Courier insurance will be required on UK roads for carriage of other people’s goods, ‘for hire or reward’. Different from private cover, courier insurance is specified for commercial courier use. Basically, if your business involves moving goods for others then courier insurance will be essential for you to legally operate.
The type of cover you will require will dependant on the type of operation you will be looking to conduct with many options available for you to tailor make your policy.
And the coverage offers you can expect to sift through are numerous. As with normal vehicle cover you will need to be covered for Third Party, Fire and Theft – seen as basic cover. This will cover the vehicle against said problems and a third party will be covered in event of accident.
While this is often the cheapest option normally available to you, because you’re couriering goods you’ll also want to consider Goods In Transit insurance. This will cover the goods you’re transporting for a third party against loss, damage or theft, and would normally be considered essential and a long-term cost-saver when considering what policy you will require. Public Liability cover is also an option. Being out on the road and being in contact with the public and customers, this policy will cover you against any accidental damage caused to a civilian’s property while conducting your business, as well as in the unfortunate event of an accident or injury and is something that should be considered also.
It’s worth checking also if you will require – and when I say require, I mean by law – Employer’s Liability cover. If you hire employees as part of your business then you certainly will. If, for example, you subcontract work, which of course is extremely common in the courier world, then they may qualify as self-employed and it is worth checking with an advisor to see which category your workers fall under. With that, Light Haulier cover is normally expected by a company looking to hire an individual for sub-contracted work. This is essential for those working on their own making a small number of deliveries and will make individuals more desirable to contractors if they posses such cover.
Fleet insurance is for companies operating a number of vehicles in their operations. By lumping the cover together this way, it makes it easier to manage your policy as you will not have to register with an insurer for each individual vehicle. It’s also worth looking into how many drivers you would like to insure on a vehicle and find out what it would cost to cover them.
Premiums may be higher for drivers with less experience so it’s worth checking with an advisor to see what policy options are available and how that would eventually affect the policy costs.
As you can see, there are numerous things to consider when establishing what kind of policy and cover you will need. At Insurance Revolution we can tailor a policy for you, specialising in non-common insurance for vehicles and drivers. Car, van, truck or HGV, we offer competitive rates and can often offer policies others simply cannot. Get in touch and speak to an advisor about your specific business.
