Commercial Vehicle Insurance in the UK: Vans, Fleets and Everything You Carry

Reviewed by Apex Insurance Brokers · Last reviewed 2026-08-06

For most trades, the van is the business. It's the workshop, the stockroom, the office and the advertising hoarding, all on four wheels — and when it's off the road, so are you. Yet commercial vehicle insurance is one of the most commonly mis-bought covers we see: tools carried on a policy that excludes them overnight, parcels delivered on "carriage of own goods" cover never designed for hire and reward, six vans on six separate policies with six renewal dates. This page walks through how the cover actually works, what the law genuinely requires, and where the gaps tend to hide.

Do I legally need commercial vehicle insurance?

Yes — motor insurance is one of the few covers genuinely required by law. Under the Road Traffic Act 1988, any vehicle used on a road or other public place must have at least third-party motor insurance in place. That applies equally to a sole trader's Transit, a courier's Sprinter and a 32-tonne tipper. Third party is the legal floor: it covers injury to other people and damage to their property, but nothing for your own vehicle.

It's worth being precise about what the law does and doesn't demand, because the two get blurred constantly. The Road Traffic Act requires the motor cover itself. If you employ staff — including drivers, van mates and apprentices — employers' liability insurance is separately required by the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969. Public liability, goods in transit and tools cover, by contrast, are not legal requirements: they're contractual and practical ones. Plenty of main contractors and delivery networks won't let you on site or on the round without them, but the obligation comes from the contract, not from statute.

One more point that catches owners out: a registered vehicle normally has to stay insured even when parked up, unless it's been declared off the road with a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN). "It's just sitting in the yard between jobs" isn't a defence.

What counts as "commercial use" — and why does class of use matter so much?

Class of use is where most commercial vehicle problems start. Insurers price and accept risk based on what the vehicle actually does, and the main commercial classes look like this: carriage of own goods covers you carrying your own tools, materials and equipment in connection with your trade — the right class for most electricians, plumbers, builders and landscapers. Carriage of goods for hire and reward covers transporting other people's goods for payment — couriers, multi-drop delivery drivers and removals firms need this. Haulage covers longer-distance carriage of third-party goods, typically fewer drops over bigger distances.

Get this wrong and the consequences are serious. A joiner delivering fitted wardrobes to their own customers is usually fine on carriage of own goods; the moment they start doing paid deliveries for a mate's furniture shop on the side, they've drifted into hire and reward without cover for it. If a claim happens during use the policy doesn't cover, the insurer can decline it — and because motor insurance is the one cover the law requires, driving outside your declared use can mean you're effectively driving without valid insurance at all. If you mix trade work with paid deliveries and aren't sure where you land, have that conversation with a broker before renewal, not with a claims handler afterwards.

What does a commercial vehicle policy actually cover?

The structure will feel familiar from personal motor insurance: third party only (the legal minimum), third party fire and theft, and comprehensive, which adds accidental damage to your own vehicle. For a vehicle the business depends on, most of our trade clients run comprehensive — a written-off van hurts a working business far more than it hurts a commuter, because every day without it is a day of cancelled jobs.

Around that core, the details matter more than they do on a car policy. Signwriting and wraps should be declared so they're reinstated after a repair; racking, ply-lining, tail lifts and other modifications need to be on record. Check whether there's a replacement van after a claim (many commercial policies don't include one as standard), and what the windscreen terms look like — a cracked screen is one of the most frequent claims on any working vehicle. If your drivers tow plant trailers or mini-diggers, confirm the towing position rather than assuming.

Are my tools covered if my van is broken into?

This is the claim pattern that defines working vehicles. Vans get broken into — on driveways overnight, outside merchants in the morning, on site in the afternoon — and the target is almost always the tools, because power tools are portable, valuable and easy to sell on. Here's the uncomfortable truth: a standard commercial vehicle policy insures the vehicle, not what's inside it. Unless tools cover has been specifically added or arranged separately, a break-in that costs you thousands in kit may leave you claiming only for the damaged door lock.

Tools in van cover — whether as a policy extension or a standalone tools policy — fills that gap, but it comes with conditions you need to actually meet. Policies commonly require evidence of forced entry, so an unlocked van is usually an uninsured van. Many apply overnight restrictions: cover may be limited between certain hours unless the vehicle is garaged, kept on a driveway or fitted with specified security, and some insist tools are removed overnight altogether. Single-item limits can bite on expensive kit like laser levels and diagnostic equipment. And check whether the basis of settlement is replacement-as-new or an aged, depreciated value — on a bag of five-year-old power tools the difference is substantial. None of this is a reason to skip the cover; it's a reason to buy it with the conditions read and understood.

Larger or more complex risk? Speak directly to a director — call 0117 325 0027 or email info@apexinsurancebrokers.co.uk.

What is goods in transit insurance and do I need it?

Goods in transit (GIT) cover protects the goods being carried against loss or damage while in transit — and, depending on the wording, during loading, unloading and temporary overnight storage. If you carry other people's property for payment it's close to essential: a courier whose van is stolen with forty parcels aboard is facing claims from every affected customer, and many courier networks and freight contracts require GIT with a stated minimum limit before you can take work at all.

Trades carrying their own materials should look at it too: a kitchen fitter moving a customer's appliances and worktops from merchant to site has real exposure in between, and a motor policy alone won't respond to that loss. The limit per vehicle should reflect the most you'd realistically have aboard on your heaviest day, not the average one. Hauliers carrying under standard industry trading conditions, or internationally under the CMR convention, need wordings arranged on that specific basis; a generic GIT policy isn't automatically the right shape for contract haulage.

At what point does a fleet policy make sense?

Once a business runs a handful of vehicles — insurers typically start offering fleet terms from around three to five — separate policies stop making sense. A commercial fleet policy puts every vehicle on one contract with one renewal date, which alone removes an admin headache that grows with every van. Fleets can usually mix vehicle types — vans, pickups, company cars, HGVs — and be arranged on a named-driver or any-driver basis, which matters enormously if you take on labour at short notice and need someone driving the same morning.

Fleet policies are also rated differently: largely on your own claims experience rather than each driver's individual no-claims bonus, so a clean record becomes an asset the business carries from year to year. It brings responsibilities too. Fleet operators handle their own updates to the Motor Insurance Database, so vehicles joining and leaving must be recorded promptly — an untracked vehicle can flag as uninsured. And insurers increasingly expect visible risk management: driver licence checking, incident reporting, and often dashcams or telematics.

What do commercial vehicle claims actually look like?

The patterns are remarkably consistent. Low-speed urban collisions dominate — rear-end shunts in traffic, clipped mirrors on tight streets, and reversing incidents on sites and in yards, where visibility is poor and ground conditions are chaotic. Theft claims come in two flavours: theft of tools from the vehicle, and theft of the vehicle itself, with keyless-entry vans and certain popular models a persistent target. Windscreen and glass claims are near-universal on working vehicles. And the expensive tail of the distribution is third-party injury: a collision involving a laden commercial vehicle can produce personal-injury claims that run to sums far beyond the value of any van, which is exactly why the liability element of the cover — the part the Road Traffic Act insists on — matters so much.

Two practical lessons follow. First, evidence wins claims — a modestly priced dashcam settles more liability disputes than any letter we could write. Second, report incidents immediately, even when the other party says "no harm done" at the roadside; late-notified claims are harder to defend.

What will an insurer want to know about my vehicles and drivers?

Commercial motor is underwritten on detail, and presenting your risk accurately and fully is not just good practice — businesses have a duty of fair presentation of the risk under the Insurance Act 2015. The information that shapes your terms includes:

• Who drives: ages, licence types, driving convictions and claims history for everyone who'll be behind the wheel.
• What the vehicles do: class of use, goods carried, typical radius of operation and annual mileage.
• Where they sleep: overnight parking — secured yard, driveway or street — consistently affects both terms and tool-theft conditions.
• Security and risk management: alarms, immobilisers, deadlocks or slamlocks on load doors, trackers, dashcams and licence-checking procedures.
• Claims record: your full incident history, including fault, non-fault and open claims — declared completely, because insurers will check.

Rounding down mileage or forgetting a driver's conviction isn't a shortcut to better terms; it's a route to a declined claim at the worst possible moment. A broker's job is to present your risk honestly and in its best genuine light.

How does vehicle cover fit with the rest of my trade insurance?

Commercial vehicle insurance is one piece of a working business's protection. Motor cover, required by the Road Traffic Act 1988, deals with the vehicle and the liabilities arising from its use on the road. Employers' liability, legally required under the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 once you have employees, covers injury to your own staff. Public liability — not a legal requirement, but demanded by most contracts and simply sensible for anyone working on other people's premises — picks up injury and property damage arising from your work activities. Limits of £1 million, £2 million or £5 million are common illustrative options in the UK market, usually chosen to match contract requirements rather than picked at random.

The gaps live at the boundaries. Tools stolen from a van sit with a tools extension, not the motor policy. A customer's goods damaged in the back sit with goods in transit. Materials damaged after they've been unloaded and fixed on site sit with contract works cover, not GIT. Buying each cover in isolation from a different provider is how businesses end up paying twice for some exposures and nothing for others — which is the practical argument for having one broker look at the whole picture rather than policy by policy.

Why arrange commercial vehicle insurance through Apex?

Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is an independent, FCA-authorised broker based in Bristol, and commercial vehicle business — single vans through to mixed fleets — is bread-and-butter work for us. We ask the questions that determine whether a claim actually pays: what class of use you really need, what's in the back overnight, what the contract you've just signed requires, and whether your tools settlement basis would replace what you'd actually lose. We arrange cover across a panel of UK commercial insurers, and when something goes wrong we chase the claim.

Tell us about your vehicles and what they do, and we'll come back with cover built for it — not a generic van policy with your name typed at the top.

Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 724952). This article is general information, not advice on a specific policy.