Van Insurance: Own Goods, Hire and Reward, and the Tools in the Back

Van insurance turns on a single distinction that sounds like paperwork and decides claims absolutely: whether you carry your own things or somebody else's for payment. Most refused van claims are that line, crossed unknowingly.

Carriage of own goods against hire and reward

Carriage of own goods covers a van used for your own business: a plumber's tools, a builder's materials, stock you are moving between your own premises. The goods belong to you or to your business.

Hire and reward means carrying goods belonging to someone else in exchange for payment. A single paid delivery of a third party's parcel puts the journey outside an own-goods policy, and it does not matter that the van, the driver and the route were otherwise identical.

This is why weekend delivery work on a van insured for a trade is a serious problem rather than a technicality. The policy does not partially apply: for that journey, it does not apply.

Tools are usually not covered by the van policy

This surprises people every time. A van policy insures the vehicle. Tools, equipment and stock inside it are generally excluded or covered only to a small token limit, and a full tool theft is one of the most common uninsured losses in the trades.

The cover you need is a separate tools-in-transit or business-equipment policy, and it almost always carries conditions: an overnight clause requiring tools to be removed from the vehicle, an approved lock, or a specified alarm.

Read the overnight clause first, because it is the one that decides real claims. A policy that excludes theft between certain hours unless tools are removed is common, and a van broken into at four in the morning with tools inside is then an uninsured loss.

Goods in transit is a third, separate cover

If you carry other people's goods, the goods themselves need insuring separately from the vehicle and from your own tools. Goods-in-transit cover does that, with a limit per load and often conditions about how the load is secured.

Clients increasingly specify a minimum goods-in-transit limit in their contracts, so the limit may not be your choice. Check the contract before choosing the policy.

Where the goods are high value or temperature-sensitive, expect specific exclusions. Those are worth reading rather than assuming, because the exclusions in this class are unusually broad.

Signwriting, modifications and security

Signwriting is a modification and should be declared. It rarely increases the premium meaningfully and occasionally reduces it, since a marked van is a poorer theft target. Failing to declare it is the avoidable part.

Racking, roof racks, tow bars, ply lining, additional locks and beacons all count too. Additional security is generally welcomed, but only if declared, and if the policy specifies an approved device, fitting a different one does not satisfy the condition.

Where a policy requires deadlocks or slam locks, treat that as a term rather than a suggestion. It is checked at claim time and it is checked precisely.

Who is driving, and how they are named

Any-driver cover is convenient and expensive; named-driver cover is cheaper and inflexible. The failure mode is a subcontractor or a mate driving the van on a named-driver policy, which is uninsured use.

Check the minimum age and minimum licence period on any-driver policies, because both are frequently restricted and the restriction is easy to miss. A twenty-year-old apprentice may be outside the cover.

And check whether the policy covers driving other vehicles. Cover for driving a customer's van is usually an extension rather than something included, and is worth confirming if the work requires it.

What to do before buying

Write down every journey the van makes in a normal month, and identify any where somebody else's goods move for payment. If there are any, you need hire and reward, and there is no version of an own-goods policy that stretches to cover them.

Then price the three covers separately: vehicle, tools, goods in transit, and read the overnight and security conditions on all of them. See the clauses common to every policy, courier work specifically and liability cover for the work itself.

Vans are rated differently from cars, and it is not about size

Two vans of identical size and value can price very differently, and the reason is usually the occupation attached to the policy rather than the vehicle. Trades that carry expensive portable equipment, or that work at many addresses in a day, are rated higher because both theft and accident exposure rise with the number of stops.

That produces a practical instruction: describe the occupation precisely rather than picking the nearest item from a dropdown. A tiler is not a general builder, and a mobile mechanic is not a garage — the categories price differently and the wrong one is a non-disclosure rather than a shortcut.

Mileage and overnight location do the rest. A van kept on a driveway prices differently from one on a street, and a declared annual mileage that bears no relationship to reality is another answer that was simply wrong on the form. Both are cheap to get right and expensive to get wrong.

Frequently asked questions