Tag: courier insurance

Courier? You May Need Special Insurance

Posted on by News Desk

If you’re working as a man (or woman, obviously) with van as a courier, we hope you’ve got the right insurance.

Some, pushed into a new courier career, thanks to Covid, may not be aware that it’s more than standard van insurance that is required.

Couriers can’t just make do with van insurance and hope for the best.

If your van gets broken into or stolen, you need to be pretty certain that the cost of whatever you have inside is covered,

or you could find yourself in a sticky situation.

Not only that, as couriers are also in contact with member of the public for work,

anyone working as a delivery driver needs to have public liability insurance to make sure that they are fully protected.

Most van insurance companies offer specialist courier insurance policies, regardless of what type of vehicle you are using.

These are often more expensive than regular car or van insurance.

The high cost of the goods you transport is one factor.

Plus, spending more time on the road than other drivers increases your accident risk and expenses.

Similar to regular car or van insurance, you can choose third-party cover, third-party fire and theft, or comprehensive.

Comprehensive is always the best option for full coverage.

Additionally, goods in transit insurance protects the value of any items lost or damaged during transit.

This also covers your van and contents in case of theft, whether parked at home or out on deliveries.

A longer driving history, strong van security, and fewer motoring convictions all help.

These factors keep your courier insurance costs down.

Use our free quote tool to ensure you are getting the best deal on your van insurance.

We may be over the snow, but accidents and thefts can happen any time, so it’s always best to stay safe. 

The Biggest Van Insurance Mistake Right Now

Posted on by News Desk

Did you know that your van insurance policy could be completely worthless? You might as well rip it up right now and chuck it out of the window.

It is all because many van drivers around the country are making this one mistake that could very well make their policy not worth the paper it is printed on.

When you consider the average van insurance price is now about £1500, well, don’t you think it’s worth making sure the document is actually covering you in the event of an accident, van theft or tool theft? I do.

So what is this mistake anyway? Quite simply it has to do with your profession or job title, which many van owners often forget to change if they have a change of career.

For example, if you started out your journey as “man with a van” or would do odd jobs or anything for a few quid, but then at some point became a professional “roofer,” the best in town, then you might encounter trouble when trying to make a claim.

If you have not contacted your van insurance company and told them about the change then they will probably slam the phone down faster than you can say “it’s those magic keys.”

Not only that, but some van owners are also doing a bit of work on the side. By day they may very well be a “builder,” but by night and weekends they are doing a bit of “courier driving.”

Van owners who don’t let their insurance company know about this change will almost certainly get hit in the wallet.

Also, let’s not forget that you probably need specialised courier insurance if you are going to do that kind of work.

Yes insuring your van is often an expensive thing to do, and that is why so many people now turn to the Nations Favourite…van insurance website that is.

A place where you can fill in your details only once, and then, with a single click of a button get magically transported to a place of quotes from around 40 van insurance companies.

Just make sure that you get your job title right the first time, and if anything changes along the way then contact the company directly and tell them about it.

Another mistake that van drivers make is to not tell their insurer about a change of address. It doesn’t have to be your house either.

What I know a lot of tradespeople do is to keep their van in a garage located elsewhere, but, many forget to tell the van insurance company if they change locations.

“Just let us know” is what the insurers are saying, and for once I agree with them.

Supermarket Delivery Drivers Make Up To £12 An Hour

Posted on by News Desk

The time for making money as a supermarket delivery driver is right now. Customers need shopping delivered, and supermarkets need drivers.

It’s the perfect match and many of our nations supermarkets are on the hunt for delivery drivers who are polite, friendly, and of course…good drivers.

How much do these drivers get paid you might wondering? More than you would expect, especially if you are lucky enough to get hired by one particular supermarket.

Ocado to be exact, who are willing to pay up to £12 an hour just for you to get in one of their vans and deliver groceries to their millions of customers.

What about Asda, are they worth working for as a delivery driver? They certainly are, with the average pay at roughly £8.50 an hour but this also includes a competitive bonus package and discount for when you do your own shopping.

In return you must be a people person and also have no trouble driving a 3.5 ton automatic van. If you have more than 3 points on your licence then forget about it, because Asda don’t want your application.

The same can be said for Tesco who also don’t like to see penalty points on your licence if you are applying to be one of their delivery drivers. They do like to see a full driving licence though which must have been held for at least 12 months.

If you become a delivery driver for Tesco then expect to get a full workout each and every day because they get you doing other things as well. Things like checking the baskets and loading up the van…they might even get you on the shop floor stacking shelves.

The main job is driving of course, where you will be expected to be a safe and courteous driver who treats every delivery of shopping as if it was your own.

Another supermarket that is always on the lookout for delivery drivers is Sainsbury’s, who are not as strict as Asda when it comes to points on your licence, they don’t mind if you have 6, but they are more strict when it comes to experience, they want 3 years of driving experience.

If you start driving one of the Sainsbury’s vans around UK roads then expect to be compensated with £8.20 an hour for your time.

Should you even consider supermarket delivery driving though? It was only a couple of months ago when I reported how robots are soon expected to take over this kind of role, especially once vans become self driving.

In my opinion this won’t be for a few years yet, which means you should go ahead and apply to your local supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Ocado.

Delivery driving is a boom profession right now. A real gold rush. There are many self employed positions in the courier industry as an example.

Just make sure you get the correct van insurance if you are going down the self employed route, something which you can find right here at this site.

Working as a Van Courier? You Need to Know This…

Posted on by News Desk

Next day deliveries have become very common recently and to fill that demand van couriers have stepped up to the plate.

They get the packages from a central depot and then spend their days and nights driving all around the UK, making sure consumers get the goods they have paid for.

Sometimes they have to “leave the package behind the gate” or “drop it off at Mr Smith’s next door,” but most of the time they put it into the hands of the person it was intended for.

Of course, as regular readers of this blog will be well aware of…self employed van couriers may very well soon be of a robotic nature, but for now the industry is very much human.

Especially as Christmas is only a few weeks away and those packages need delivering more than at any other time of the year. In fact, many people decide to become van couriers for a month or two to fill the demand for delivering packages at this time of year, but there is one thing that many of them are not aware of.

“A man or woman with a van required” is often the headline in a job advert for temporary van couriers, where they are expected to use their own van in a self employed manner.

However, what the job adverts mostly do not state is that anybody working as a van courier requires specialist courier insurance in order to have full coverage, both for their van and any packages that are riding along in the back.

Many couriers wrongfully believe that normal van insurance will be sufficient or that the company they are doing deliveries for will cover them if anything goes wrong. This is far from the truth.

The reality is that if you don’t sort out courier insurance for yourself then it’s you that is liable in the event of an accident or lost packages.

In other words, if you are transporting the latest LCD TV to Mrs Jones and someone crashes into the back of your van sending the TV crashing to the floor…then it is you that is going to pay Mrs Jones for the TV. It could be thousands of pounds, think about that for a minute.

Let’s not forget that Christmas is the season for thieves, and there is nothing they like better than a van full of packages. A team of thugs are in and out of your van faster than you can say “Dude, where are the packages?” and then they are gone.

In this kind of situation you could very well be responsible for a whole van full of packages, which might be worth many thousands of pounds.

That is why I advise everybody to get courier insurance immediately, and use a comparison website like this one to find cheap prices.

Step 1

Complete your quick and easy quote

Step 2

Reveal your van insurance policies

Step 3

Pick your favourite and get instant cover