Insurance premiums for the youngest segment of van drivers in the UK have decreased by 16.9% over the past year, but they still continue to pay extremely high prices for cover, an industry report said.
While van drivers under age 25 now pay less compared to a year ago, the typical annual policy costs an “eye-watering” £2,762, according to research by data insights company Consumer Intelligence. This means that under-25 van drivers pay over 3.5 times more than those in the 25-49 age group.
Over the same period, van insurance premiums for age groups 25-49 and over 50 rose by 2.3% and 2%, respectively. Market-wide, the cost of van insurance fell by 0.6%, with the average policy at £985.
“Premiums have dropped significantly for the under 25s, despite a lack of any great telematics presence for younger van drivers,” said Harriet Devonald, product manager at Consumer Intelligence. “Whilst this is a good news story, this age bracket continues to pay the most – in fact over 3.5 times that of the average policy for 25-49-year-olds.”
According to Consumer Intelligence, van insurance premiums have increased by 33.6% since April 2014, when it first started gathering data, but are 8.2% lower than the pricing peak during September 2017.
Drivers using their vans for business pay slightly higher premiums (£1,002) than those who use their vans as a car substitute (£936) under a social, domestic and pleasure (SDP) policy. Over the last 12 months, business users’ premiums increased by 0.7%, while non-business users’ premiums fell 4.5% over the same period.
