Insurance for a cargo bike including business use

daniel_b

Afternoon all,

some of you may have seen the thread where I mentioned my partner is being loaned a cargo bike by our local council.

She needs to get insurance for it, and even though she is travelling from one site to another locally, probably a maximum of two per day, and not leaving anything in the cargo area at all when parked, they refuse to class it as commuting, and so will not insure it.

I tried our pedal cover house insurance, but they would not cover it for the same reason.

She has gotten a couple of quotes so far, which come in at more than our van.

~£400, and ~£300 through a company linked with BC, and that includes a 25% member discount!

Anyone have any decent links to a more affordable insurer?

me-109

Well, tbf, if it's not to or from a normal place of work it isn't commuting. Between sites would be business travel.
Are you required to only insure against theft or do you need to cover third party / public liability insurance too?

daniel_b

Well she has different normal places of works, so one day she'll ride to a nursery, do her job and come home.

The next day she'll do the same, go home, but then go out to a different site in the afternoon - these are all regular weekly appointments.

So I did get it wrong, she won't be travelling between sites normally.

Third party insurance is covered by her BC membership, she contacted them to check.

webboo

Does she need the cargo bike to transport stuff for work. If so I would imagine insurance companies see that as business travel.

daniel_b

I guess so, but nothing of great value (foam floor mats, home made shakers, and the most expensive thing a chunky bluetooth speaker), but I don't see it as that different to if I were to drive to work with my laptop in the van.
I sometimes have different offices I need to go to, so it's not always the same place.

To me it seems like she has a few places she commutes to for work.
But anyway, I digress, that is what they are all saying, so that is the state of play.

There's a chance the council might be able to add her onto their insurance, so she'll be investigating that with them to se what the cost is.

If they want people to start using these vehicles seriously as car/van replacements, I think they need to be able to offer insurance at a reasonable price.

I can see if it was a lovely business that was delivering goods, and there was a chance some of those goods could be lost is the bike was in an accident or stolen, then that is an extra risk to them, but this is not the case here.

It's a grey area, where I think some common sense could be employed, but has not.

I'm guessing insurance in the Netherlands for example, is probably not £400.

webboo

Given it’s a bit of a niche market I guess they can charge what they like. Plus the insurance companies won’t be bothered that people are using these instead of cars, they will see as a way to recuperate what they may lose in less cars being used and therefore less car insurance.

daniel_b

I get what you are saying, not really in their interest.

But they are more than recouping if they are charging more for a cargo bike than for an entire van that can travel at motorway speeds etc.

I guess the government should be getting involved and directing industries to approach things in a certain way.
Means less VED for them of course, so they probably aren't interested.

As an aside, I noted with mild amusement that electric cars will have to pay VED from 2025, didn't think they would let that resource go untapped for too long.

orraloon

That does seem pricey. My L200 pickup truck cost me 230 ish last May, and that was full rate post transferring accumulated NCD to a new car policy.

photonic69

Bikes are very nick-able with low rates of retrieval despite all the measures we take. I can see a work related bike being expensive to insure.

daniel_b

orraloon said:

That does seem pricey. My L200 pickup truck cost me 230 ish last May, and that was full rate post transferring accumulated NCD to a new car policy.

I thought so too, I was expecting something like £200, maybe less.
I forget exactly, but I think our passenger van, covered for business mileage, is something around the £300 mark, fully comp / protected ncb and all that.

photonic69 said:

Bikes are very nick-able with low rates of retrieval despite all the measures we take. I can see a work related bike being expensive to insure.

Agreed, but I wouldn't have thought a cargo bike is as likely a target?
I could be completely wrong of course, but this thing comes with some kind of factory heavy duty lock, plus they are supplying it with a massive chain thing, so even if they could nick it, it's not the kind of thing they can ride another bike and push it along, or the kind of item (I think it weighs 40 or 50kg) that you can easily stash in a house is it.

Plus there are not a lot around at present, so I think it unlikely it would be a local opportunist with a battery operated saw cutting the lock off one to be away with it.

I also suggested to her, that as she will never be leaving anything in the top box, that she should just leave it unlocked - right thing to do?
Possibly with a sticker saying 'No good of value are ever left in this yadda yadda'