Trade car insurance

People have always held a number of perceptions about the motor trade, most of them are unfair and some would say that they date back to the old world of the crooked horse trader.

That may be so but the fact remains that unless you were the owner of a main agent dealership franchise and therefore very rich, you were probably subject to what became known as the ‘Arthur Daley’ syndrome and were expected to dress exclusively in a sheepskin coat and speak in cockney rhyming slang, even though you were actually from Barnsley.

UK insurance companies once held the same supercilious view, trade car insurance was something of a specialised animal, clearly one that was obviously restricted to the motor trade but the insurance industry held out a very narrow definition of what the ‘motor trade’ actually was, rather a snobbish one in truth, and the reason?

Well, nobody seemed to be able to figure that out, but the answer is probably because it could.
There was, you see, a widely held assumption that ‘motor trade’ necessarily meant ‘high risk’ and nobody could really be bothered to challenge it, particularly if they didn’t have to.

Enter the world of online price comparison where the dynamics of quotes, cover and policy are now driven by the laws of supply and demand, and we see a completely different picture. The market no longer has the luxury of complacency.

Trade car insurance, as any member of the motor trade will tell you, was once a headache. Policies were like gold dust and they were expensive. Requirements were often prohibitive and among many other things they meant that you needed premises.

This caused problems for smaller traders; what was the fate of the mobile mechanic who worked from home? Or what about the part time trader who specialised in classic cars or just didn’t handle enough vehicles to justify expensive premises?

Well, the truth is they were stigmatised, often it meant that they simply could not obtain trade car insurance at all, or if they did they were forced to pay through the nose for it.

Healthy competition in the online marketplace has happily changed all that and there are now countless companies specialising in trade car insurance, who have quite happily assessed the risk and do not hold outmoded assumptions about the nature of the motor trade.

It is now perfectly possible to obtain a policy affording appropriate cover for motor traders at any level of the industry, dedicated premises are no longer a prerequisite and there is actually so much competition in this specialist field alone that the benefit of online car insurance comparison can be enjoyed by motor traders who no longer have to contact companies and practically plead for cover.

Trade car insurance has gone mainstream, but remember that by its nature its policies will have restrictions, most of them understandable and all of them reflecting the true nature of the risk involved. You may even get a discount if you promise never to wear a sheepskin coat.

Motor trader, legitimate business operator or shady dealer. Perceptions have changed and so it seems has the insurance industry.