To the uneducated eye, following a minor incident the casual van driver would get into his cab after swapping his fleet insurance credentials and be on his way to the next drop.

However, is there damage done past what the eye can’t see from the outside?  Is he risking more than just having to rely on his breakdown cover once the van is half way up the M6 to Manchester if it’s actually classed as a write off?

One auction company in the UK, SMA Vehicle Remarketing have launched a service, though not as critical as driving away from an incident as outlined above, can have a similar impact on the value of a vehicle when assessing its value for resale.

Their “Tactical Repair” service – aimed at the fleet market in its early days – involves one of their inspectors running his or her trained eye over the vehicle prior to a refurbishment and judging whether repairing to the extent that it will attract commercial interest is worth it or whether knocking that little dink out of the passenger door will cost more than the vehicle will realise at private auction.

Blow by blow service available

Organisations that take advantage of the service do not necessarily have to take on all of their repairs to get their vehicles up to a standard that will make them stand out above the rest.

Of course, if it is a recent collision and all the relevant paperwork is the owner’s possession, there is nothing to stop them claiming for compensation under their fleet insurance cover, providing that the deal they’ve negotiated with the fleet van insurance provider has a respectable excess and the claim won’t damage the flexile no claims bonus.

However, for the van to be considered auction-worthy, it is perhaps accepted that any damage will be minor and, as the excesses are set higher in hope to bring the premium down to the level of cheap van insurance, it will be more cost-effective to pay for any repairs outside of the governing insurance policy.

Based upon SMA’s inspector’s assessment, the company can then decide to have all or some of the work carried out. With their focus very much on the customer service aspect, SMA can often provide a repair offer there and then, which you can then thrash out as to which parts of the vehicle need the most attention to attract interest at auction.

It is proven that cars in a showroom have a better pull than those not deemed fit to be put on such a pedastal; already, companies are paying for the fleet vehicles to be restored to this level, wherever feasible. This gives the owner a very real hands on approach to how the used fleet gets sold, perhaps with one eye on donating any cash received towards the ever-growing van insurance costs which will be invoiced when the new fleet replaces the old one.

SMA MD Bob Anderson believes that there is a huge gap in the market for this service; not only does it offer a route to market but also adds value to an existing product – in my world, that’s 80% of the sales done for you – this project is a no-brainer, so good luck to SMA for this innovative concept.

Renault are investing heavily in electric vans in the UK, fuelled by their belief that 10% of all cars on UK roads will be electric powered in the next five years.

Their Kangoo ZE is fuel efficient, delivering the equivalent of £0.05/mile and can travel on average 60 miles on a full charge; the full range is 106 miles, but that can be increased by regenerative braking by 20 miles but also reduced by 50 miles if you have the air-conditioning on full whack or treat it like a formula one car; either way, it should be more than enough for the average van driver’s travels in any given day.

However, further investigations into the actual costs, given that you can buy the van but Renault retain ownership of the battery, is not as cost effective on paper as it looks to the untrained eye. Not only do they retain the ownership but, as well as charging you just shy of £17k, £18k and £19k for the basic, maxi and 5-seater crew vans respectively, but you will also be charged a monthly rental fee for the battery.

This, however, is not as straight forward as it seems if you’re looking to plan your monthly budget around your vehicle costs and may not be cheap.

Renault are still not exactly sure how the electric van market is going to take off, and they want to protect the ZE brand for their current and future reputation in this field.

As such, they still need the real results from practical driving and deliveries made by commercial vehicle owners on a day-to-day basis.

Having their hands on their product that you are, in essence, market testing for them means they can assess the ongoing performance. For Renault’s part, they will take care of repairs and replacements, providing you take due care as outlined in the contract you take out when first purchasing the Kangoo.

The good news, as far as maintenance and reducing your van insurance is concerned is that, with Renault looking after the battery and the reduced top speed of the van, there is little that can go wrong, other than driver error. It may be difficult at the moment to get your electric van insured as it is still a new field but, as more brokers get knowledgeable about the range, they must realise the opportunity to offer cheap van insurance for this range, just as we do here on cheapvaninsurance.co.uk.

We’ve all seen the lengths that the youth of today will go to pimp their ride. For the boy racers, it is almost expected that they boost their suspension, tinker about under the hood, spend their benefit on a spray-job and tint their windscreens for the total blackout look as they drive past incognito with booming speakers setting of car alarms aplenty.

What you don’t expect is for two renowned brand names like Mercedes Benz and Pioneer to take a van and live out this boyhood fantasy by spending £25k souping it up – and that’s just the sound system – to a level that would have boy racers drooling into their designer beer.

Like something out of The Man From UNCLE or Knight Rider, the joint mission has been nicknamed Project-X and the van certainly lives up to KITT’s specifications.

Unlike the Trans Am in the TV show, more like the Bionic Van, this creation started out as Mercedes Vito, but everything has been upgraded it seems, except the shell itself.

Not that you’ll be able to buy one of these vas from any showroom – this is a one-off model that showcases the extremes that Pioneer and Mercedes can go to, as well as Brabus, another German outfit who have super-tuned the engine which would just blow any governor you tried to impose on it to smithereens.

The engine is a monster – it would be interesting to see what type of van insurance quote you’d get by entering these details into an online search facility; not cheap, that’s for sure.

The engine boasts a turbo V6 diesel output with a 3.0 litre cubic capacity. For a not-so aerodynamic design, this van can do 0-60 in just over 8 seconds. Combined with 224 brake horsepower, the unit delivers a top speed of 122 mph when pushed to the limit.

The Pioneer kit installed has a combined output of over 30kW, derived from 8 amps (that take 4 batteries to suppport) two sets of 15″ and 10″ sub-woofers and a graphic equaliser that would make KITT’s dash seem dull, in comparison.

There are no plans to make this into a production model, so you won’t be finding a section in your online van insurance form for super-subbed vehicles.  But you will be able to see it around the shows and they are planning to let it loose on the roads.

There are, however, many people who do modernise their vans, especially transits done up to A-Team standards and camper-vans that become permanent homes for many people who have took to the road.

Whatever you choose to do to your van, even the little extras to your works van to make it your own, make sure your company’s fleet van insurance covers those little modifications.  As B.A. would say, “Stop talkin’ this jibberjabber and get yo crazy van-ass covered, fool!”

The return to work for thousands of Londoners this week was ushered in alongside new regulations for the emissions that their vehicles were allowed to pump into the atmosphere under Euro 3 regulations.

Not that the new legislation bans large van and minibus drivers from using the capital’s roads, just that if their vehicles are tested and found to not comply, they will face an on the spot fine of £100.

There has never been a bigger incentive for drivers to reduce their carbon footprint than racking up this bill, which is not cheap; every non-compliant vehicle could feasibly rack up fines of £500/week. Of course, once you’re caught once, you will be on the radar increasing the likelihood of becoming a repeat offender.

This could be a big payday for the department in charge of monitoring and handing out the fines, based on evidence gathered by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

Their study into the 3.5 million registered vans on UK roads revealed that more than 3 in 10 of these commercial vehicles were not up to scratch in relation to the Euro 3 emission acceptable output.

Deeper studies into those non-compliant vans shows that, of the 31% who fall into the fail category, almost 85,000 were registered in London.

Recent new fleet van figures reflect the change

The move to renew vans which meet Euro 3 stipulation has already begun, according to the figures released at the end of 2011.

Whilst the domestic market for new vehicles is still falling, although at a lower rate in the last six months of 2011 than previous, investment in fleet vehicles remains buoyant and has helped support the UK automotive market througout a tricky 2011.

What does the LEZ have to do with van Insurance?

There are two factors that van insurance brokers may take into consideration if you confirm that your van meets with new LEZ thresholds.

You obviously take your business seriously; along with fitting security devices and even having your logo on the vans panels shows your broker you are not easily going to jeopardise your livelihood, aspects helping to reduce your van insurance quote.

Also, your van will be a newer model by buying new to meet the regulations, hence, should you have a breakdown and you have taken out breakdown cover as an ancillary to your base van insurance policy, newer parts theoretically are more abundant from stockists, easier to replace, enabling them to replace them and you to get back on the road with less delay.

If you are considering buying a new van, especially to get around London to escape possible £2,000/month fines (a new van, especially an electric-powered one, could pay for itself in less than six months, based on running the risk of £100/day fines), why not check out the comparative prices for the same cover as your existing van on our site.

Get your relevant information around you and you can have a new, probably cheaper van insurance quote in minutes.