Insurance
Van Insurance: Business or Personal Use, and What Changes the Price
Van insurance is priced on how the van is used, and getting the use class wrong is the most common reason a van claim is refused. If you use the van for any work, personal-only cover is not enough; if you carry other people's goods for payment, own-goods cover is not enough either.
- Four use classes
- Any work: not personal-only cover
- Deliveries for others: hire and reward
Keeps the insurer, the premium and the renewal date on record. Quotes come from FCA authorised providers, not from Wisemium.
Your van insurance
- Use class
- Matches how the van is used
- Kept overnight
- On record
- Renewal
- Date on record
Example. Your own details appear once you add them.
The van use classes
Social, domestic and pleasure
Personal use only
- Weekends, family use
- No driving for work
Social plus commuting
Plus one fixed workplace
- Driving to the same depot or office
- Not used for the job itself
Carriage of own goods
Your own trade
- Your own tools, stock or materials
- The usual class for a tradesperson
The full guide
Van insurance is priced on how the van is used, and getting the use class wrong is the most common reason a van claim is refused. Here is how the classes work and what changes the price.
The use classes
Social, domestic and pleasure
Personal use only. Example: a camper conversion used for weekends, or a van used as the family vehicle. Any driving for work is outside this class.
Social plus commuting
Personal use plus driving to one fixed place of work. Example: driving your own van to the same depot or office each day, where the van is not used for the job itself.
Carriage of own goods
Using the van for your own trade, carrying your own tools, stock or materials. Example: a plumber, a gardener or a market trader. This is the usual class for a tradesperson.
Haulage, or hire and reward
Carrying other people's goods for payment. Example: a courier, a delivery driver for a platform, or a removals service. Own-goods cover does not extend to this.
If you use the van for any work at all, personal-only cover is not enough. If you deliver for a platform or a customer, own-goods cover is not enough either.
What changes the price
- The van's size, weight and value, and its insurance group.
- Where it is kept overnight, and whether it is on a drive, in a yard or on the street.
- Annual mileage.
- Your age, licence history, claims and convictions.
- Whether tools are left in the van overnight, and whether you want them covered at all.
- Security: alarms, immobilisers and deadlocks.
- The cover level and excess.
Tools, goods and the things a standard policy leaves out
A van policy covers the van. What is in the back is usually a separate question, and it is where many tradespeople find a gap after a theft.
- Tools in transit. Cover for your own tools while they are in the van. Often an add-on with its own limit, and often with conditions about where the van is left overnight.
- Goods in transit. Cover for goods you are carrying, your own or a customer's. Needed by couriers and anyone delivering.
- Public liability. Cover for injury or damage you cause to someone else in the course of your work. Not part of a motor policy.
- Overnight conditions. Some policies do not cover tools left in an unattended van overnight, or only cover them if the van is locked in a garage or a secured yard. Read the condition before relying on the cover.
A trade or business policy may bundle some of these. Check the limit against what your tools would cost to replace new, not what you paid for them.
If how you use the van changes
Tell the insurer before the change, not after a claim. Starting delivery work on a policy for carrying your own goods, or using a personal van for a job, puts you outside the class you are insured for. The insurer can change the class mid-term, usually for an adjustment to the premium.
How Wisemium helps
Add your van insurance to Wisemium and it keeps the insurer, the premium and the renewal date on record and shows it as needing attention as the renewal comes close, so the use class and the cover can be reviewed in time. When you want quotes, it hands you to an FCA authorised comparison partner. Wisemium does not compare, recommend or arrange insurance itself.
Common questions
Can I use my van for work on a personal policy?
No. Social, domestic and pleasure cover excludes any use for work. Commuting cover allows the journey to one fixed workplace and nothing more.
Do I need business cover for occasional delivery work?
Yes. Carrying other people's goods for payment needs hire and reward or haulage cover, however occasional. Some insurers offer it by the hour or the day.
Are my tools covered if the van is stolen?
Only if the policy includes tools cover, and only within its limit and conditions. A standard van policy covers the vehicle.
Related
Car insurance renewal checklist
What to do before a policy auto-renews.
Read the guideBreakdown cover explained
Roadside, home start, recovery and European cover.
Read the guideQuotes come from FCA authorised providers, not from Wisemium.
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