Author: News Desk

150 Parcels Stolen From Delivery Van

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It’s Christmas again and that means one thing…lot’s of parcels being delivered all around the country by van drivers.

Unfortunately, one delivery van in Burnley got stolen last week, and although Police later found the van abandoned in a street, the 150 parcels it was carrying were nowhere to be found.

This wasn’t an isolated incident either. On that very same day another delivery van was also stolen in Burnley. Fortunately, on this occasion the driver was coming towards the end of his shift which means he didn’t have any parcels left to be stolen.

This comes at a time when Police are warning delivery van drivers around the country to not leave their engines running while making a delivery.

While it has not been confirmed exactly how the 2 vans in Burnley were stolen, typically speaking, when these kind of vehicles are taken it is because the driver got out to make a quick delivery and then left the keys in the ignition with the engine running.

It all happens so fast, and before the driver knows it their van is being driven off down the street by a thief who was just waiting for the smallest of opportunities.

Not only does leaving your keys in the ignition make the chances of your van being stolen more likely, but it also puts you in a bad situation if you need to make a claim on the insurance policy.

I’m sure that your van insurance provider is not going to be thrilled when they ask how the van was stolen, only to be told that you basically handed the keys to the criminals…and even left the engine running for them so it made the getaway even easier.

If you work for a big company then your boss won’t be impressed either, because the company will find it hard to claim on the van insurance.

Of course, there is a good chance the van will be found by Police in no time at all, but this doesn’t always happen, and as we’ve just seen in Burnley, many times the vans reappear but without those parcels.

It’s Christmas time remember, which means it’s now more important that all those parcels arrive safely to their intended destination.

So what is the solution? The only way is to turn off the engine, take out the keys and then lock the door when you are making a delivery.

Sure, it is going to take you a bit longer to deliver all the parcels, but at the end of the day it’s better to get everything delivered and be 30 minutes over schedule, rather than being back at the depot by lunchtime having to tell your boss the van was stolen.

Van Drivers Confess in Anonymous Survey

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We all know that van drivers do some things they shouldn’t now and again, but a new survey by a van insurance company shows exactly what they are up to.

The survey, which was taken anonymously by 2500 van drivers, came up with many interesting (and quite shocking) statistics.

For example, who would have guessed that 95% of those surveyed admitted to regularly breaking the speed limit? At least they are being honest, although it’s not recommended and can get you pulled over by the Police of course.

What else was admitted to in the survey you might be wondering? Interestingly, 73% of van drivers said they don’t use social media while out on the road, while virtually all of the people surveyed denied ever taking a selfie while at the wheel.

Yeah, probably a good idea that you don’t do that. However, the fact that 27% of van drivers are checking their Facebook while driving is a bit worrying.

The survey also showed that 28% of van drivers say they have driven through puddle in order to splash someone walking on the street. If you’ve ever been a victim to one of these soakings then you will probably dislike van drivers after reading that.

Some more statistics:

55% of van drivers don’t wear their seatbelt on a regular basis, especially when they are making short journey’s. Just be aware this is illegal and could result in a fine and points on your license.

70% don’t use indicators when changing lanes. You know, it’s usually a good idea to let other drivers know what you are going to do.

85% admitted to some kind of road rage within the last year, although only rarely did this result in violence. Good to hear that van drivers are not getting out of their vans to get involved in punch ups, but it does seem like overall they need to become a bit calmer.

The van insurance company who conducted the survey commented that they were surprised by the results, although on the whole they regard van drivers as safe on the roads.

“As an insurer of thousands of commercial vehicles every year, we know that the majority of drivers are extremely careful on the roads,” they said.

I agree. Yes it is a bit shocking to hear that 55% of van drivers don’t wear a seatbelt now and again or 95% break the speed limit at times, but in general they are a good bunch who follow the laws of the road most of the time.

To all van drivers out there…just be aware that if you do break the laws of the road and you do get caught, then it could negatively affect the price you get quoted for van insurance.

In order to get the cheapest van insurance possible, and to follow the laws of the road like you should, make sure you always wear your seatbelt, keep to the speed limit, don’t use mobile phones at all, always indicate and keep calm when things don’t go your way.

Car and Van Insurers to Analyse Facebook Posts

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In a move that is sure to get attention, Admiral insurance has launched a new scheme to analyse Facebook posts before giving a quote.

We all know how car insurance, and particularly van insurance is getting more expensive in the UK, and that’s why Admiral have decided to try this new technology

Many people will no doubt see it as them trying to spy on their potential customers, but in my opinion this is not what is going to be happening at all.

In fact, I think that most of the time when you look through the posts of a Facebook account then you very quickly get an idea of what that person is like, and more importantly, what kind of personality traits they have.

This is key for car and van insurance, because it’s these personality traits that typically let you know what kind of driver that person is likely to be.

It’s worth noting that initially this is only going to be used with first time drivers, so if someone has just passed their test and wants to get insured on their first car or want a van to start a business.

Now, before thousands of angry people start writing in to Admiral and complaining about this, you must understand that it is going to be completely optional, and will only be done if the person agrees to it when getting a quote.

The main thinking behind this is to actually save drivers money, as it simply gives the insurer more information to work with, that can be used to decide what the quote is going to be.

In other words, if Admiral look at your Facebook posts and decide that you seem like a sensible person who will obey the speed laws, be friendly to your fellow drivers, and treat your car or van with respect, then it’s likely you will be rewarded with a cheap insurance quote.

So what of things will Admiral be looking at exactly? A statement by the company says that Facebook posts that are written with proper grammar and use calender apps to set-up specific times for meetings with family and friends are looked upon as good indicators of a safe driver.

However, if your Facebook posts are over confident and aggressive, with bad spelling and no calendar apps, then expect to be given a more expensive van insurance quote.

At the moment Admiral only plan to use this on Facebook, but they might move to other social media sites such as Twitter and Instagram if it proves to be successful.

Delivery Drivers and Self Driving Vans

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We all know that self driving vans are the future,but could this mean the end for delivery drivers? The answer is surprising.

One of the main companies at the forefront of self driving technology is Google of course, who recently have been trying out a number of cars at various locations around the USA (including one incident where their car crashed into a bus and they tried to get out of giving their insurance details).

Well, in a move that is sure to get the attention of delivery drivers, news has just emerged that 2 Chrysler Pacifica vans have been spotted at Google headquarters.

Nothing wrong with that you might be thinking, but our insider sources have told the site that these vans are actually part of a new test for self driving vans.

What I know right at this moment is that each of the vans has been fitted with sensors, which means they are almost ready for the road…without a driver.

Could we imagine a day where vans are driving around delivering parcels and other important packages, without the need for anyone at the wheel? Also, let’s not forget that if self driving vans really are the future then van insurance will probably become a lot cheaper.

If you drive a van though don’t get ready to hand in your notice just yet, because in my opinion I think the technology for these self driving vehicles is a long way from becoming something you see on the roads around the UK.

While companies like Google will tell you it is only a few years away, there is a lot of problems that need to be sorted out, as well as proving to the public that self driving vehicles are the real deal.

This is all going to take time, and it could very well be 10 to 15 years from now until we really start to see things change. Even then, it won’t go smoothly at first, and there will be a need for delivery drivers to keep things running along like normal, even though they might not have to do all of the driving.

I have no doubt that well into the future we shall see vans driving around without any drivers at all, but this is still a long way off.

For now though, the delivery driver industry is going to be as strong as ever, and those millions of vans around the UK still need insuring. It only takes a few minutes to get a quote, and you could easily save hundreds of pounds compared to your current policy.

It will be interesting to find out where all of this self driving technology takes us. Right now it is still a bit unclear exactly how far away this is from being the real deal and how it is going to work, but one thing is for sure, with a company such as Google behind it this is something that eventually is going to become mainstream.

Sheffield Experiences Wave of Van Break-ins

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South Yorkshire Police have issued a warning to all van owners in and around the Sheffield area as the city experiences a mini wave of break-ins.

In the past week there have been multiple thefts all around the city, with many of the vans having power tools stolen. There was even a van stolen from Adastral Avenue in Charnock on the outskirts of the city, which just goes to show how far these criminals are willing to go.

This has prompted Police to issue their warning to all van owners in the area, and if you know someone that owns a van then make sure they are fully aware of what is going on around the city.

Basically, it comes down to the fact that many van owners are not securing their vehicles and the contents inside them properly, which in turn has led to thieves seeing them as an easy way to get some tools and similar items they can sell.

It wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of these power tools are being advertised on sites like eBay within a few hours of being stolen. That brings us nicely to the question “are these big auction sites doing enough to make sure stolen items are not being sold on their platform?” I think it is better than a few years ago, but more still needs to be done.

We should all be taking responsibility though. For example, if someone is offering you a power tool down the local boozer for £40, when it usually sells for £400, then you know it literally fell of the back of a lorry.

In this kind of situation you should not only refuse the sale, but report the incident to the Police. At the end of the day, it is the only way we are going to stop these criminals.

Van owners must also do more to make sure their vehicles are secure. Things like parking in a garage or up against one to limit access is a good idea, as well fitting extra alarms, installing more locks and taking your tools out of the van at night.

This also puts you in good favour with the van insurance companies, as they reward you with cheaper policies.

It is always worth doing that bit extra to make sure your van is as secure as it can be. Yes it will cost you a bit more upfront to fit an extra alarm and a few more locks, and it will mean an extra 10 minutes at night taking your tools out of the van and an extra 10 minutes in the morning putting them back in, but in the long run it will be worth it.

Oldham Bricklayer Quoted £40,000 to Insure a Van

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A young bricklayer by the name of Gary Shipp has been quoted £40,000 for van insurance by a leading online comparison site.

Mr Shipp, who is 18 and comes from Oldham, had been looking into starting up his own bricklaying and building venture, but was stopped in his tracks when he saw just how much money van insurance was going to cost him.

I thought we are supposed to be encouraging young people to start their own businesses and take the path of entrepreneurship? Obviously not.

Sure, you can expect a younger driver who has only recently passed their test to be quoted a bit more than someone with a proven track record of driving safety, but is £40,000 a bit too much? I think it is. It pretty much makes it impossible for this guy to make any profit for the first few years of business, which in turn would mean the business will fail.

However, it’s good to hear that Mr Shipp is not letting this stumbling block stop him from doing something. Although it’s not ideal, he has been using his Vauxhall Astra car to transport his equipment to and from different jobs, as he starts the task of getting new clients and making a name for himself in the local area.

Good on him I say. Many people would use that ridiculously high van insurance quote as a reason to give up on their dream and stay in their job, but this guy is not letting anything stop him, even if he has to pile a load of bricks into his Astra and drive around town.

While it is shocking to see such a high quote for van insurance, it really is the norm unfortunately for people under the age of 25. Yes, it is possible to see the point of view of the insurance companies, as they want to reduce their risk as much as possible, and maybe they just don’t feel confident insuring someone that is 18.

Ultimately though, everybody has to start somewhere, and if an 18 year old wants to get started in their own business they should be helped to do that now, and not when they are over 25 and considered to be more responsible.

Looking at both sides of the story here, in my opinion, I think some kind of trial period with the use of telematics could be a good idea, where younger drivers are given a few months to prove themselves as safe and responsible commercial drivers, and then once the trial period is over and the insurance company is happy with the data, the driver is offered a more reasonable quote.

New commercial vehicle insurance provider launches

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Pukka Insure, a brand new commercial vehicle insurance provider set to turn the world of van insurance on its ear, has recently launched.

Are you a van and truck driver that’s had a devil of a time getting commercial insurance for your vehicle? Well Pukka Insure says it’s got a deal for you. Or it will, sometime soon. The new player on the insurance field says that right now it’s offering drivers of 3.5-tonne vehicles a policy that should be something you might be interested in, though the company has remarked that it will be expanding to a full weight range eventually.

Of course, the founder of this new company, Sam White, isn’t just someone that’s burst onto the scene from nowhere. She’s already involved in the insurance industry through the claims management company she founded – one that’s somehow survived the purge of CMCs that occurred a few years back when the Government changed the way personal injury legislation was handled in the UK.

Truth be told, the commercial van insurance sector could use some new blood. Motor vehicle insurance in general is just all kinds of terrible right now, with personal and commercial insurance rates rising steadily through the roof and into the stratosphere. More choices for beleaguered van and lorry drivers is fantastic, as more competition in the sector should – theoretically – act as a downward force on premium prices altogether.

The problem is that some of the forces driving insurance premiums up are external and not internal. Sure, there’s always the spectre of “cash-for-crash” scams driving costs up for insurers, but the insurance premium tax (IPT) went up to 9.5 per cent in November of 2015 – a hike of 3.5 percentage points – and that’s certainly adding to everyone’s pain.

Still, I suppose it remains to be seen if Pukka Insure is going to be able to make waves in the commercial insurance market or not. Personally I wish the new start-up all the best, but I’m certainly not going to be holding my breath to see if the rates this company offers – or the level of service, for that matter – are going to be anything worthwhile or noteworthy. For now, I’m just going to adopt a “wait-and-see” approach, though you’re welcome to switch insurers if you’re in the 3.5-tonne weight range I suppose. If you’re not, I’ll wager you’re going to wait right alongside me, aren’t you?

Cash for crash ruining van insurance rates?

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Cash for crash scams are poised to absolutely ruin the van insurance industry, driving up rates for legitimate drivers – and one man has had enough.

In fact, a van hire firm owner from Bolton, Stuart Lever, has gone on the warpath in a major way. He was interviewed both on BBC Radio 5 Live and on the BBC Victoria Derbyshire news about this very subject. He’s on a quest to put cash for crash criminals on notice, especially since he and his company have been targeted in the past by these fraudsters.

In fact, Lever had to fit his rental vans with tracking tech in order to dispute fraud claims made against his company. He was able to walk away unscathed after the fraudster reported the made-up accident occurring at a location that his van simply wasn’t, based on the tracking data.

Still, the fact that he had to go to such lengths to stop fraudsters in their tracks makes the man’s blood boil, he said. Everyone thinks it’s just  big laugh when you rip off a car insurance or van insurance company, he remarked, but fraudulent claims ratchet up the premiums of companies that rely on fleet insurance – sometimes enough to drive them right out of business.

Thankfully, things have gotten better for Lever and his firm. Prior to fitting his fleet with the tracking technology, he would get something like four claims a year, but after catching the last fraudster in the act he hasn’t had one claim come across his desk. Still, he says that motor vehicle insurance fraud needs to be clamped down on by the police before other businesses succumb to the practice.

For what it’s worth, I can’t agree more with the bloke. When it comes down to running a company that relies upon a fleet of vans, cars, lorries, or whatever else you want to put on the road, having to field a barrage of cash for crash claims is more than just a headache – it’s a threat to your company’s survival. That’s not to say that insurers aren’t completely innocent either, but it’s obvious in this case that fraudsters have been making this small business owner’s life completely hellish for far too long.

For what it’s worth, I hope Lever’s message gets out over the airwaves loud and strong. Insurance fraud is horrid as it drives up premiums for people innocently targeted by it, and it’s already expensive enough to keep a motor vehicle on the road without having to worry that you’ll be a victim of it.

 

Fleet insurance options expand for UK companies

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Tired of not being able to find cheap van insurance? New fleet options are coming our way in less time than it takes to spell ‘fleet insurance.’

Boutique insurance provider Origin UW has come through in a major way for anyone who wants to find a better option for their commercial car insurance needs. Last November it began its foray into commercial cover, and now it’s recently announced that its new fleet insurance product, named ‘Motor Fleet,’ will be ready to go in mid- or late March, building on the company’s already established property owners, office, contractors, and combined cover policies.

One of the newest SME underwriting agencies around, Origin UW is an exclusive managing general agent that has full Lloyd’s Coverholder approval. The firm says it has created its products using the latest in cutting-edge technologies in order to provide quick and responsive insurance solutions, especially for small businesses. How this is going to translate into truly excellent fleet insurance is anybody’s guess, of course; and since Origin UW hasn’t actually publicised any additional details on its new Motor Fleet insurance product as yet, your guess is as good as mine as far as what levels of cover are going to be available for SMEs that have a large cadre of cars, lorries or vans to insure.

Still, all things considered it looks like that we’ll be seeing Origin UW’s reveal very shortly. This means we’ll be able to make our own decisions as to whether this new fleet insurance cover is going to be a winner or not. Personally I would love to see a real contender show up on the scene. The commercial vehicle insurance market is not really as robust as it could be, and as a result there’s a bit of stagnation when it comes to finding cheap van insurance or commercial car insurance. New blood could be just what the industry needs to revitalise itself.

Or it could completely fall on its face. I mean I hope not, but it’s always a possibility, and not facing that fact isn’t doing anyone any favours, especially SMEs who need to keep their fleet of vehicles insured safely without going over budget. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed and we’ll see the lie of the land when it’s time, shall we?

Design is the key to reducing van insurance from 2016

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In 2013, the Association of British Insurers instructed the market that the current system it uses for assessing vans wasn’t fit for purpose. Two decades without an upgrade, they had a point. In the last five years alone, new vans rolling off the production are a world apart from their predecessors.

The new system, against which all new vans will be rated, is here and will be with us next year. It moves away from the current weight-centric system and focuses on different metrics. Where before there were 20 bands covering van insurance there’ll now be 30. The additional criteria focus heavily on design, including repair time.

The latter is important and it seems strange that no measure for time spent in the garage was included in the current system. If a van only has to spend 24 hours in repair instead of a week, it would reduce the volume of cover vehicles an insurer has to have on standby. The actual cost of replacement units aside, labour cost of repairs should also come tumbling down.

The current problem with weight-centric insurance bands sees certain weights of light commercial vehicles creating a bottleneck. That will change rather than be replaced.

Shape is also a metric ignored now that has a bearing on van insurance cover costs. It will be addressed in the forthcoming update to the system with a new ‘geometric’ test. If the wheelbase, height, width and bumper-to-bumper measurement fit within a certain scale, geometry will also affect the cost of your cover. To reconcile these scales, the RCAR bumper test features heavily in the weighting criteria.

Using the new system to help choose your type of LCV

There are several points of note in the new system that may influence fleet managers and business owners in their buying decisions. Thatcham Research, driving the change to the system, have collated a list 19 of the most common replacement parts vans need when going in for repair.

It’s rare that a component that does a job on a Merc, say, is the same its counterpart on a Peugeot. True, having working in the automotive supply chain, I know that there are common parts across the commercial vehicle range. But they tend to be manufacturer-specific and not universal parts that could go onto any vehicle.

Why this is so beggars belief. The BS range (and subsequent ISO standard) was created for a reason. Why that can’t apply to fixings that hold an engine together Lord only knows. But no. Vehicle manufacturers do like to design their own parts, no matter how difficult they are to produce and actually get to line-side. But I digress…

…for the purpose of the new van insurance rating system, if one of the 19 common elements Thatcham have identified is more expensive on one make of vehicle than another, it will affect the insurance premium.

Another factor van drivers and fleet managers may want to keep their eye on is which of the manufacturers out there are looking to submit their existing vehicles to the new tests. Whilst the new system will apply to all news vans from next year, if an existing model meets the new safety and geometric criteria, it too could qualify for cheaper van insurance.

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