Short-term van insurance

What’s covered with short-term van insurance?

Short-term van insurance policies usually include all the things standard van insurance covers, like:

• Loss or damage to your van caused by an accident, fire, theft, or vandalism
• Third party claims where someone makes a claim against you
• Your personal belongings (what’s covered depends on your insurer)
• Some policies include driving in the EU

What’s not covered with short-term van insurance?

Depending on your policy, you might not be covered for: 

• Additional drivers
• Driving other vehicles
• Releasing the van from an impound (unless you get temporary impounded vehicle cover)
• The loss or damage of a vehicle or trailer that’s being towed by the insured van
• Any goods carried in or on the vehicle

You’ll usually also have to pay an excess if you need to make a claim – this is an amount of money you agreed to pay when you took out the policy. 

Who can use temporary van insurance? 

Anyone could find short-term van insurance useful, including small businesses that might not need a van all the time, but a temporary policy could be more cost effective for one-off use. 

Or if you’re a sole trader you might only need a van for a short period of time, say if you were attending a pop-up event and needed to transport your goods or equipment there

Generally, most people might find temporary van insurance handy when moving home, or if they’re off to university.

Pros and cons of temporary van insurance

Short-term van cover isn’t the best option for everyone. It might work out cheaper to be insured on someone else’s annual van insurance policy as a named driver instead, or even to take out your own.

Advantages

• It’s usually quicker to arrange than being added to the main driver’s policy
• You only pay for the time you need
• Most policies give you comprehensive cover in the UK and third-party cover in the EU as standard, with the option to upgrade to comprehensive cover in the EU
• You won’t have the cancellation fees that are sometimes applied when you cancel an annual policy early

Disadvantages

• It could be more expensive than being added to the main driver’s policy as a second driver
• The cost per day of short-term cover is proportionately more expensive than for an annual policy
• So if you need use of a van a few times over the course of a year, short-term cover isn’t as convenient as an annual policy