subject: Why Business Owners Require Commercial Vehicle Insurance [print this page] Whether or not your vehicle is used for business, you are still required by law to have insurance. Of course even if there was no such law, any responsible business owner would still take it upon themselves to make sure one of their most important assets are adequately covered against things such as theft, vandalism, and road accidents.
After all, you need to ask yourself whether or not your business could survive without transport. Perhaps it could for a limited period of time, but the chances are you'd still see a dip in your profits.
Let's for example say you're a private contractor working in the plumbing industry, and you own a Ford Transit van for which you have no commercial van insurance. You get called out to repair somebody's central heating system, and while you're inside their home, thieves make off with your van. While you're working away you realize you need something from your van, so you go outside only to realise you no longer have a van.
Your first reaction would be to call the police, but with so many vans being stolen everyday in the UK, the police are not going to be able to help you much, apart from giving you a copy of the police report which can then be handed to your insurance company. Of course you don't have insurance so the report is worthless to you. What happens next is that instead of you finishing the job on hand, you have to call a friend to come and pick you up.
Up until this stage you've already lost a day's earnings. Tomorrow you begin looking for another van, which fortunately you can afford because you've been wise enough to set some cash aside. With a bit of luck you'll have found a suitable van by the end of the day, but at the same time, you've just lost a second day's earnings.
Now, even with a new van, what good is a plumber if he has no tools of the trade? Once again, you have spare cash so off you go to purchase a whole range of tools. Another day has passed without any money coming in. Okay, so you've only lost three days, but on top of that, you've also lost your van, and all your tools. You've also just spent a small fortune kitting yourself out again. By the time you add everything up, you've just lots thousands of pounds, and the worst thing of all is that it could happen again at any time.
Of course if you'd had commercial vehicle insurance at the time your van got stolen, you could have called the police, and then you could have paid a visit to your insurance company in order to submit a claim. Depending on what level of cover you had, you could have been given a courtesy vehicle, and while you may not have been able to continue working straight away, at least you would have had a set of wheels. Most importantly of all though; your insurance company would have paid for your new van and all your new tools.
In this article we've used a basic example of why commercial vehicle insurance is so critical if you run a business. Of course things could be a lot messier, depending on the nature of your business. The bottom line is; when it comes to insuring your business vehicles, you need to make absolutely certain your policy provides the correct level of cover. This is far more important than focusing only on the costs involved, because after all, the future of your business may be at stake.
by: Tom Jones
welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net)
