Courier & Van Insurance

Courier insurance is motor insurance written on a hire and reward basis for drivers who carry goods for payment. Standard car and van insurance excludes carrying goods commercially, so a courier driving on a private policy is uninsured from the first paid drop — and driving without valid insurance is a criminal offence, not a technicality.

It covers the vehicle and your liability to other people. It does not automatically cover the parcels in the back; that is goods in transit, a separate policy explained further down this page. Couriers routinely need both, and clients frequently write a minimum goods in transit limit into their contracts.

We are a specialist broker. You will not get an online quote from us — you speak to someone who takes the details, works out which markets suit the risk, and comes back to you. If you are still working out what applies to you, start with what insurance you need to be a courier.

Hire and reward covers the vehicle being used commercially to carry goods, and your liability to other people. Goods in transit covers the items you are carrying if they are lost, stolen or damaged on the journey. They are two policies covering two different things, and neither one includes the other.

This catches people out constantly. A courier with a valid hire and reward policy who loses a load has cover for the van and nothing for the contents. Conversely, goods in transit cover does not make it legal to carry goods for payment on a private motor policy.

We arrange both. Taking the motor cover and the goods in transit cover on the same call means the limits are set against what you actually carry, rather than two policies bought separately with a gap between them that only shows up at claim time.

Have your client contracts to hand when you call. Networks and commercial clients usually specify a minimum goods in transit limit, and that figure becomes your starting point — it is easier to arrange the right limit up front than to renegotiate one mid-contract.

Van hire and reward insurance covers a van used to carry goods belonging to other people in exchange for payment. It is the class of use that separates a courier from a tradesman: carrying your own tools and stock to a job is carriage of own goods, while carrying someone else's goods for a fee is hire and reward.

Getting that distinction wrong is the most common reason a van claim is declined. If you have moved from trade work into delivery, or added a few paid removals to a van you already own, the policy needs to change with the work — tell your broker rather than assuming a commercial van policy already covers it. Man-and-van, removals and own-account delivery all sit here, and all of them we can arrange.

Once you are running two or more delivery vehicles, a fleet policy usually makes more sense than separate policies: one renewal date, one point of contact, and vehicles added or removed mid-term as the operation changes.

Fleets are not rated from a table. They are underwritten on your own claims experience, which means how the risk is presented to market genuinely affects the terms you are offered. That is broker work, and it is the same work we do for taxi fleet operators. Mixed fleets of cars and vans can be considered, subject to insurer appetite.