Which van insurance policy?

When times are tough, is third party always best?

In the current economic climate, whilst the bottom line is very much top priority, renewing your van insurance may well seem as unimportant to you as your mother-in-law’s birthday.

Both are tasks that can fill you with an unwarranted dread. If you forget the latter, you know you’re in for an earful from the wife. However, if you neglect to look for cheap van insurance quotes when that time of year rolls around, you’re risking more than ‘the cold shoulder’ for a few days, if you get caught short.

Annual van insurance is an inevitability that, as a business owner, you can not send a belated card to and hope it gets you back in the good books. If the worst were to happen, especially for sole traders, and your van is stolen with all of your work gear in the back, your livelihood has literally been swiped from under you nose.

In more properous times, it is great to be fully comp.; one has to be pragmatic, however: when cash is short and you are looking for cheap van insurance to tide you over, then third party, fire and theft is a feasible option. If nothing else, at least you are covered if an unscrupulous crook does away with your motor whilst you’re at your mother-in-laws 125th birthday party and they decide your vehicle has more potential than the broomsticks lined up along the garage wall.

Many business-minded people who have been fully comp for years, but are finding economics tough, look at taking out third party cover as an admission of failure, but that is just not so. Even if you go for the cheapest van insurance available, at least you’re covered to some extent.

It is worth considering the options and the false economy that this may action may disguise. This is going to sound like backwards logic but there is a method in the madness.

You know how much your van, or any commercial vehicle you own, is worth and what it would cost to replace. If you have enough money in the kitty to do so, but have one eye on cashflow, then it may be worth risking going with cheap van insurance, such as third party.

If, however, you have very little in the pot then you absolutely must take out fully comprehensive van insurance. If your business is reliant on a van for transport and you cannot replace it following an accident that your reduced van insurance does not cover, you may as well shut up shop and go home.

Make sense? Now, I’m not advocating that either is the right answer for you or your business, especially of you are a start-up or apprentice and you have not yet realised your full earning potential. It is always the temptation to go with cheap van insurance for young drivers, but that can be habit forming and is not always the best solution.

Whichever policy you decide upon, be sure that the very basics are covered in any event. Irrespective of cashflow, if you need van insurance, you need van insurance.

Driving down the cost of van insurance

One man’s definition of trash is another’s goldmine. The same can be said if you were to hit two different businessmen with the exact same quote for van insurance. One may look at your offer as extortionate, whilst his counterpart considers it quite cheap van insurance.

This is all down to expectation and the price you put on insuring your fleet of commercial vehicles and the part they play in your business. If your van is only a standby measure, compared to an Armada of 40-footers, you may think that you are being overcharged. If, on the other hand, your delivery network is 100% serviced by vans, you know their value and may even think you are being offered very cheap van insurance.

Whatever your perspective, there are tried and tested ways of bringing the price of your policy down. By adding additional safety prior to obtaining a quote, if you do truly value your delivery vans, is a sure fire way to keep money in your pocket and not pay for an extra round at the broker’s annual Christmas function.

Measures you can take to reduce your van insurance premium

And these measures, although they attract a price tag in their own rite, are priceless; not only do they pay for themselves year after year, but also act as a deterrent or extra safeguard which could also help you with any no claims bonuses attached to your policy.

So, in order to get the best out of your internet search and get the cheapest van insurance deal possible, here are a list of things you can arm yourself with, when comparing van insurance quotes online. Here is the S.I.L.V.E.R. method to obtaining the cheapest possible van insurance:-

  • Steering Locks – big, bright and bold. Okay, if someone is intent in breaking in to your vehicle when it is parked up the corner of a multi-story, this type of deterrent can be negotiated by an expert car thief. If, however, your ‘run’ incorporates mainly short stops in populated areas, this is one slip-on, slip-off device you should never be without.
  • Immobilisers – this is one of the first things brokers will look for and is the first step you should take with all of your commercial vehicles if you are looking to achieve cheaper van insurance. Quite simply, with the immobiliser engaged, you van is going nowhere, hence the lower premium.
  • Lock her up – show the insurance company you are geared towards protecting your livelihood by securely locking away your fleet and they will take this into account. Whether it be in a secure parking zone like a warehouse or a well-fenced, even patrolled, compound, these measures will count in your favour.
  • Vehicle Tracker – vehicle trackers are worth their weight in gold; not only to insurance companies, but also to the metropolitan police force, should your van be stolen. Especially if the vehicle is then used for further crime. The signal is emitted all across the UK, so can lead officers straight to the villains, should they still be in possession of your van, when found.
  • Evaluate – if you have had crimes committed against your fleet of vehicles in the past and either police or insurance investigators have recommended upgrades to prevent recurrence, ensure that these are undertaken. Not only are they safeguards to your business, but also are templates for safety and driving down the cost of your next van insurance policy.
  • Reciprocate – if you are a repeat customer and you have ticked all of the above boxes, take that résumé and show it to your existing van insurance provider. If you are a long-term customer, they will not want to see you take your business elsewhere.

That’s the grease that keeps the wheels of business a-turnin’.

Search for online van insurance

Van insurance need not cost a fortune. Whether you have one or a whole fleet, with sophisticated search engines running in the background, changing providers is no longer the headache it used to be.

Loyalty, it seems, is a one-way street when it comes cheap van insurance providers. Due to the number of fraudulent claims, many policy providers have saw fit to increase the amount for existing customers in order to recoup the outlay, whilst still offering cheap van insurance quotes for new customers.

So it doesn’t hurt to test the waters when it comes to renewing your policy.

Due to the very nature of van’s being commercial vehicles, they are on the road a lot more often than your domestic vehicle; the cost of policies reflect this, so you need to be on your toes when scouring the highly competitive UK market in an attempt to put money back to your company’s bottom line, which will be achieved to even greater effect if your search allows you to stumble upon very cheap van insurance.

With the advances in internet technology, you no longer have to wait days, or even hours, to get cheap van insurance quotes. You can get prices back within minutes and you will be astounded at the amount you can save for less than a quarter of an hour’s work. And that’s just for one commercial vehicle. When you look at how much you can save your business when you search for cheap van insurance for a fleet of vehicles, your are talking about a serious amount of money in your pocket and not the brokers’.

It may be that you have never used the internet before to choose your van insurance and you might be nervous about using the facility. Most sites have made the process so easy, it is simple to obtain a quote even for those who are not so tech-savvy and have never used an internet-based insurance service, before. So, for the sake of fifteen minutes, once a year, you really have no excuse to see how much you can save by looking to get your cheap van insurance online.

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