When you have one or more vehicles that you use for commercial purposes, it can be slightly different to having one for purely personal use.

For a start, it is likely in most cases to be a different type of vehicle in terms of actual design – most businesses use vans, trucks or pick-ups as opposed to normal cars, depending on the type of work involved.

Even if it is a ‘normal’ car being used for business purposes, there are still various things to take into account that are different from running a vehicle for personal use only.

Reliability

Any vehicle that is used for business needs to be reliable, because although when your family car breaks down it can be annoying, anything that interrupts the smooth running of your business can cost you money with loss of work and earnings.

So, it is essential that a commercial vehicle is available for use at all times. Partly this can be achieved by good maintenance practice, but there are also others measures that you need to make sure are in place.

Insurance

It is a legal requirement to have insurance in order to drive on the roads in the UK and this applies to business as well as personal use.

Insuring a work vehicle via a commercial van insurance policy is similar to that of any other kind of vehicle, but there are a few things that you may need to keep in mind.

Obviously all the normal classes of insurance are available, third party, third party fire and theft and fully comprehensive. The choice can often come down to how much you can afford to pay for a policy, but with any commercial vehicle you need to factor in how you would manage if you were ‘off road’ for any period of time.

If this would be a damaging thing to happen to your business, you should consider a ‘fully comp’ policy, as well as one that may have extras such as courtesy vehicles while your own one is being repaired or replaced.

Goods and cargo

Depending on the line of work you are in, your commercial vehicle may be transporting goods or cargo that is of significant value. If this is the case, you may need to consider taking extra ‘goods in transit’ insurance, which covers loss, damage or theft of items that are in your vehicle.

Cost

Another factor, that your particular area of operations will affect, is the cost of your premiums. As with all insurance policies, the cost is worked out on a risk assessment basis, so if your work involves anything hazardous you may find that your cover will cost more.