Ah, the Bank Holiday weekend. More to the point, the Sunday of the same – historically the last leg of the tour we used to do every Bank Holiday weekend – Manchester to Blackpool. The Friday we’d hit Stafford; Saturday, Stoke; Sunday, The Hacienda; before pulling into Blackpool just as the sun was coming up on the Monday morning, sometimes catching a couple of hours kip in the back of my brother’s van before seeing out the remainder of the mini-break along the Golden Mile, or others just waiting on the beach for the resort to wake up as ozone crashed out of the murky breakers dashing in off the Irish Sea.
We never even contemplated that he hadn’t got the right van insurance for the ‘M6 Totty Trail’ we used to follow thrice annually (we’d be abroad for Whit). Four tops, two trousers, underwear optional hung up or stashed in the racking in the back of the van that, if we were unlucky, would double up as our sleeping quarters – needless to say, there was a valet performed before we hit the road and after we got back home in the early hours of Tuesday morning before we headed straight off to work after the tools were loaded back inside. Had we ever been pulled over mid-Tour, there was no doubt ‘our kid’ would have accrued a few more license points in his race to hit double figures.
In the exuberance of youth, such oversights were often the cause of a less-cheap van insurance renewal quote; thankfully, the premiums in ’88-90 where nothing like the massive hikes we see now for van insurance for young drivers or for those with excessive points on their license – we’d never have afforded the weekend breaks if he’d have had to pay for all of his pretty points.
Commercial insurance company warn of danger of van insurance claims this weekend
There is a similar warning coming out of Swinton Commercial, in light of the first Bank Holiday of 2012, relaying information from Newton Abbey police who are issuing warnings of expected heavy traffic in their jurisdiction and cautioning patience in order to reduce road rage, little prangs and any subsequent van insurance claims that may result.
Superintendent Muir Clark, Road and Armed Support Unit chief, instructed his constabulary to be on the lookout for a whole host of driving offences that could lead to heated situations should jams be prevalent on UK roads this Bank Holiday. (What do you mean:’ should’? I’d say that’s guaranteed) Amongst the list, he included driving under the influence of drink or drugs, driving erratically to endanger ‘innocent road user[s]’ and failing to wear a seatbelt.
Any of the above will lead to license points, reducing chances of a cheap van insurance quote when it’s time to renew. Also, it is worth checking out, if you have a company van and are thinking of using it to traverse the M6 Totty Trail between Wolverhampton and Blackpool that we used to follow or your own route in search of youthful high jinx, whether your van insurance includes any aspect of domestic or leisure usage.
Oh – and get an air freshener, just in case you do have to spend the early hours kipping in such an enclosed space with your brother after a night out on the lash. Blackpool never smelt so fresh…
