Monthly Archives: February 2011

2010 Shows A Large Increase in Car Manufacturing

Figures released recently have shown that vehicle production in the UK increased significantly in 2010. The stats, released by the Society of Motor Manufactures and Traders (SMMT) show car production rose just over 27% compared to the previous year, whilst the number of commercial vehicles produced also increased by over 35%.

Despite this, total production was less than previous years. In 2010 total production of cars and commercial vehicles stood at 1.39 million, well down on 2007s figure of 1.75 million and 2006s 1.65 million.

Manufacturer’s data helped support these figures. Car manufacturer Nissan reported a record level of production last year, with its Sunderland plant producing 423,262 vehicles.

SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt said “UK vehicle production is leading the manufacturing recovery, with output in 2010 up 27.8%. UK manufacturers exported more than a million vehicles, underlining the competitiveness and desirability of the current model line-ups.” Everitt went on to add “This performance underlines the significant role played by the UK in global production”

The increases in production continued right to the end of the year. In December a 10.6% rise in car production saw over 94,000 units produced, and the number of commercial vehicles produced soared to over 8,500, a rise of 19.4%.

Despite the good figures, engine production dropped 1.4% in the final month of the year.

Think Insurance can provide you with a cheap insurance quote today, whether you are looking for a motor trade, home, taxi or commercial insurance policy, leave your details and we will contact you.

Bad Times in the Motor Repair Market?

Recent studies into the future of UK body shops have forecast an even harder time for the industry. A lot of business’ were saved with the bad weather causing more accidents over the winter months of 2010 and this salvaged their hopes of keeping afloat, but no matter what the weather man says, it can’t bail them out year after year.

Since the financial crisis caused by the banks back in 2007 & then an almost worldwide recession the number of car body repairs has dropped by 7% and this is expected to keep falling. Also, the number of body shops going to the wall has dramatically increased – approximately 50% higher than the UK (non-motor trade) standard.

Of course everything has an upside and a downside. For the more established businesses the fall could ironically mean more business for them as there would be fewer competitors in the market against them. It may also mean that companies of lesser ability and skill are no longer bedevilling customers.

For the smaller business we have listed a few general tips below which we hope will be of help to you (for more tips please visit our main website):

Build links with other companies in your area – e.g. car sales companies, taxi ranks, companies with vehicle fleets
Specialise in certain areas or do a recommend a friend scheme where a client receives a small incentive for passing your name on
Utilise more modern repair techniques to minimise your costs and maximise your profits

Whether you are a full or part time motor repairer we can help you with free help and advice for your motor trade insurance policy and other industry related topics.

Think Insurance can provide you with a cheap insurance quote today, whether you are looking for a motor trade, home, taxi or commercial insurance policy, leave your details and we will contact you.

How to Choose the Right Motor Traders Insurance Policy

There are a variety of Motor Traders Insurance policies available to you in the trade. Whether you are a mechanic, seller, valeter, car restorer or any other profession in the motor trade you could do with assessing what policies you need and the different options available to you. It is essential (especially in the current economic climate) that you choose the right policy so that no extra pennies or pounds are wasted on cover that you simply don’t need. Some situations are complex, if the issues are known a policy that perfectly suits you can be drawn up quickly due to our years of experience dealing with trade insurance. As our Director Garrath puts it ‘with age sometimes comes wisdom, well, that’s what us old gits like to think anyway!’

So what are the different types of policy? You have road risk cover, liability cover and combined cover. They all have varying types of cover and some are suited to some traders more than others. Road Risk cover will give you coverage on vehicles  owned by the business as well as those that the business has in their possession for work purposes. Liability cover can be essential if you have customers who regularly, or indeed infrequently, visit your place of work. If you can make sure you have this policy it will protect you if anyone happens to get injured. You will be covered against any claims that the claimant could potentially make against you. Combined cover does exactly what it says on the tin and includes both the above mentioned type of cover as well as any/some from the following:

Damage to buildings, stock of vehicles, your equipment machinery, tools and much more if needed.  So feel free to give us a call to see how we can choose the right motor traders insurance policy for you.

Think Insurance can provide you with a cheap insurance quote today, whether you are looking for a motor trade, home, taxi or commercial insurance policy, leave your details and we will contact you.

From Part Time Motor Trade Insurance to Full Time

If you are considering moving from being a 2 day a week / weekend trader and going from a part time to a full time motor trade insurance policy, then there are a few things to consider. The things to consider are not all to do with the policy you are looking at -  have you got a business plan? How successful do you need to be in month 1, month 2 etc. to keep your salary coming in – as opposed to it being an addition to your wage when you were part-time? How much will your monthly bills be? There are a range of things to consider when thinking about going into the motor trade full time.

For any insurance type questions then give us a call at Think Insurance on the number above and we will be happy to give you some well rounded independent advice on the subject. The old saying ‘learn to walk before you run’ is very appropriate in the case when you are thinking about going full-time. Although you have experience at being a part timer this does not mean the transition to full time will be easy. You may have felt like you have learned to ‘walk’ being a part-timer but as you try and ‘run’ into being a full timer you are then putting all your eggs in one basket. By doing this you increase the pressure on yourself and if you have not planned properly things can start to go wrong pretty quickly.

There is lots of free advice out there and the government sponsored Business Link is a great place to start when trying to plan an upscale in your activities. As mentioned before if you need guidance on the full time motor trade insurance policies available then give our friendly and reliable team a call today.

Think Insurance can provide you with a cheap insurance quote today, whether you are looking for a motor trade, home, taxi or commercial insurance policy, leave your details and we will contact you.

Can Your Motor Trade Insurance Protect You For A Second Occupation?

If you are currently working two separate jobs, one involving any type of vehicle work (such as a mechanic, valeter or car salesman) and the other being a non-motor based one, then you may find some benefits in using your motor trade insurance policy to cover your other work. It does matter what type of role your other job involves, but you can 95% percent of the time still get an add-on to your cover that will protect you for it.

This handy extra is called additional business use and, as the name suggests, it enables you to use the vehicle that is covered on your trader’s policy for other types of business. This means that you will be covered for travelling between different places in relation to your non-trade job. You will generally find that adding this onto your policy will be relatively cheap, sometimes it can be as low as 5% of the total cost of your policy. This is certainly going to end up costing you a lot less than taking out two separate policies to ensure you are fully covered.

It is worth noting however that this addition will not automatically be included on your policy. There are many people that make the wrong presumption that the policy they take out for their trader related job will provide them the necessary cover for their other work. If you do this, whether by choice or by genuine mistake then you could potentially either end up in trouble with the police or you may find that your insurer will refuse to pay out. Either way, you could end up with an unnecessary headache when it could easily be sorted out by making a simple addition to your policy.

By taking a look at the bigger picture, it is easy to see that the small initial outlay on getting the additional business cover added to your motor trade insurance is definitely worthwhile. It can not only save you money compared to getting separate policies but also prevent you from getting into bother.

Think Insurance can provide you with a cheap insurance quote today, whether you are looking for a motor trade, home, taxi or commercial insurance policy, leave your details and we will contact you.