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For a typical courier driver, many of the basic tips for finding cheaper car insurance will apply to them just as much as anyone else. However, there are a few top tips that you may wish to keep in mind that, if you apply them, just might save you a little extra money. • Multiple policies. If you have some form of commercial courier driver insurance covering a commercial vehicle, then your insurance provider may be very eager to also pick up your private car business too. As a result, it will be worth speaking to them to try and find opportunities for what would be effectively a bulk buying discount - though remember to shop around as well. • As a typically self-employed businessperson, you may be more sensitive to your credit score than many. Remember that applying for lots of insurance quotations from different companies can be noted negatively on your credit history files. It is sometimes more sensible instead to use an insurance policy comparison website. • When applying for private car cover, remember to be very precise about the nature of your occupation as a courier driver. It is difficult to predict how individual insurance providers will respond but some may increase your private car premiums marginally to reflect the fact that you are doing very high mileage each year on the road as that could increase the possibility of you having an accident. Misrepresenting your declaration may end up invalidating elements of your cover, should a claim arise. • Never be tempted to switch vehicles on an ad-hoc basis. Your private car policy will typically not cover you or your vehicle in situations where you are using it for commercial purposes. Even if your van is off the road for a few hours and ‘nipping along’ in your car to collect a parcel seems like a smart idea, your car insurance provider is unlikely to see it that way and you may invalidate your policy. • Be sure you understand the zoning implications of where you keep your vehicle. Some postcodes (or zones within postcodes) are assessed by insurance providers to be lower risk than others. If your commercial vehicle happens to be parked across the other side of the street in a garage, you may find that you are able to get cheaper car insurance by parking your car alongside it. That’s firstly because garaging is usually considered safer than parking on driveways or on the street, and secondly because it may benefit from a more advantageous zoning calculation - even if your garage is only a relatively short distance away. • Ask insurance providers for advice. Insurance is often incomprehensibly complicated and even illogical to laypeople. There may be many ways an insurance provider could decide to consolidate your commercial and private vehicle insurance into a lower cost package. Providing you avoid making full quotation requests, you should be able to get lots of ideas without impacting your credit score. The typical courier driver is always on the lookout for ways to reduce their costs and some of the above might help. Norman Dulwich is a correspondent for Courier Exchange, the world's largest neutral trading hub for same day courier driver work in the express freight exchange industry. Over 4,000 transport exchange businesses are networked together through their website, trading jobs and capacity in a safe 'wholesale' environment.
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