Every drop means lifting something
A typical van round has dozens of stops. Each one means climbing out, opening the back, lifting a parcel or a crate and carrying it to a door or a goods-in bay. Over a day that adds up to a lot of bending and twisting, often against the clock.
Back strain, slipped discs, torn shoulder muscles and twisted ankles on wet kerbs are all common reasons van drivers end up signed off. These injuries rarely make headlines, yet a bad back can stop you working for weeks while the rent or mortgage is still due and the van sits on the drive.
Fitness to drive still counts
Most vans under 3.5 tonnes need only a standard car licence, so the DVLA's Group 1 medical rules apply. You still have a legal duty to tell the DVLA about conditions that could affect safe driving, and a doctor may tell you to stop driving after a seizure, a blackout or some types of eye problem.
If you drive a heavier vehicle on a C1 entitlement, the stricter Group 2 rules can apply. Either way, a spell off the road usually means a spell without pay unless you have arranged cover that steps in when your doctor or the DVLA says you cannot drive.
Employed, agency or owner driver
Your employment status changes everything. A driver employed by a large firm may get company sick pay. An agency driver usually gets statutory sick pay only. A self-employed owner driver gets no sick pay and still has to cover van finance, insurance and fuel cards.
Income protection is based on your earnings, so self-employed drivers usually need recent accounts or tax returns to show what they earn. Insurers look at profit after expenses rather than turnover, so keeping tidy records of fuel, repairs and van payments helps you get the right level of cover.
- Employed: check how long company sick pay lasts
- Agency: usually statutory sick pay only
- Self-employed: nothing from day one, with van costs still running
Planning for the family as well as the wages
Income protection looks after you while you are alive but unable to work. Life insurance does a different job: it pays a lump sum to the people you leave behind. For a van driver with a mortgage and young children, decreasing cover can follow the mortgage balance down, and level cover can leave a fixed sum for living costs.
Writing the policy in trust usually means the money reaches your family faster and can sit outside your estate for inheritance tax. We can help with the trust form when you apply, and explain who might make a sensible trustee.
Putting the right cover together with Hi Tomorrow
We start with what you earn and what you would get if you were off sick, then search UK insurers for income protection that fills the gap. Insurers place van driving in a risk class that sets both price and the claim test, and we explain which test each insurer would use for you.
Life insurance often matters too, especially if you have a partner or children who rely on your wages. We can arrange both in one go, help you put the life policy in trust and check that your income protection benefit leaves room for the van costs. Terms depend on each insurer's own underwriting.