We continue our look into common exclusions from van insurance base policies today with Breakdown or Roadside Assistance cover.

Of all the ancillary products that are available, this is one that the savvy van driver just cannot do without. The reason breakdown cover is not part of the base package, however, is that there are many other ways you can be covered other than by your van insurance for this aspect of your day-to-day driving peace of mind.

Emergency breakdown cover is often used as a ‘loss leader‘ for other saleable products, such as premium-rate bank accounts, so van insurance brokers do not automatically include it as a part of their mainframe policy document.

However, breakdown cover via your company vehicle insurance is often more tailored to suit commercial needs of emergency roadside assistance, whereas the alternate products that cover ‘you’ the individual in case of a breakdown, i.e. the loss leaders mentioned above, are, in the main, for domestic roadside cover.

Why should I take out commercial emergency breakdown cover?

Safety, reputation and cost are the three direct answers to that question of separate breakdown cover, but allow me to expand.

Safety: accidents are just that – you cannot plan for them. And they don’t have to mean collisions with other vehicles, although obviously if your vehicle is put out of action as a result of such an incident, you will need it removing from the scene. But breakdown assistance is more to do with those incidents that occur where there is only you involved. The last thing you need when your engine seizes up in the middle of the nowhere on a cold, frosty night is to be stranded – one such rescue will deliver payback for a lifetime of membership fees.

Reputation: if you’re on your way to a job for a new customer (or an important existing one) and you breakdown, all the calling you do to them may not convince them you’ve a genuine breakdown to contend with. Look professional in all of your clients’ eyes with this ancillary – they will by far appreciate a ‘late’ over a ‘never’. Many van insurance breakdown bolt-ons also have home-assist, or similar, to get you on your way if your van fails to start from the comfort of its own driveway or you misplace or damage your keys.

Cost: have you seen how much it is per mile to be towed off a motorway, these days? It’s not cheap. Breakdown cover added to a van insurance policy could pay for itself in just one roadside rescue, if you happen to have a between-junction malfunction.

But there are other benefits, too, for choosing commercial breakdown cover over domestic. If the van is not reparable roadside some policies will either offer alternative transport (this will usually be for the supply of a vehicle only – you are self-reliant for any short-term van insurance and fuel) or, if you’re too far from home by the time a repair’s executed, they may even stretch to the costs of an overnight stay, nearby.

There are restrictions, of course. Breakdown cover may be limited to a maximum value or number of callouts per year and roadside assistance does just cover for getting you going again and not the cost of the replacement component(s).

To see if you could save a packet in minutes by switching your roadside assistance to a cheaper van insurance bolt-on, compare van insurance policies on site using our online form.

Van insurance ancillary products are, in a nutshell, the insurable exclusions on a broker’s base policy document. Not all trades were born equal and, as highlighted in “Exclusions and Ancillaries – what do I need?” there are circumstances that you can take out van insurance against but aren’t necessarily appropriate for your business, for example a florist from Wolverhampton is hardly ever going to use a Green Card which would cover them for travel on European roads.

All brokers and their base van insurance policies are different; some may include one or more of the aspects covered in the following half a dozen articles (tag: #vancillary) in their base policy; the following explanations are generalised and not specific to any one van insurance policy and, in order that you do not pay twice, always check the small print before you proceed to checkout.

Legal Expense van cover is critical insurance for your livelihood if you are a sole trader, but is in no way limited to that aspect of business.

If you are involved in an accident that’s not your fault, providing that the other driver is insured, the cost for any repairs to your van – and possibly you – will be met as you are the ‘third party‘, which they will have as minimum van insurance cover to drive on UK roads.

What their policy will not cover is the cost of your vehicle-hire expense whilst yours is off-road and certainly won’t cover you for any loss of earnings, especially if you are injured as a result of the collision. Taking out Legal Cover as an ancillary to your base product will ensure you’re covered in this eventuality.

In addition, some Legal Cover will also cater for your recovery in a private health care system, so you are guaranteed bespoke treatment helping you get back to work at your soonest probability.

And finally, in order to get all of these expenses back in the swiftest possible time, most Legal Cover ancillaries will grant you a generous amount of legal representation if the claim has to go to court. This can vary, but, from other sites I’ve checked manually, this is up to £100,000 per claim.

To see how much bolting on Legal Cover to one of our cheap van insurance quotes would cost, compare up to 60 policies using our online form to save a packet in minutes.

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.