Own goods in transit insurance for self-employed professionals
As a self-employed professional you drive around with half your business in the back. If that van goes, the work stops, and it is precisely there that the cover is usually narrower than business owners think.
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In brief
For a self-employed professional the van is not a means of transport but a workshop on wheels. Own goods in transit insurance covers the things you move in it that belong to you: machines, hand tools, measuring instruments, materials for tomorrow's job. You do not carry for third parties as a business, so you do not need carriers' liability; what you need is property cover on your own belongings while they are on the road. How that cover works in essence is set out on the page own goods in transit insurance.
The great misunderstanding is that something has already been arranged. Your van insurance covers the vehicle, not the contents. A business contents insurance covers what is at your business address, not what is driving around. And a public and employers' liability insurance deals with damage to others, not with your own toolbox. Anyone driving without own goods in transit cover therefore bears the risk of an emptied van entirely themselves.
On the application, pay particular attention to the basis of valuation. Many policies pay for tools at market value: the purchase price less depreciation. With five-year-old equipment that is a fraction of what you need to get back to work. Ask about a replacement-value arrangement or a fixed valuation for the most expensive items, and bear in mind that Article 7:960 of the Dutch Civil Code prohibits a payment that puts you in a clearly better position than you would have been in without the loss.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare goods in transit insurance.
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Goods-in-transit insurance
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What to look out for
Four subjects that lead to a rejection more often for a sole trader than the size of the policy.
Standing idle is not covered
The policy pays for the goods stolen or damaged, not for the days on which you cannot work. Lost turnover and the hire of replacement tools are excluded, unless you take out a separate section or a business interruption cover for them. For a self-employed professional working alone, that is often the heaviest item.
Theft without signs of forced entry
If materials disappear from a building site, from an open load bed or from an unlocked van, the policy speaks of disappearance and not of theft. That is excluded. The same applies to tools you leave at the customer's for a while. That is where the notion of 'in transit' stops and an argument about the storage period begins.
Trailer and open loads
If you carry things on a trailer or on an open bed, declare that expressly. Goods carried uncovered in the open air fall outside the cover with many companies, or come only under a limited list of events. A trailer with a mini-excavator on it overturning is a different risk from a closed van, and is assessed as such.
Private use and items carried along
If you move house at the weekend with the company van or take personal belongings along, that falls outside business transit cover. Likewise money, securities, mobile telephones and personal property are generally excluded. Damage you cause deliberately is excluded in any event, under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code.
What does your premium depend on?
- Value of the permanent equipment: what is permanently in the van
- Field of work: electrical work, landscaping or audiovisual work differ widely
- Where the vehicle is kept: your own garage, a locked site or the street
- Basis of valuation: market value or replacement value as new in a total loss
- Working area: regional work or journeys across Europe
- Claims history: previous break-ins weigh heavily on acceptance
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | Third-party liability | Comprehensive |
|---|---|---|
| A cyclist is injured because you fail to give way when pulling out | Yes | Yes |
| You reverse your own van into a lamp post | No | Yes |
| Your van is stolen overnight from the drive outside your home | No | Yes |
| Hail dents the roof and bonnet of the van | No | Yes |
| In a break-in to the van, the tools disappear from the load space | No | No |
| The goods you are carrying shift in an emergency stop and are damaged | No | No |
What you carry and the tools you take with you fall outside the own-damage cover of the vehicle and call for own goods in transit or tool cover.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
Do I need this if I only carry hand tools?
Add up what is actually in there. A cordless set, a mitre saw, measuring equipment and consumables mount up faster than expected, and in a break-in virtually the whole lot goes. If the total is an amount you could replace without difficulty, you can bear the risk. If not, separate cover is the only thing that absorbs this loss.
What is the difference from goods in transit insurance?
Goods in transit insurance is mainly used for trade goods on their way to or from you, often with third parties as the carrier. Own goods in transit insurance is limited to property that belongs to you and that you move with your own vehicles. If you also sell and dispatch goods, you need the first form and the second does not cover it.
Do I have to declare every item?
Usually not; a sum insured per vehicle is used. It is sensible, though, to keep an up-to-date list with makes, types and serial numbers, together with receipts, outside the van. When you claim, that list determines what is paid. Equipment above a certain value often has to be declared separately before it is included.
Does the cover apply if someone else drives my van?
That depends on how the insured person is described on the policy schedule. If a hired-in worker or a colleague regularly drives it, let us know. A change in the use of the vehicle comes under your duty of disclosure when taking out and amending the insurance, to which Articles 7:928 and 7:930 of the Dutch Civil Code attach consequences.
Every situation is different. For these situations we have a separate page.
- Compare goods in transit insuranceThe main page
- Own goods in transit insurance for self-employed professionals with equipmentEquipment on site, hired equipment, setting up
- Carrying your own property: theft from the company vanTools, materials, theft from the van
- Own goods in transit insurance for self-employed professionalsTools in the van, overnight storage, replacement value
- Own goods in transit insurance through a.s.r.Your own property, overnight clause, loading and unloading
- Own goods in transit insuranceYour own property, tools, overnight storage
- Transit insurance for self-employed professionalsYour own property or freight, the van as storage, capacity