Beginners guide: Car delivery insurance

When many of us are insuring a personal vehicle it is usually a case of logging into Compare The Market, Money Supermarket or Go Compare, convincing their algorithms that you are an excellent driver, then hoping the insurance genies are kind and grant your wish of a reasonable quote. The lower prices usually grab your attention and win your cash for the next year. I would be curious to know how many people actually read the terms and conditions of their policies, actively keeping themselves in the dark over what they might find in there. I was very much guilty of this until I started transporting vehicles for paying customers.

The prospect of protecting somebodies prized asset, be it a new Mclaren 720s at £250k or classic Jaguar SS100 at around £100k, the lawyer in me took a keen interest in the small print, not least in case something did go wrong! This made me realise exactly how complicated it was to keep my own professional vehicles insured correctly, as well as the vehicles my customers trust me with. Forget the comparison websites; you quite simply cannot get the proper insurance from them that you need, and a dive deeper into Google is required to find yourself a specialist broker.

As far as brokers are concerned, there many household names here and there, but most of the popular brokers such as Hiscox, NFU Mutual and Swinton are not interested in offering insurance to car transporters.

To transport cars and get paid for it, is also known as ‘hire & reward’. You will need to have insurance for your vehicles used for transport, including any trailers, public liability and goods in transit.

I had struggled to find a broker who offered exactly what I needed. Once I started to cover the smaller print within conditions, usually it was the case that all vehicles had to be loaded with a winch, even if it was not appropriate to do so, and cars over 25 years were not covered in the event of mechanical failure. One insurer had a term that two people with the relevant training had to oversee every loading and unloading activity. They lay down some very difficult conditions, but mostly through misunderstanding of how the recovery and transport business works.

For some years I had to split the insurance between providers, to make sure I and my customers were safe from all angles. This was further complicated when the niche was classic and high-performance vehicles. As soon as you mention names like Mclaren, Lamborghini, Ferrari and the like, those once keen to insure shy away favouring a less risky sounding client.

The reality is though I have personally transported over 1000 cars of all shapes, sizes, values and condition, without ever damaging any of them, never mind have to make a claim.

The real important one for the customer to be made privy to, is the transporters goods in transit. This is the insurance that protects your vehicles while in their care. Always check this. You could fill a directory with single car transporters who have their recovery trucks insured as regular vans or cars, insured on normal policies, who then tow trailers without the slightest care that their loads are not protected. Your insurance will likely not cover you if they cause damage.

This year I spoke to the Finch Group, a specialist motor trade broker who I would recommend to anybody looking to insure their car transport fleet. You can tell instantly that they have experience in this field down to their line of questioning. To put it simply, they just understood what I needed and there was absolutely no hard sales pitch. Professional dealing with other professionals makes for a rather pleasant and simple life. We set up a policy for our Isuzu D Max, Woodford RL6 enclosed trailer, public liability and goods in transit, all under the one policy with Aviva.

The goods in transit is wonderfully watertight; and insures us from the moment we take control of your car at collection through to the hand-over at the delivery. This covers every aspect of our job, and we do not even need to use a winch when we professionally conclude it is not necessary or dangerous to use. In effect, they trust our expert judgement. We opted to insure cars up to 250k as standard, with vehicles worth more on a special consignment, which means your 250k+ car will have its own unique insurance policy while under our care.

With car transport insurance do not take risks, choose the best provider you can afford and once you have taken the policy, or even before, make sure you read the small print!!