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What is motor trade insurance?
Motor trade insurance, or trade car insurance as it’s also known, is a specialist insurance cover that protects people who buy and sell vehicles for a living. It can insure part-time and full-time traders and cover a wide range of occupations, including:
- People buying and selling cars, vans, and other vehicles
- People running vehicle breakdown and recovery services
- Garages and mechanics
- Car transporting businesses
- Valeters

For comprehensive motor trade insurance, call 0208 298 2100

What trades does motor trade insurance cover?
Motor trade insurance through Jensten Insurance Brokers can be tailored to meet the needs of a wide range of motor traders, including:
- Motor traders who work from home
- Motor traders who work from premises – be that a showroom, a car lot, or a garage
- People who transport vehicles from customer to customer
- Service and repair garages
- Part-time and full-time vehicle sales professionals
- MOT providers
- Mobile mechanics
- Garages – mechanical repairs, tuning, and servicing, including trucks and HGVs
- Classic car restorers
- Vehicle electricians
- Car dealerships
- Vehicle breakdown and recovery firms
- Vehicle collection and delivery businesses
- Exhaust and tyre fitters
- Valeters
- Windscreen repairers and fitters
- Petrol station owners
What does motor trade insurance cover?
In addition to being able to protect a variety of professions, motor trade insurance through Jensten Insurance Brokers can offer an extensive range of covers, including:
- Road risks – which allows you to drive your and others’ vehicles on the road as part of your day-to-day business
- Public liability insurance – if someone is injured or has their property damaged while on your premises, then public liability insurance will protect you should they seek compensation
- Material damage – this can provide cover for damage done to any stock vehicles or equipment you own, such as unsold vehicles you own as a car seller
- Business premises – if you trade from premises rather than from home – a lot, garage, or a car showroom – you may need business buildings cover
- Business interruption – should you be unable to trade owing to a disaster such as a flood or fire, business interruption insurance will provide you with an income until you’re ready to get back to business
- Home contents – if you’re doing your motor trading from home, this will give you contents cover that may not be included in your home insurance
- Employers’ liability insurance – if you have any staff – be they full-time or part-time – you must have at least £5m of employers’ liability insurance in place. That’s the law
- Extra driver cover – if your employees drive customers’ cars, you’ll need to decide between an ‘any driver’ policy or adding several named employees as extra drivers. In many cases, the latter will be cheaper
- Multiple vehicle types cover – if your motor trade business deals in cars, vans, trucks, HGVS, etc., then you can adapt your motor trade insurance to cover them all
- Tools – including business tools stored on-premises, diagnostic equipment, portable hand tools, ramps, lifting tables, compressors, and paint spray booths and ovens in body shops
- Sales and service indemnity – protects you against claims of damage or injury after selling or repairing a vehicle. It can include cover for faulty parts or repair work that’s contributed to an injury
- Goods in transit insurance – will protect any goods you are transporting – parts, for example – from loss, theft, or accidental damage
- Engineering inspection service – if, as part of your trading, you use testing equipment or machinery, an engineering inspection service element to your policy will cover the cost of a safety assessment of it. Having your equipment assessed is a legal requirement as it’s part of 1998’s Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) and Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER). It can help satisfy your health and safety at work requirements, and it also means you’re less likely to have downtime owing to essential equipment such as vehicle lifting tables, jacks, and pressure systems failing
- Business contents – including your stock, computers, phones, and other business equipment
- Products liability insurance – should a product you use or recommend cause damage or harm, you can be liable for compensation should action be brought against you
- Sales and service indemnity – protects you against claims of damage or injury after selling or repairing a vehicle. It can include cover for faulty parts or repair work that’s contributed to the problem
Advantages of motor trade insurance through Jensten Insurance Brokers
As well as flexible, quality cover, motor trade policy insurance through Jensten Insurance Brokers offers the following benefits:
- Service from quote to claim
- Transfer of your no-claims discount from your private car
- Automatic cover for your own vehicle
- Demonstration options
- Legal liability insurance
- Cover for private vehicles
- The option of comprehensive, third-party fire and theft or third-party only cover

How much does motor trade insurance cost?
There’s no simple answer to that question, as at Jensten Insurance Brokers, we create our car trade insurance around our customers’ needs. What we can say is that your motor trade insurance quote will be based on factors such as:
- The type of business you’re running
- Whether you have premises or work from home
- The value of your stock
- The security of your stock
- Whether you need road risk cover
- The age of the drivers you wish to insure
- The turnover of your business
- The size of the clients you work for
- Your claims history
- Whether you want to pay monthly or annually – annually will usually be cheaper
- Your no-claims bonus
For some personalised motor trade insurance help, please contact the Jensten Insurance Brokers team today or call them on 0208 298 2100. They’ll be able to give you all the advice you need and provide you with a motor trade insurance quote.
Motor trade insurance FAQs
This is one of the more complex insurance areas, so to help you get the protection you need, here is our motor trade insurance frequently asked questions. We hope they will help, but if you’d like some independent advice, please call us on 0208 298 2100, and the team will be happy to help.
Elements are compulsory. If you are going to drive vehicles on the road, you will need a road risks element to your policy. You’ll also need employers’ liability insurance (EL insurance) if you employ staff within your business and engineering inspection service if you service or repair vehicles
Yes, but only in connection with the business if it is owned by the business or is in custody or control of your motor trade business. It may be more cost-effective to limit the covers to keep your premium down
While these policies may look the same, road risks only covers driving vehicles on the road. Traders combined insurance, on the other hand, can offer a much wider range of essential protections, such as premises, material damage cover and liabilities amongst others.
Trade car insurance for people aged under 25 as they are perceived to be riskier by insurers. At Jensten Insurance Brokers, we have access to a range of insurers and providers and can do the shopping around for you. If you’d like to see if we can get you a cheaper motor trade insurance quote, please call us on 0808 239 1511; the team will be happy to help.
That will depend on the insurer; some will be happy with one or two a month. The important thing is that you can prove that you are buying and selling vehicles or that you work with vehicles professionally, be that repairing, valeting, transporting, or restoring them.
No, this is only for motor trade professionals and not for people who have multiple vehicles they want to insure. For that, you need fleet insurance.
That will depend on things like the size of your business, its postcode, your claims history, the value of your equipment, and whether you need road risk cover. For a personalised motor trade insurance quote, please call us on 0808 239 1511, and the team will be happy to help.
Getting a quote is easy. You can call us on 0808 239 1511, and the team will be happy to help you find the car trade cover you.
Speak to Jensten Insurance Brokers about motor trade insurance
If you’d like some car trade insurance help or a motor trade insurance quote, contact the Jensten Insurance Brokers team by calling 0208 298 2100, and get your motor trade insurance quote today.