Insurance: What You Need – Legally

With employer’s liability insurance, driver’s negligence insurance, truck insurance and business insurance and many more it’s hard to know what you are actually required to have, by law, and what is something that can protect you against extra risks.

It’s confusing enough that all of these insurance types will usually get abbreviated within an inch of their life (DNI cover, ELI), offer very different cover levels (even within the same insurance type, e.g. truck insurance might be third party or fully comp) and come without a decent explanation of what you need to operate as a business – legally.

What You MUST Have

Any business that employs someone, even if that’s casually, needs to have employer’s liability insurance. This insurance covers you for any compensation costs if something goes wrong and a claim comes up.

If you’re going to drive a truck as part of your business, it goes without saying that you’ll need to be truck insurance to do that. You can get fleet insurance if you’ve got more than one vehicle too.

What’s Nice To Have

Driver’s negligence insurance (check out our guide here) offers you protection for small mishaps if you damage your own property but not someone else’s property e.g. you or your driver rips a hole in the side of the truck but doesn’t damage anything else. A claim on your DNI doesn’t affect your normal truck insurance. It’s free as part of many of our packages.

It’s not unheard of that some clients/agencies will want you to have DNI before you start working for them, just so you have an extra level of protection.

If the world of insurance, accounts and limited companies still confuses you – get in touch with us to see how we can help from as little as £10 a week.