How Safe is Your Van?

News this week for van drivers to lose sleep over is a report that theft from vans is costing van drivers a whopping £264 million a year. A study commissioned by van insurance company Honcho, reports that each van break in costs tradespeople a massive £5,584 a time. 

Theft from vans occur in the UK once every 23 minutes. While some insurance companies are on top of this and help out by offering 24-hour replacement services for items stolen, so that van drivers and tradespeople can get back to work, pronto, many don’t and still take their own sweet time sorting out a payout while you watch the work slipping away. It can, on average, put a tradesperson out of work for around an entire month.

If you’re a sparky or a plumber and you see your van being broken into, the average loss from a theft would take two months wages to replace all the lost items. 

Yet still, 89% of you are not fully covered for loss of goods as a result of a thefy, and 84% of you don’t have a courtesy van on your van insurance policy. 

This makes the need for ensuring your in-vehicle security is as good as can be, with lockable storage and additional locks on entryways. 

If you don’t have the added extras you may need if you become another one of those unlucky victims of van theft, it might be worth checking out what a new van insurance policy can do for you. 

Make sure you’ve got adequate cover – or else!

Van insurance news roundup: 7 days ending 24 Feb 2013:

It’s rough out there, and you need to protect your vehicles – especially if you do the majority of your work on the road and out from the back of your van.

It’s more and more common to end up using your van as a mobile office if you’re a commercial van driver, according to recently released market research, but if you’re one of those enterprising entrepreneurs doing so, you need to make sure you need to keep an eye on your valuables, said one van insurance specialist. In fact, you need to make sure you’re taking sensible precautions and take steps to ensure you have adequate insurance cover, says AXA Business Insurance, because you could see yourself stranded up the creek if something untoward happens.

AXA says that, according to their research, more than 7 out of 10 commercial van owners keep a smartphone with them, while 60 per cent keep a satnav in the van as well. 45 per cent keep a tablet or laptop in their car, and all together the value of all this technology could easily be over £1,000 – and if your commercial van insurance policy doesn’t cover the theft or destruction of these valuable pieces of technology, kiss your otherwise flourishing business goodbye.

Regular policies won’t cover more than a few hundred pounds worth towards the replacement of these big-ticket items. However, if you can’t be bothered to put your valuables out of sight when you leave your van unattended – or don’t keep your car alarm functioning properly, good luck getting any money out of your insurer at all; if you ask me you would do better trying to squeeze a pint of blood from a stone.

In other words, keep your expensive toys out of sight if you leave your van alone for more than a moment. Of course, this doesn’t help if the whole van is stolen altogether – and another news story this week demonstrates such an occurrence.

This one is actually pretty tragic, considering the circumstances: a drama group’s minibus was stolen right out from under the nose of the group leader one Sunday evening, with criminals absconding with the vehicle right from outside her home. However, the group – Popstars Academy – has vowed to not let this deter their performances, according to group leader Anne Marshall.

The minibus, a 10 year old Mercedes, was used for costume changes, to ferry sound equipment, and to take the young children actors and singers to nearby performances at locales such as charity fundraisers and homes for the elderly. The worst part is that the van had the Academy’s name and logo emblazoned on the side in massive letters, which meant that the thieves are callous, heartless bastards or just more than a bit thick; if you ask me, it’s probably a bit of both.

Still, the community troupe has vowed to continue on somehow. I hope they had an up to date van insurance policy!

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