Motor Trade Insurance

Who needs motor traders insurance?

If you work in the motor trade industry, for example buying, selling, repairing, collecting, recovering or delivering cars, you need appropriate insurance. This includes the following businesses:

• Service and repair garages
• MOT stations and garages
• Body shops
• Mobile Mechanics
• Breakdown & Recovery Operators
• Vehicle Collection & Delivery

Make a Claim

You will need to prove that you operate a genuine motor trade business and are asked for evidence of your trading history. Don’t worry, this is standard practice and helps to keep premiums as cheap as possible for genuine traders.

Part-time traders

If you are working as a part-time trader, you will still need a traders’ insurance policy.

As soon as you start buying and selling vehicles for profit, you need a professional insurance policy to cover your activity.

If you’re unsure which insurance cover your business needs, read our guide on part-time motor trade sales, or get in touch with our team.

What does motor trade insurance cover?

A car traders’ policy typically covers:

• The named driver on the policy against losses relating to work in the motor trade
• Road risks cover for incidents on highways and any third-party damage to public property

Remember, if you drive your own vehicle or other people’s vehicles as part of your business activity, the law requires you to have traders’ insurance.

Road risks insurance

The minimum level of cover available is road risks insurance. This policy protects you against risks while driving vehicles on the road. These can be vehicles in your possession, with a view to buying or selling them, or customer vehicles entrusted to you. There are three categories of road risk tiers: third-party, third-party fire and theft or comprehensive basis.

Traders combined insurance

Combined insurance includes road risks insurance with a range of additional covers. These can protect your business premises (e.g. a garage or showroom), as well as cover for vehicles stored on those premises, tools and equipment stored on-site, and more.

Additional options include:

• Buildings cover (whether you own or rent premises)
• Employers’ liability
• Public liability
• Product liability
• Material and equipment damage
• Money cover
• Tools cover
• Additional drivers
• Demonstration cover

Liability insurance protects your business against claims and legal fees.

If you’re still not sure which type of insurance you need, read our guide on road risk vs traders’ combined.

How much does a trade insurance policy cost?

Like any car policy, the cost of motor trade insurance depends on several factors, including:

• The level of cover
• No-claims history
• Voluntary excess
• Risks you need to protect against

Using ChoiceQuote means comparing insurance quotes from a panel of the most experienced insurers. Whether you want a full traders’ combined policy or the cheapest possible road risks premium, we can find you the best value policies. Our policies start from £8.73 a week, subject to terms and conditions.

Get your traders’ insurance quote

At ChoiceQuote, we’ve been helping motor traders get the best value insurance for over 25 years. We discuss your requirements and business needs and search the insurance market, getting quotes from multiple insurance providers. We do the legwork for you and will recommend the best insurance policy.

You can start the quote process here on the ChoiceQuote website or calling us on 01618 748043.

Get a Quote

How to get cheap trade insurance

We understand it can be tempting to choose the cheapest quote available, but you also need to be confident that it will cover your risks if you do need to claim.

There are several ways you can reduce the cost of your insurance, including:

• Speak to an independent broker specialising in motor trade insurance. Not all brokers are the same so choose wisely and do your research. Speak to others in the trade.
• Build up your no-claims bonus over time and maintain it by keeping claims to an absolute minimum.
• Consider a higher voluntary excess – but you’ll have to pay the additional excess if you need to make a claim.
• Paying your premium upfront means you don’t pay interest to finance companies, but it can help with your cash flow by paying monthly.

Read our guide to cheaper insurance

Existing Customer Queries

How to make a claim

1. Always report an accident to us within 24 hours of it happening, regardless of who is responsible or to blame
2. Call us on 0800 195 4905 any time, any day of the year. Our 24/7 claims lines are:

If possible, please let us know:

• Your policy details
• Details of other parties involved (their registration number, name and contact details)
• Crime reference number, if applicable
• Witness details, if applicable

For more information, visit our How to Make a Claim page.

How to make a change to your policy

You can contact our teams to adjust your policy. For example, this could be:

• A change of business premises
• Change of vehicle(s)
• Additional drivers

To make changes to your policy, contact: 01625 854310

For more information, visit our Changing Your Policy page.

Updating the Motor Trade Insurance Database (MID)

Motor traders buy and sell vehicles on a regular basis, so your insurance policy allows you to update the MID with details of vehicles yourself.

You can update the MID via an online portal, where you simply login and add or remove vehicles where necessary. Alternatively, ChoiceQuote can make changes on your behalf, for an additional fee. Contact us on 01625 885046.

For more information, visit our Motor Insurance Database page

No Claim Discount

Motor traders can transfer no claims discount from another trade care policy, or from a private motor policy. Private motor no-claims can also be mirrored on some motor trade policies.

If you have proof of no claims from your existing insurer, please contact the relevant team to discuss the best, most secure way of sending this to us: 01625 854310

Frequently Asked Questions