Private use van insurance
If you use your transit van for social, leisure or domestic purposes, you can safely consider taking out standard private van insurance. So if you’re only using your van to transport a surfboard say, or taking it out on camping trips, private cover will suffice.
Commercial business use van insurance
If you use your van to carry out any activity related to your work or business, including transporting goods to your place of work, you’ll need to take out commercial van insurance.
Commercial van insurance falls under three categories:
Carriage of own goods
Unlike car insurance, van insurance requires you to declare if you use your van to transport goods to your place of work. In other words, if you use your van to commute to work, you’ll need to take out cover for carriage of own goods. This will protect you and your possessions if you have an accident during your commute, or during any work-related journey.
Carriage of goods for hire or reward
You’ll need to take out hire and reward insurance if you use your van to transport goods in return for payment. For example, if you’re running a food delivery or courier service, or even a catering company or furniture removal business. Typically, the type of delivery business that falls within this category will make multiple deliveries to multiple destinations during a single day, and may transport a wide variety of goods.
Haulage insurance
Haulage insurance provides similar cover to Carriage of Goods for Hire or Reward, but is intended for businesses that deliver goods to the same clients on a regular basis. Unlike courier services, haulage businesses typically make long distance deliveries to a single destination. This means they’re able to inform insurance providers about the type of goods they’ll be transporting. Note that vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tonnes will need HGV insurance.
