All in all, 2011 has not been a bad year for the light commercial vehicle sector of industry, especially towards the tail end of the year.

Figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders report an overall increase in the registration of LCVs up by 16.7% overall for 2011. On the face of it, that’s a healthy increase and van manufacturers, the UK economy serving the traditional white van man and even van insurance providers will be basing their budgets for this section of the market accordingly.

However, if you drill down into that figure, there is a huge trend that could make a big difference to vehicle component manufacturers and commercial vehicle insurance brokers if they don’t build it into their calculations, based on the most recent figures comparing Dec ’10 sales to similar sectors in Dec ’11.

Of the smaller vans, three out of five sectors that make up the overall group of light commercial vehicle sales are actually down on last December’s figures.

Pickups came in 2.5% down, 4x4s more than an eighth less than this time last year, down 12.8% and vans in the <= 2.0t category were less popular by more than 4%.

The recorded rise for the sector overall, 7.8%, comes from the two larger sizes in this class, 2-2.5 ton and 2.5-3.5 ton capacities, which have shown 14.6% and 13.1% increases in registrations, respectively.

This is good news for the van insurance sector. Given that, typically, the larger the van the larger the premium, their income will have increased without having to do a tap, purely down to the choice of vehicle preferred by the tradesmen buying new.

But what does this shift in larger van registrations tell us?

Is the nature of British business changing shape, requiring larger capacity vehicles to transport goods? Or are UK businesses actually down-sizing their fleet, looking to fit more of their component into one vehicle than offer two delivery routes, in an attempt to cut down on fuel as well as the number of vans servicing their customer base?

With the anticipated rise of duty on fuel in August and the spiralling costs of van insurance, there is a very real argument for businesses to look at maintaining capacity by buying larger vans but reducing fleet and mileage by the number of visits to customers and suppliers as a method of cost-cutting. But what effect will these changes have on customer service? That is assuming that their customers have not seen downturns in their order-books, too?

The headlines can sometimes be misleading – it is what is written between the lines that is often more important that the text itself.

The driving charity Brake, run with the support of Balfour Beatty Plant & Fleet Services, has announced the date, venue and line-up for its 10th annual awards ceremony, which will be held in June at the MacDonald Burlington Hotel in the heart of the England’s second city, Birmingham.

Targeting achievers in commercial fleet safety, the function will reward the best in class for organisations that have contributed massively to road safety in the last twelve months.

Many of the awards are for innovations we have covered here on cheapvaninsurance.co.uk over the last couple of months, including reducing carbon footprints with emmission levels, analysing crash sites and groundbreaking methods of enhancing fuel efficiency.

If you believe your business has contributed to road saftety in the fleet industry you can submit your details – free of charge – on the online form promoting the event here: http://www.brake.org.uk/friend-of-brake/fsf_award.htm

There is a catch (it is a charity event, after all) – in order to be considered for the award, you must book at least one seat at the networking event.

If you are attending on your own, the charge will be £110 or, if you can organise a party of 10 people, you can secure a private table for £1,000, saving £10/per head. This can be submitted on the form in the link above or you can e-mail the details for booking alone to [email protected]

This is still cheap when you take into consideration the quality of the venue, a pre-dinner reception with drinks, followed by a three-course meal (wine included) access to the casino and you can dance the night away to the disco tunes.

This year’s sponsors are Arval, who received a commendation in the 2011 ceremony for the “Road Safety in the Community Award”. Individual awards are also sponsored by other organisations who recognise the outstanding job that the Fleet Safety Forum does for raising public and commercial awareness of fleet safety issues that may otherwise go unaddressed.

At time of writing, there are still opportunities to put your name in front of a receptive audience of the upper echelons of the the fleet commercial industry by part-sponsoring the event – a flyer can be downloaded as a pdf @ http://www.fleetsafetyforum.org/docs/flyer-12-awards.pdf to see if your business fits the profile of the event; you can also take the first steps to raising your brand awareness by e-mailing Katie Shephard of the Brake charity on [email protected]

If you’re in the commercial fleet business and fancy a night out in Brum, for those in fleet car, truck and van insurance as well as the manufacturing side of the industry, this networking awards event is as good an excuse as your likely to get, this year.

If you enter ‘van insurance‘ into Google or any of the other major search engines, you will return millions of results.

Do you have time to visit each and every one of those sites? Of course not – you’ve got far better things to be getting on with – like running your business, for instance.

With the economy set to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future – this week’s announcement by the government that a young couple with two children will be over £1000 per annum worse off in 2015 than they are now sums up everything that the Con-Dem government feel towards the working classes, for me – the onus really has been put back on the working man to save as much as he can, where he can.

For the sole trader, there is perhaps more scope to do this than the man who clocks on and off, working for a larger organisation.

The right tools for the job

Every workman – including a humble DIY’er like myself – knows how easy a job can be if you’ve got the right tools. For a sole trader, that means everthing from buying the right van, chamois leathers, drill bits, bread baskets – even the software to generate invoices. The more time you take researching your contracts and the tools to do that job, the easier it will be on you, your time and, most importantly, your pocket.

This is equally true for your commercial vehicle insurance. Many businessmen just look at their cover policy, send it off when it’s time to renew and bingo the broker has pocketed the savings, not the van driver / business proprietor – that’s you!

Fully Comp, Third Party, Third Party Fire & Theft – which one?

Theoretically, every business owner in the land would love to insure their van fully comprehensive. However, if you’re a start-up business with no no claims or are going self-employed and are looking for cheap van insurance for a young driver, you may struggle to budget for that, especially if you only have one or two contracts to get you started.

It is legal to have some van insurance before you take your van on the road, Third Party (where the insurance cover’s another driver’s damage, but not your own) is the absolute basic requirement. You can add fire and theft which, as the tag suggests, covers you if your van is stolen or destroyed due to being set ablaze.

Every business is different and, until basic components of van insurance policies are standardised, so is every commercial insurance broker; we cannot tell you which van cover is best for your business.

What we would recommend is to take your search for cheap van insurance as seriously as any other aspect of your business.

Be certain of the cover you need (so you’re not paying too little or too much) and then use the Internet to compare van insurance quotes. It’s easier than you think.

From tip to toe of the UK, January has blown in more than a just a fresh start to the new year. From Cornwall to The Highlands, Britian has taken a lashing from gale-force winds, torrential rain and even snow in places.

For van- and truck-drivers nationwide, motorways and A roads – in fact, anywhere exposed to the driving winds – the usual delivery runs become perilous missions as the battle to remain upright on the road takes precedent.

The storms have put not only drivers on alert but also truck and van insurance brokers as they expect a wave of claims in light of recent events.

Likewise, with thousands of households being left without power, trees being ripped out of the ground by their roots and unforgiving winds tearing walls down literally brick by brick, insurance call centres all across the country are on standby for a barrage of calls today as home-owners lodge claims for compensation.

Unfortunately, two commercial vehicle drivers suffered the worst possible fate as Britain was held to ransom in the unabating conditions.

One driver from Kent was crushed as a tree fell onto his van after being blown over by the gales and, also in the south of England, in Dorset, a truck driver was pinioned beneath his lorry as a freak gust blew over his vehicle.

Scotland’s two major airports, Glasgow and Edinburgh, had to periodically close during the day. Reminiscent of the beginning of last year, Scotland again seemed to be on the wrong of the stick as the weather was unrelenting.

We all remember hard pressed politicians north of the border last year being interviewed against the backdrop of snowbound motorways attempting to appease the public by stating that the services were doing all that they could in the face of unprecedented conditions. After the lashings and heavy snowfall already this week, one really does fear the worst again this year.

With flood warnings being posted all across the British Isles and winds whistling through every nook and cranny showing no signs of letting up, it is critial for drivers who have to take to the road to be prepared for every eventuality.

At the very least, take blankets and extra food and water out on the road for every trip you have to make. Better advice is to invest in a survival kit, such as as those mentioned in our article – A man, a van, a winter plan. For the outlay, you will think it a cheap investment should you ever have cause to use it.

And, as always, ensure that your van insurance policy incorporates every eventuality for winter driving, especially breakdown cover if you’ve not taken it out separately – it can be painful enough driving through a UK winter, without having to pick up a bill due to lack of appropriate cover.

Be careful, drive safe.