Whether you're carting around concrete blocks and bricks to build a house, chauffeuring a large brood of children on the school run, or just have a nagging desire to drive a roomy vehicle, the first thing you'll need following the purchase of the van is van insurance.
And like anyone trying to insure their vehicle, you'll want to find the cheapest available policy that covers everything you need it to.
More often than not, the renewal cost with your current insurer is dramatically inflated, which is why so many people are now turning to online comparison sites to find cheap van insurance.
Heading online to an insurance aggregator site is by far the most efficient and least time consuming method of comparing the main van insurers and the quotes they offer.
What's more, it also saves the brain engagement of struggling to physically remember every quote you receive yourself, instead showing them in one concise list of results.
Of course, all van insurance quotes depend on a number of factors when setting the price of your premium.
And there are a number of methods that can ensure your policy is reduced.
We detail the best selection of these below.
1) Secure overnight storage.
By being able to provide a locked garage to keep your van in, you reduce the ease of which it can be broken into by thieves, as opposed to sitting on a driveway.
However, parking the van off a public street on your driveway will be safer and reduce your policy, as it minimises the risk of the vehicle being hit by other road users, or again being broken into.
2) Remove valuables.
Storing valuable tools and items in your van overnight will encourage theft, especially if they are on view through a window for example.
Taking out anything of value each night will contribute to reducing your premium.
3) Anti theft-devices.
Such devices go a long way in stopping any valuables or the entire vehicle from being stolen, and insurers recognise and reward this.
So fitting something such as an additional alarm alongside the factory fitted one, or an aftermarket immobiliser, will reduce both your van insurance quotes and the risk of your valuables being stolen.
The initial cost of purchasing these will more than repay itself over each policy you hold with them, with the money you save.
4) Vehicle group.
Every vehicle on (and off) the road is placed into an insurance category by insurers.
What group they are placed in factors in the cost and availability of parts to repair the van should it break down, how many people it can hold, its top speed etc.
The lower all of these factors are, subsequently the lower the group of insurance the van will be in.
And the lower the group, the cheaper it will be to insure.
5) The type of cover.
Both van insurance and car insurance comes in three flavours - Third Party Only, Third Party Fire & Theft, and Fully Comprehensive.
Third Party Only is the cheapest, but provides the most basic level of cover, providing payment for other people in an accident, but not your own vehicle.
Stepping up to Fire & Theft incorporates the latter, but also covers, as it says on the tin, fire damage and theft of your vehicle.
Finally, the most expensive but most popular choice of cover is Fully Comprehensive, covering all of the previous, but also adds cover for the loss of your vehicle, accident damage, and vandalism.
By taking into account these five pointers, and factoring in as many as possible by the time you renew or purchase your van insurance, you'll go a long way to reducing your van insurance quotes.
Implementing even at least one of these will knock money off your policy prices, so you should always strive to achieve one of the above aspects in order to return cheap van insurance quotes from your comparison website of choice.