especially if you know that the incident in which you’re involved is down to your lack of care and attention.

From the same van insurance company who brought us the recent survey results which suggest that seven out of ten van drivers aren’t sacrificing maximum cover, although the temptation in the current climate must be very tempting, here is a checklist of things to try to remember following a road accident if you know you’re going to have to make a claim on your van insurance policy, one way or the other:

1. Cut the power to your engine and flick on your hazards
2. Irrespective of the perceived damage, call the emergency services. The traditional 999 number if there’s an SOS box to hand or 112 if you’re using your mobile
3. Calm down, dear; it’s only an accident. Don’t let your emotions get the better of you as you will have to speak to others involved in any collision as you obtain their details. This is not only for the benefit of claiming on your van insurance but it is also legally required to submit others names with your policy documents when reporting an RTA, which, if not taken at the crash scene, must be done in person at a police station (if you are physically able) within 24 hours of occurrence.
4. Don’t admit guilt! That is not your job, but the role of your van insurance investigator.
5. Although police are bringing in more sophisticated technology to map out crash scenes, the onus is on you to capture as much evidence immediately after the incident to help speed along any subsequent van insurance claim you may make. Anything you can photograph or write down appertaining to the circumstances leading up to the accident, such as weather conditions, actions of the other driver (speed, direction, indicating, overtaking) will help your investigator piece together who was at fault.
6. If circumstances such as shock or injuries dictate that you are unable to capture this information immediately, you are advised to return to the scene to help you recall anything you may have omitted from your original statement.
7. If your vehicle is causing an obstruction and you are satisfied that nothing untoward will happen as a result, clear your van out of the way to allow traffic flow to resume
8. Call your van insurance provider. You may have no intention of making a claim, but that’s not saying the other driver(s) won’t, even if they say otherwise at the scene. If your broker is prepared, they can minimise any ensuing damages and help you to maintain as clear a license and as cheap a van insurance policy as you’ve come to enjoy.

Print off the following at-a-glance checklist (or download the pdf) and pop it in your glove box, just in case:
Basic on-scene checklist, details for van insurance claim
Your van insurance policy no.:
Make / registration of your van:
Time and date of incident:
Location:
Named driver / # of Passengers
Weather conditions
Other accident details:
a.
b.
Witnesses: YES/No;
name:
contact number:
Other driver details
Policy number (insurance)
Name
Contact
Vehicle Reg #
Police called: YES / No;
Attending officer i.d. # :
Crime number:

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The figure for the cost of heavy delays caused by UK road works has been estimated at a staggering £4bn, annually. That’s a lot of man hours going to waste for businesses that can ill afford to spend their resources thus. Not to mention the cost of fuel as commercial vehicles sit idling at temporary traffic lights or tail-backs caused by lane closures on motorways and dual carriageways the length and breadth of the country.

Having gone a long way to addressing the clear-up rate of major traffic accidents last month with the planned implementation of the CLEAR system, the government is now to hand the reigns of control over to local councils for targeting sub-contract roadworkers who carry out their tasks at rush hour on the most populated roads within their borough.

In a move to incentivise utility companies such as the various water boards, electricity companies and gas mains services to carry out their work off-peak, Transport Minister Norman Baker announced that Councils now have the choice to bill such companies for any disruption it causes at times when the roads would be congested with traffic even without their maintenance taking place.

It is hoped that the possible fine of £2,500 will encourage this type of running repair, necessary or not, to now either be completed in a shorter space of time or can be scheduled to take place overnight or when the roads are less busy.

This type of work can be very frustrating for businesses who have urgent deliveries held up in queues caused by roadworks; the costs can come from a whole myriad of conceivable angles. If, for example, you have paid an express courier for an urgent lineside delivery only for the shipment to be held up by roadworks your customer may resort to charging you for a ‘line-stop’ fee for down-time, especially if they had already conceded to pay the logistic firm’s fee. Likewise, manhours wasted is money down the drain, not to mention the frustration for the driver who may be at the end of a long shift and approaching his time limit on the road.

Then there is the cost to the planet to consider, with so much unnecessary CO2 being pumped into the air.

But the most frustrating aspect is when your driver has an accident whilst waiting in a queue which, according to many van insurance sites, is one of the times an incident is most likely to occur. With focus so very difficult to maintain when crawling at a snail’s pace, distractions are commonplace and, before you know it, you’re having to claim on your fleet van insurance policy due to your driver bumping the tail-end in front. With the current ‘compensation culture’ rife from accident claims, so many claims are going in against van insurance policies for whiplash, whether they’re justified or not, personal injury claims lawyers are very astute at winning those cases. And one of the other main causes is when the traffic that has been held up is starting to clear ahead and your driver, from his often higher vantage point, sees the traffic in front pick up a pace and pulls off accordingly but the vehicle in front is yet to register the speedier traffic flow; again, they are being tail-ended and claiming against your company’s van insurance policy.

So, is it worth £2,500 of tax-payer’s money to clear the roads at rush hour? The sooner, the better.

One thing fleet managers know if the duties of their commercial fleet involves delivering to Europe is, indeed, the duties. As well as having to take out EU travel as an ancillary product on your base van insurance policy, UK commercial drivers are charged a levy for delivering to the Continent.

If you are only servicing one customer and that delivery is infrequent, rather than shell out for the extra van insurance and the head-ache of handling duty paperwork, it is often cheaper to hire a courier firm for those odd occasions that you do ship goods and come to an agreement with the customer regarding the volatile nature of those logistic charges.

Up until now, this has been a one-way street and drivers coming to the UK from Europe – or further away and just using France, Belgium or Holland as the ferry crossing point – have done so without charge. Their commercial vehicle insurance is taken out in their country of origin, any duties paid are for the ferry crossing and many fill up on the mainland to save on diesel because of the price when they get to the UK (doesn’t that tell you something!).

The government is now looking at changing this as they see an ever-increasing volume of heavy-goods vehicles taking it out on UK roads but not contributing a penny to the treasury coffers. The Freight Transport Association have welcomed this change of tack, but are wary of who will be in charge of charging, who’ll be monitoring the fees and, of course, will the move actually create the need for jobs within the private sector who handle a lot of import product that the sum of the envisaged charges don’t support monetarily? Yes, it would be great to contribute more to the economy, but at whose expense?

Simon Chapman, chief economist at the FTA, was on hand to comment that the final details of any firm proposal would be finely scrutinised and that, all things considered, the planned charges would have to prove a positive effect for UK operators, rather than a negative.

If you are considering export as a way to expand your business but had not factored in the extra cover on your fleet van insurance premiums – or to just look at comparing your existing van insurance with over 60 direct insurance firms and brokers – compare van insurance policies using our simple online form to save a packet in minutes.

Oxfordshire has been hit by a spat of van break-ins since the turn of the year, it has been revealed. Cowley saw one power saw taken as police believe the same gang of professionals committed a similar crime days later when more tools were taken from a van which had been parked up overnight (Why didn’t he stop it, Bodie?*).

The police are now appealing for witnesses after the thefts have been labeled ‘a string of crimes’ following a reported number of weighty claims against the victims van insurance policies, although it’s unclear whether the claims are purely for damage sustained by the vehicles themselves or whether they are for the cargo, too.

The crime committed in Cowley was perpetrated during daylight hours when the unwitting van driver left his Stihl power saw in the back of his unlocked Transit; the break-in which followed days later had a ‘number of power tools’ lifted, also; as such, police are asking all tradesmen working in the area to be extra vigilant and lock up their tools, even if they are on site. Claims are all well and good against van insurance but the victims in this instance have reportedly been left unable to carry out their jobs until they get replacements.

Oxfordshire PC Laura Mabbott later made an appeal in the Oxford Mail. With reference to leaving valuable goods in open view, she said that people were inviting opportunist thieves to steal, not safeguarding them by at least locking them away and not leaving items such as laptops in obvious places, namely underneath the passenger seat where thieves instinctively look.

In addition, she asked anyone offered cheap tools to think twice before accepting them as there was a likelihood of them being stolen. Irrespective of handling stolen goods being unlawful, the easier thieves sell on tools, the bigger the market they envisage, which only leads them to steal more readily. It’s a vicious circle and often, even though it is seen as a victimless crime, claiming against insurance, for the van driver involved who may have ruined his no claims bonus, he is unlikely to retain the cheap level of van insurance prior to the incident and may take him years to accrue that level of discount again.

To see how much you can save by adding your tool cover to your van insurance, compare providers at our cheapvaninsurance.co.uk online quote facility.